The Last Bouquet

We are very fortunate to always have good customers who, through the Zinnia Connection, become as friends. This letter appeared in my email one day as I opened and read. It is a touching and beautiful testament to the Spiritual and Wonderful, the Magic and Mystery. One could say "mystical."

If you read the story, I think you will feel this as I did. The simple action of Lisa Barr, the cutting of this very beautiful Zinnia Bouquet, in fact, turned out to be the last "message of love and hope" to her from her father, Dr. Reeves. It is most certainly true. If we listen, God talks and allows such wonderful messages.

Sent: Saturday, September 17, 2005 9:17 PM
To: sballer@lobatek.com
Subject: Drying zinnias

My name is Chris Barr. My wife, Lisa, and I live in Ruston, Louisiana and we have ordered a few packs of zinnia seeds from you for the last several years. This year, they have done exceptionally well. I want to share a short story with you and then ask a favor.

We started planting zinnias several years ago because of the influence of my father-in-law, Dr. Calvin Reeves. Dr. Reeves practiced medicine in the small town in which he was raised for over 50 years. Outside of doctoring, his passion was working in their lovely yard planting and maintaining several beds of flowers, shrubs, trees, etc. of all types. And he always had plenty of zinnias for his wife to cut and arrange all throughout the summer. Dr. Reeves has been battling cancer for a couple of years, but just 3 or 4 weeks ago was still spending a couple of hours each morning working in the yard. However, this past Wednesday morning around 7:45 a.m. God called him home. We are comforted knowing that he is in a better place and is not suffering anymore. He died peacefully and at home. A thought came to my mind as I raced to their house after getting a frantic call from my wife that morning…..the thought was that I was sure that God had him a special flower bed in heaven and Dr. Reeves was working in that flower bed at that very moment. I have heard the same comment from several other people over the last couple of days, so you can see that he was well known for his love for flowers and landscaping.

Lisa cuts and arranges our zinnias at least once a week. On a couple of occasions in the last few weeks she has also taken a fresh vase of zinnias to share with her mom and dad. Wednesday morning around 7:30 in the morning, she went out to cut zinnias before she left for work. We had not cut them in several days and so there was an abundant supply. As she always does, she brought them into the kitchen and arranged them in a vase. Just as she finished getting them arranged, she received the call from her mom that her dad had just passed away. When we got back home late that night and saw the vase of zinnias on the kitchen counter, we realized that Lisa was cutting the zinnias when he died. So our love for zinnias will now be even stronger and more meaningful. In fact I doubt either of us will plant, weed, or cut zinnias again without thinking about Dr. Reeves.

So, here’s the favor. We still have the vase of zinnias cut Wednesday morning. Lisa would like to dry them since they have such special significance. Can you give us some guidance on the best way to dry zinnias? We looked on the internet, but didn’t find anything directly on point.

Thanks for reading through this email. From talking to you on the phone a couple of times and reading your newsletters, I thought you would enjoy hearing the story. In fact, I’m going to run take a picture of the vase of zinnias and attach it to this email. Look forward to hearing from you soon (time is of the essence, before the flowers die). Thanks very much.

Time is now December 2005. Chris sent the photo of the framed dried zinnias from Calvin Reeves' bouquet. It appears above! LOVELY! & Merry Christmas to you and yours, Chris & Lisa. Dr. Reeves will be ever-present whenever you glance at this artwork over the holidays or any day! -Sharon

First, I cut the stems about 2 inches below the bloom. We then put a layer of Borax (found at Wal-Mart near the detergent) in a shallow cardboard box and placed the blooms in the box bloom-side down. Then Borax was added so that the blooms were completely covered with the stems barely poking out the top. The box was then placed in a dark closet for 2 weeks.

Since we had never tried anything like this before, I was very nervous when we removed the zinnias from the box, but they turned out great. I gently shook the borax off and took them to a local frame shop. Luckily the frame shop owner had a lot of experience framing dried flowers in a shadow box. He made small holes in the mat and pulled the stems through. He also spent several hours getting the Borax off of the blooms with a needle. Some friends have since told me that I could have tried a product called silica which is found at craft stores. This may be a little easier to clean off the blooms. We are very pleased with the results. The picture does not adequately show how pretty the flowers really are. I wish you could see the real thing. Thanks for your interest and for helping me share such a special memory of Daddy with others. Can’t wait to plant my zinnias for next summer!!!

Lisa Barr

My Secret Garden

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