[00:00:00] Deanna Kitchen: Welcome to the Growing Kindness Podcast. We're so glad you're here with us today. It is my honor and delight to get to introduce you to the loveliest lady who is just sending out the most beautiful ripples of kindness in her community. Sue, what a joy to have you here with us today.
[00:00:20] Sue Carney: I am really happy to be here. That was the nicest introduction I think I've ever gotten.
[00:00:25] Deanna Kitchen: Well, we, I, I, it's just, it's truly a delight to get to visit with you today. So to start out, can you, um, introduce yourself and share a little bit, um, more about the corner that you call home in this world?
[00:00:38] Sue Carney: Oh, excellent. Yes. Um, well, I was a second grade teacher and I've. Taught other grades too. But I live right in my town, right across the street from, um, where I taught actually. So I'm always waving at one of my old students here and there, and my town is super tiny. Um, like I'll go down to the hardware store for something and since I've been giving flowers away loud, Stephanie will say, Hey, it's Mrs.
[00:01:05] Sue Carney: Flowers. I'm like, whatcha talking about? She said, that's what the lady called her when she came in the other day. Oh, Mrs. Flowers. I said, I said, Stephanie, why did she say that? She said she thought that was your name. I said, give them away. I mean, what are you talking about? But I have people stop by that know me.
[00:01:26] Sue Carney: It's great. I, it's, it's a great little community and we're really happy here. We love it. And we had thought really. Just for a tiny little minute that we were going to move. 'cause my husband's a professional trumpet player and we, he has to go. Yeah. He travels a lot to go, um, to do certain jobs. We thought it might be better to be near a big city and all these people were like, are you moving?
[00:01:51] Sue Carney: What's gonna happen to the garden? I'm like, okay. When we changed our mind. We had a lot of people that were really nice. They were like, oh, so happy we're staying. So basically we're just in a little small town. I have a son, he's grown up and uh, it's me, two dogs, four cats, and a husband and a lot of people around me.
[00:02:11] Sue Carney: You could look right out the window and see the school.
[00:02:13] Deanna Kitchen: I love that you have deep, deep roots in your community. Remind me again, your east coast.
[00:02:21] Sue Carney: I am, we're Central New York. We're surrounded by Syracuse Albany. If you like, baseball, the baseball Hall of Fame is down the street.
[00:02:30] Deanna Kitchen: Amazing. So you have deep, deep roots. Have you lived in your community a long time? I mean, it sounds like you taught there and retired from that school. Is
[00:02:38] Sue Carney: Right? Um, we have been here since 1980. I wanna say 87. Yes. 'cause I got married in 85. That's always a problem. I can't remember. Yes.
[00:02:49] Deanna Kitchen: I think we all, we all have that problem. Um, so you have very deep roots in your community. That's beautiful. So you, I mean, I, I know every listener's curiosity is peaked with how did you, how did you start to, how did you get, um. See, this is where we get to go. This is where we get to hit pause and be like, Chandley, can you fix this?
[00:03:09] Deanna Kitchen: So I know everyone who is listening has their curiosity peaked. How did you, uh, receive this name of Mrs. Flowers? How did you become known for this in your community? Where did, where did that begin? How did that story start?
[00:03:21] Sue Carney: It had to start way back. I've always been a, a gardener. Um, when we were little, my mom was in the garden club and all I can think is vermiculite is that which is the gold, uh, prole is gotta be, that has to be the white, is it vermiculite? That's goldish colored.
[00:03:37] Deanna Kitchen: I can't remember which it is either, but in the mix, I know exactly what you're talking about.
[00:03:41] Sue Carney: So I had to be about 10, and I'm like, oh, you know. It was not fun. We were at a, a greenhouse with a bunch of grownups, but I remember the one thing was we were taking cuttings and putting them in that gold magic stuff, and that's what stuck with me. And then from there, garden, garden Garden. My mom always had morning.
[00:04:02] Sue Carney: Lorries and we just had a little spot in the back. I came from Massachusetts. Um, and then even when I got my first apartment, I went out and bought way too many impatience. 'cause I knew they could sit in the shade and I packed them in this little dense area. They were beautiful. And then that was it when we moved to West Windfield and, um, bought this house.
[00:04:23] Sue Carney: I always had a garden on the side of the house. Then we had a barn that came down. I have a big three tier thing in the back, which now is. Is my filler for all my bouquets. And then do you care if I just proceed like this and tell you how my gardens grew into Mrs. Flowers?
[00:04:38] Deanna Kitchen: I would love to know how you came from impatience in your apartment to your first home garden to becoming Mrs. Flowers. We would absolutely love to hear
[00:04:48] Sue Carney: it's so well, so I used to love, I kind of love design, like my pictures on the wall. Um. So we had our gardens on the side, but I was really into window boxes because we bought a, a house, it was like a cape. It is a cape. Um, more of a salt box actually, let's say. And we had these windows upstairs and downstairs with window boxes.
[00:05:13] Sue Carney: So, um, I would fill them every year, see where I could get them to hang. They were gorgeous. And that's where I got really had the gardening bug. And finally. One, like recently, I would say 2018, I said to my husband, those shrubs are no good in the front yard. So I came home from something, I was away for a weekend and they're out and gone.
[00:05:35] Sue Carney: And, uh, so I had about little eight feet out in front of our house. Um, and so I started filling it with, uh, just big mixes of day Torah and Mexican sunflowers and CEAs. And then someone walked by and said, you know. Your house looks like it could be a cottage garden. My friend Ellen. I'm like, so right before we hit COVID, we extended our yard and, um, well not the yard, but we extended the garden.
[00:06:05] Sue Carney: Our friend Dan, um, who's the excavator came and. With his tractor and plowed it all out and brought me some aged manure. And, uh, I started just growing and growing. And I said to Pat, well, you know, I could just throw some bouquets out there and sell 'em. And he goes, why don't you just give him away? And I said, oh, why don't I sell 'em and donate the money?
[00:06:27] Sue Carney: He says, why don't you just give him away? And I said, okay. So they were there on a little wagon and I had a sign that said, take a bouquet, but leave my wagon. Then I discovered. Steph Hankerson and she's free, uh, free little florist, um, with periods on Instagram. And she had the cutest little house and she had a lot to do with, um, uh, education.
[00:06:54] Sue Carney: It was a lot of horticulture education. I think she has a big title. Cutest thing. She would put out four bouquets. She had little holes. They, they went in the bouquet. Uh, her bouquets went in there and she described what everything was on Instagram, so you got a little education with it. She'd put out things for winter sewing.
[00:07:12] Sue Carney: Anyway, I contacted her right away and I said, do you care if I copy your house? 'cause I really love it. Do you much? She's like, go ahead. And at that point we became fast friends and she talked me through so many things. So great. And we switched seeds. We got to know each other, love her. Um, and I can't recommend her cite enough when she's on there.
[00:07:34] Sue Carney: She does so much education. Then I started to see other people that gave away their flowers, so we decided to extend. Our garden again. So it's the entirety of our front yard. And we built a little house. My friend that's a music teacher built it for me and um, we put it up. So excited. Since then, my friend Beth, another person has had to take it apart, put it back together and bring it to me.
[00:07:58] Sue Carney: People volunteer to help all the time. Anyway, back on track. So we extended our yard. Um. Break it. You gonna have to edit there because I lost my
[00:08:12] Deanna Kitchen: That's so totally fine. Oh my goodness. That's exactly what I do. Welcome, welcome to our club. We
[00:08:17] Sue Carney: Oh, I hate it when I
[00:08:18] Deanna Kitchen: Um, I do too, but man, I'll tell you.
[00:08:21] Sue Carney: no. You were the next part. I was
[00:08:23] Deanna Kitchen: Oh, oh.
[00:08:24] Sue Carney: next.
[00:08:25] Deanna Kitchen: All right. Well, so however, uh, however you wanna just lead in with that so that you could just be like, and so then after that, or one of the next things that happens, so.
[00:08:32] Sue Carney: So after I had the house, um, set up and I had had people help me get that going, I continued on Instagram and I started to find other people that gave flowers away, kind of. At first I thought, wow, this is pretty small. Not that many people do it. And I found you. And one of the first times, I don't know if I ever told you this, you were like.
[00:08:54] Sue Carney: It had to be your kitchen and it couldn't have been that late for you, but for me it was 1130 and you're, you have this little thing up to your face like this. Everybody, I have to tell you the most exciting news. I'm like, what
[00:09:07] Deanna Kitchen: What, what was it?
[00:09:09] Sue Carney: Was that you were an LLC, you got, you became an LLC and you were so excited.
[00:09:16] Deanna Kitchen: Yeah, so we became a 5 0 1 C3 nonprofit organization, so that would've been, um, December of. 2019,
[00:09:26] Sue Carney: And that's when I was
[00:09:27] Deanna Kitchen: no, 2020, excuse me. December of 2020. Uh, we don't have to stop the story for the dates, but yeah. Wow. So you, you came alongside and, and discovered our organization kind of in the early days.
[00:09:38] Deanna Kitchen: That's so exciting.
[00:09:39] Sue Carney: I was, well, I remember, uh, the things that I loved and I followed and watched and wanted to see what you were doing. I kind of remembered you saying, you can do this no matter how small or how big if you wanna start. I feel like you weren't giving. Kids away. Way back where you were doing something like that where you, where you talked about people that would even have like big pots in an apartment area, didn't have room.
[00:10:05] Sue Carney: That was
[00:10:06] Deanna Kitchen: Yeah, that was, that was Cat in California. She grew, she, uh, still grows a garden in the parking lot of her apartment, just tucked in everywhere she can find, and really, that has always been. The heart of our organization and the heart of this movement is just encourage people to just start and to use what they have.
[00:10:27] Deanna Kitchen: And so whether that's a teeny pot, you know, on your balcony or like you like tearing up your entire yard and turning it into a flower garden to be able to spread kindness in your community, it's, it's beautiful.
[00:10:39] Sue Carney: That was a, that was something I really thought was amazing, so I continued to follow you and added other people. But it's, it's kind of funny, if you put in, you put in a hashtag of free bouquet, a lot of times I'll get a giveaway. So I, so I finally started to follow the people that were ambassadors. So I could kind of get that idea.
[00:10:59] Sue Carney: Um, but that was huge when I found that. And I really love the idea of even using that little teeny bit of space. I thought that was the greatest thing. Um, and then, and I had worked at my school. We had a, um, little community garden, and I got handed that for a little while. But I am terrible being a boss.
[00:11:18] Sue Carney: I'm better at being a teacher, but not, I can't do that. Oh, we need this. You should get that. Hate it. So anyway, continued along and people now would know. It is funny, the kids that are right across the street will look down and a parent told me, oh, they said they get distracted by looking at your garden out the window.
[00:11:39] Sue Carney: I'm like, that's good news.
[00:11:42] Deanna Kitchen: That's a healthy distraction.
[00:11:43] Sue Carney: No. Well, and the fun thing too is, is um, on a weekend, if we do something big, everybody's kind of nosy around here. Or usually we'll be driving by somewhere, especially during the school season when I pull the tulips, for example. 'cause they're all just. At the, at the end, people would stop and say, I was gonna grab something, and it was all gone.
[00:12:05] Sue Carney: Like, yeah, well, you know, I have to go on to the next thing. So yeah, we, people stop. And I have old students and I know a lot of parents and I used to say, even when I was just a teacher, like I was kind of, kind of a bit of a rock star when I was down at the grocery store because they all know you. Hi, this is Carney.
[00:12:24] Sue Carney: So, yeah, so that's how I, Mrs. Flowers, just from giving, giving them away.
[00:12:30] Deanna Kitchen: Sue, this is beautiful. What a, what an inspiring story. I just, um, I knew that you've been giving away this huge volume of flowers for, for so long, but I, I didn't ever know the beginning pieces, so that's makes it even more encouraging, inspiring to see the way that it all unfolded for you, Sue, I wanna, um, ask you, I think that. I'm gonna pause and I'm gonna reframe that too. Um, Sue, I cannot even begin to imagine the ripples of kindness that you have been sending out in your community. So every year, once the growing season begins, your little flower, the flower house goes out
[00:13:13] Sue Carney: It stays already built in. So even in the winter, if I have something, I could stick it out.
[00:13:19] Deanna Kitchen: That is beautiful. And so then you have people visiting every day then it sounds like,
[00:13:25] Sue Carney: Oh yeah, yeah, we do. Um. It. I do tulips. I've done tulips every year, and the last time I did four, grew 4,000, so it was like in the front yard. And last year, this year. I had had so much disease at grasshoppers and everything the year before, it was devastating. And I thought, all right, I'm not putting tulips in this year.
[00:13:48] Sue Carney: I'm gonna have to do something else. And I ended up getting more manure and, you know, a whole bunch. I, I really took my time with that soil and worried about the blight. So, um, I lost it.
[00:14:05] Deanna Kitchen: It's okay. So we were talking about how you, the stand opens in the beginning of the season. So you're, you're starting to grow. So from the time, from the time that you have flowers blooming, you're giving away flowers
[00:14:16] Sue Carney: Exactly. And okay. And not only from the time that my flowers start blooming and I've giving them away, and that started when I got the tulips going. My friend Beth, who is just, she built me a, a beautiful arbor because just rustic. She is bringing me things all the time. So anyway, Beth will say, I'll be bi with a bunch of daffodils for you.
[00:14:40] Sue Carney: And I have some, she doesn't usually bring me tulips, but she'll bring me other things. Summertime. She'll have, um, uh, sweet peas. Bring me a whole bunch of the, the perennial ones. So, um, I start in, in, um, usually late, is it late April or early May, I think. And I can get a whole bunch of bouquets out that way.
[00:15:01] Sue Carney: And I don't know if it's bad or good, but I do keep count just for my own,
[00:15:06] Deanna Kitchen: Oh, I think that's beautiful. I think that's beautiful. You know what I read recently is that, um, we. Let's see. Let me, oh, see, I'm gonna, hold on now I'm gonna pause too. I'm gonna butcher this. It was that we
[00:15:24] Sue Carney: Take
[00:15:24] Deanna Kitchen: met, oh, so the, the thought was, I think it's beautiful because this thought that I read recently was that we measure what we value. And we celebrate what we measure. So think about like we celebrate birthdays because we've measured that many days, you know, have gone by in the year. We celebrate anniversaries because that's the number of years we've been married.
[00:15:44] Deanna Kitchen: Or if we're working towards a goal, we celebrate, you know, miles that we've trained for the marathon. And so what it does is it gives us an opportunity to celebrate what we value. Um, and so I think, I think it's beautiful for that very reason.
[00:15:58] Sue Carney: I, I, you know what? I never thought about that. Yeah. Well. Then I don't feel so bad about, sometimes I really think, oh, you're really patting yourself on the back a little too hard by saying how many you've made. But then I do it anyway 'cause I'm full of myself,
[00:16:12] Deanna Kitchen: I don't think it's that at all, Sue. I think it's an opportunity. You have a really big goal to give in big ways in your community, and it's a way that you stay focused on that and it keeps you inspired to keep going. I think it's beautiful. I, like I said, I think we, we measure what we value and this is important to you and the impact that you're having in your community is important to you.
[00:16:34] Deanna Kitchen: And so why not? Why not measure that and celebrate that? That's incredible. So tell me more about a a thousand bouquets. You, you've gifted a thousand bouquets in your community. So if we can just pause for a minute and take in,
[00:16:51] Sue Carney: or 1500. Oh no, I do it every year. I count total
[00:16:56] Deanna Kitchen: is at least a thousand every year.
[00:16:59] Sue Carney: When I started, I think it was 5 65 C. That's why I do this. Um, then I got to 700. Last year I did, um, was it 1000, sorry, two years ago my friend and I were out. And then she came to visit to go to a, a knitting conference and we got home and it was snowy and she's like, you can do 70 more bouquets.
[00:17:21] Sue Carney: Come on, you got some zinnias left out there. So we cut, cut, cut and I ended up getting 70 out by the next day. Um, and they were not terrible bouquets, it sounds like They would've been. So that year was a thousand. Then last year was my big year. 1600. And then. This year was 15. I didn't have the tulips, so it would've been even better.
[00:17:42] Sue Carney: Um, yeah. So I'm adding them up.
[00:17:44] Deanna Kitchen: Sue, that is incredible. Like, can we pause for a minute and just, you know, we're talking about bouquets, we're talking about bouquets. We're talking about 1600 bouquets, but there's something way bigger than that, that we're talking about that was 1600 interactions and moments where someone in your community was encouraged in a hard time.
[00:18:09] Deanna Kitchen: Where they were celebrated, where they were seen, where there was doors open and conversations started. Like I cannot even begin to imagine how different your community is because of all of those ripples of I, of just kindness spreading out and forward. And because your community's small, those ripples are just bumping right back into each other over and over again.
[00:18:35] Deanna Kitchen: Like I just wanna pause and celebrate what you. Are doing in your community. It's beautiful
[00:18:43] Sue Carney: If any of them are watching, they also know I'm not always super nice. You never know. I'm kidding. I'm just afraid. It sounds like I'm an angel. I'm just Okay.
[00:18:54] Deanna Kitchen: No, we are all, so Sue, something I will share with you. Um, and we, we do off, off, off podcast, but if we all expected ourselves to be perfect all the time, we would stop trying. Like if we expected that we never honked at somebody, we never hung up on somebody, we've never been short-tempered with somebody.
[00:19:14] Deanna Kitchen: We've never made mistakes, we've never treated somebody in a way that we wish we hadn't. If we, if we hold ourselves to that standard, we would start. Like, we'd be like, well, I'm out. I gotta sit the bench of kindness because I, I messed up. Like we, none of us are. None of us are a hundred percent all the time.
[00:19:31] Deanna Kitchen: Like, there's a quote, I don't remember who said it, but it's like, there's enough, there's enough good and the worst of us, enough bad, and the best of us. That hardly behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us. And it's about gossip. But I think that it, just as a reminder that we are all, we're all. All those things and we're, it's a practice.
[00:19:52] Deanna Kitchen: Kindness is a practice, and we're flexing that muscle as much as we can and trying to be more intentional about it. But it's not, it's not something that we just get perfectly every time. So I just wanna encourage you in that.
[00:20:04] Sue Carney: That's, that is really nice and thank you. I feel good about that.
[00:20:10] Deanna Kitchen: yeah, yeah.
[00:20:10] Sue Carney: one thing that.
[00:20:12] Deanna Kitchen: yeah, you go ahead.
[00:20:13] Sue Carney: Oh, okay. It was a, this was a big revelation and I wanna not forget it. So I'm 62 and I'm like, oh, I don't have that many more years in me for gardening, because who knows how long. Um, and I always feel like, oh, the end of the season, how many more will I have?
[00:20:28] Sue Carney: And then I saw a woman, she had to be, I think it was, she was 92 and she was planting like teeny trees, and she said. Okay. My goal, I have I as many more years as I have, I will get to plant 10,000 trees I'm sure. And so I said to my husband, see that is a way better attitude than worrying about how many more years you have left.
[00:20:52] Sue Carney: I said, maybe I'll try to make. You know, give out 10,000 bouquets. He's like, he's like my biggest cheerleader. He goes, that should be easy. You're like on your way already. He's so cute. And so that is where I'm trying to head be more positive about it, rather than my age, you know? And did I say I was 62?
[00:21:08] Sue Carney: 'cause I'm 63.
[00:21:13] Deanna Kitchen: Age is just a number.
[00:21:15] Sue Carney: Yeah. It's bigger and bigger over
[00:21:17] Deanna Kitchen: We're in the right ballpark. It's fine. Uh, I remember the first time that I had to pause and go, wait, how old am I this year? And you go, oh. Old enough to forget how old I
[00:21:26] Sue Carney: I know mine is just, I'm old enough to lie.
[00:21:31] Deanna Kitchen: Uh, well Sue, it's just beautiful to think about these ripples that you're sending out in your community, and I can only imagine the stories that you carry and the stories that you've heard.
[00:21:42] Sue Carney: Oh.
[00:21:43] Deanna Kitchen: About what's happened because of these bouquets that people have come and picked up from you and then shared out in in your community.
[00:21:52] Deanna Kitchen: Is there some specific moments or experiences that you just hold in your heart that are really special to you?
[00:22:00] Sue Carney: There, there are a few. One, um. My husband loves to remind me of this one. There was this lady, well, she was young, she wasn't a lady, and she stopped and grabbed a bouquet and she said, I just wanted you to know that my grandmother passed away a couple of weeks ago, and I, I didn't know her. Sometimes I get people coming through.
[00:22:18] Sue Carney: Once I had someone, like, they were doing a cross country trip and they stopped and were excited. So I handed them a bouquet and they brought it on with them. But, but this was a girl who was local. Um, and she said, so my grandmother passed away a couple weeks ago, but I wanted to tell you, I brought her a bouquet, um, while she was in the hospital and she was so happy because there were some flowers in there she hadn't seen since she was a girl in Poland.
[00:22:42] Sue Carney: So, I
[00:22:43] Deanna Kitchen: Oh.
[00:22:43] Sue Carney: what they were. 'cause I try to grow a bunch of weird varieties that was. Part of what I wanted to do too, just to make it interesting. Um, I just had a man at my house who stopped and said he took an extra bouquet. I left some at the post office. I told you this one, I think
[00:22:58] Deanna Kitchen: Hmm.
[00:22:59] Sue Carney: And, um, he said he got a little emotional and told me he gave them to somebody who was like a shut in.
[00:23:06] Sue Carney: And he said. You know, he was fine and he stayed at our house and chatted. So a lot of people will come and chat. Um, Allison with an l, Pete told me her name a few years ago. We haven't seen her, but she came and she had just had chemotherapy and something, or radiation for her throat. She couldn't talk, but she could walk around and she knew most.
[00:23:26] Sue Carney: The flowers. She was, I, I don't know how old she was. I think she was older than I was, but I remember the saddest thing. I said, oh, these sweet peas smells so good, you know, and they're still blooming late in the season. And she said, I can't smell them.
[00:23:41] Deanna Kitchen: Oh.
[00:23:42] Sue Carney: but she said, but I remember, it makes me think of what they did smell like.
[00:23:46] Sue Carney: They were sweet. So I've had a, a lot, the little boy, I love him. We have a pool in the backyard and he's, hello? Hello? Do you have something? I can carry these in. I can only get one jar in my pocket and he's holding a grand Monet jar 'cause a bottle. 'cause I had one and I put it out for an adult, not for this fourth grader.
[00:24:10] Sue Carney: He chats. We go through the garden together and he says, I said, sorry, it's kind of a mess. He goes, yeah, I'll say, so he brought
[00:24:17] Deanna Kitchen: count on kids to be honest.
[00:24:19] Sue Carney: I have a helper. I had a couple of helpers one summer, and there were, I, I got distracted and my husband came out and I said, wow, I'm really sweating, and, and my little helper, Elena goes, I don't know why you're on the phone.
[00:24:31] Sue Carney: I mean, I'm always, yeah, she something, but I'm always having, I know. I'll forget what for. Oh. Our old vet, he retired, he came through the yard in a big neck brace with his wife and, and she said, I'm trying to keep him busy. He had a, he does some like bike racing things and he went out on a path at night, fell, broke his neck, did all
[00:24:54] Deanna Kitchen: Oh dear.
[00:24:56] Sue Carney: like, yeah, with his thing. He said it wasn't good. She's like, so we had a big, long story. They ended up coming back and learning all about flowers and picking bouquets because Heidi says I gotta keep 'em busy. Sueys up. He wants to mow the lawn. I gotta keep him busy. So they visited again. Last one. I, I have so many, but another one that was really sweet too.
[00:25:19] Sue Carney: Um, parents reached out, their daughter was at Hamilton College and they said. I don't know if they had been by, they must have. And they said they wanted to make a memorable experience for her. And could they come and visit their first weekend with her and bring her to my house so that each year they could bring her back?
[00:25:36] Sue Carney: I thought that was sweet. And the last one, there was this cute, cute girl. She had to be about 20 into my driveway and gets out of her car. 'cause she sees the sign that says, please take a free bouquet. Is this real? Yes. Yes, you can take one. I just got a new car in Richfield Springs and I'm on my way home and I got lost and I ended up at your house.
[00:26:01] Deanna Kitchen: Oh.
[00:26:02] Sue Carney: She's walking through, so it's fun. I and I have had so many stories and so many people come, you know, you always get somebody that tries to take too many and, and I told my friend. Um, who also has a little house. I'll talk about him in a minute now. Um, I said, you know, you always get somebody that takes a few too many and you wonder what's happening.
[00:26:22] Sue Carney: He said, somebody just loaded up a car with eight of 'em. I said, you have to tell yourself. He said, I know that they're going to a nursing home or something. I said, yeah, otherwise you'll get a little crazy. But, um, yeah. Would I be able to speak about a couple people that were influenced?
[00:26:39] Deanna Kitchen: Yeah, I would love that.
[00:26:40] Sue Carney: Well, it, the thing is, um, staff influenced me with the little house that I love and, um, another teacher here who lives like maybe six miles away said, I'm gonna build one too.
[00:26:52] Sue Carney: And asked about, um, where I got. Mine. I think that's how he did it. But he put one together. His is much nicer. It's got the little notes. I told him to make sure he follows you, which he does. Um, they were so sweet and his little jars look cute, but he started Delias last year. I gave him some and then he went out and bought some and so he's going strong and he keeps track of his too.
[00:27:16] Sue Carney: So if I have extra Zia, I'll send him his way. And my friend Barbara is. The other person that, um, I had to reach out to her yesterday and say, you know, I gave you your first Delia Tubers, right? And she's, I said, I, I said, I don't wanna say I influenced you when I didn't. And she says, oh no, I curse you sometimes in my head when I'm digging them up.
[00:27:40] Sue Carney: She had
[00:27:40] Deanna Kitchen: Oh,
[00:27:42] Sue Carney: 600, so Right. And ended up with 1600 tubers, but that started from like five. So she's, I call her my VP and she comes by and she'll be like, I have so many just come and cut or, or, you know, just let me bring you some. So I get bundles of, um, flowers from her too, which is great. I mean, I have a ton here, but she's so good.
[00:28:05] Sue Carney: Barb,
[00:28:05] Deanna Kitchen: So not only, not only is this impacting your community to the flowers you're giving, but you're creating all of these opportunities for other people to get bitten by the bug. I mean, kindness is contagious and, and they're catching it as well and continuing that forward in their neighborhood, which is just absolutely beautiful.
[00:28:27] Sue Carney: Well, I kind of got that from you. I hate to, I'm not kissing up, but, um, I said that to Alan that part of the thing with this, I am not good. I wouldn't be a great ambassador. I don't feel, because I'm not one to go, okay, these are for you and I'm giving these freely. I'm kind of like, take 'em off the stand if you want.
[00:28:45] Sue Carney: I don't feel like I could, I would live up to like exactly what your motto and your. I don't know. Maybe, yeah, I would say motto or your, I don't, what's the word I want? Cut. Um, mission. Thank you.
[00:29:00] Deanna Kitchen: I, I would say you 110% live up to the mission, which is to freely spread kindness and send out ripples of kindness in your community. But I think that it's really, I think you're acknowledging something that's really important is that. Sometimes it, like we, you know, we talk about Arthur Ash all the time, like, start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.
[00:29:20] Deanna Kitchen: And some of us, that's a strength, um, to, it's easier to reach out and make those direct connections. And some of us, it's easier to have a way that we're impacting our communities that. Is maybe, um, less direct. Like when you're like, what you're doing with putting these flowers out and inviting people to, then really what you've done is you've empowered your entire community to spread kindness, which that's again, I just, I, I, I wish I could come be.
[00:29:50] Deanna Kitchen: Uh, a wallflower in your community and just, you know, sit at the local cafe or at the post office and see the kind of interactions that happen in your community because of these ripples that are, are moving out and they're starting with you. And maybe they're not necessarily starting with a one-to-one interaction.
[00:30:07] Deanna Kitchen: You know, maybe your hands aren't the ones that are actually setting those flowers into somebody else's hands, but you've empowered your community to do that, which I think is, is everything that growing kindness stands for. So.
[00:30:18] Sue Carney: Oh, thank you. The, oh, listen to me. I just wanna tell so many stories. I will totally make this. One quick. We had, I did post about this on my Instagram, but we had two new people come to town and I met them. I was lucky to run into them at the post office and. They ended up being my 1000th customer this year, and they came back and one of them knew where my house was because they had registered their kid for kindergarten and they said, oh, you are the one with the flowers.
[00:30:46] Sue Carney: I said, yeah, that's me. Come on over. So they drove right up and we talked about where they came from. It was really fun. So. It is kind of like, oh yeah, sometimes it can be a welcoming committee place or a place to me, or all my old students that pop by and I just brought some flowers for my mom, Mrs.
[00:31:03] Sue Carney: Carney, or Marissa and Becca, who always end up here first of the season. So, you know, it's just, it's a lot of fun. And then I'll, I'll even leave them at the grocery store like in the next town, or you know, I just, if I have extra, they go. Yeah, I know, and I sound like I'm all braggy. I do hate to do this, and you don't have to.
[00:31:23] Deanna Kitchen: not bragging. I think it's celebrating something beautiful.
[00:31:26] Sue Carney: Okay. And I'm just hoping I remembered everybody that has, if I haven't, it's just, there have been so many people that help and Bath and Barb and Alan. It's just there's a lot of people that have spread Tier two, you know. And I hate to miss anybody, but yeah, people pick up extra. They come, they come at night.
[00:31:47] Sue Carney: Somebody's on a night shift. We might hear someone out there at one o'clock in the morning if it's stocked, which it usually is. So
[00:31:54] Deanna Kitchen: That's incredible. It's incredible that your community knows that there is a resource that's available to them. That it's freely given and that it's a way that they can spread kindness and lift each other up and foster meaningful relationships. I just, like I said, I wish I could just be a fly on the wall and, and get to see the ways that this has impacted your community.
[00:32:16] Deanna Kitchen: You've made your community a more connected, more neighborly, kinder place by doing this. Thank you for the beautiful work that you are doing. So if somebody wanted to follow along with your story. And I mean, I, I've been following along with your story for years, and it's just so incredible to see the interactions.
[00:32:36] Deanna Kitchen: It's fun to get to see behind the scenes what you're growing, what you're giving. If someone was listening today and wanted to follow along with you, where would they find you?
[00:32:45] Sue Carney: I am on Instagram, um, only I don't have a website and it's on the house bouquet. So it's on the house dot bouquets, as in. The house or gift on the house for free.
[00:32:58] Deanna Kitchen: love it. That's so fitting. Well, we'll link it in the show notes also for anybody if they wanna just click directly there and get to follow along with your journey.
[00:33:06] Sue Carney: Great.
[00:33:07] Deanna Kitchen: Sorry.
[00:33:08] Sue Carney: We can edit that right out.
[00:33:10] Deanna Kitchen: Yeah. Yes. Thank, thank heavens. Thank heavens Rodney. Um, so Sue, if someone was listening today, and I, I love that gardening has been in your, in your story from the earliest, um, days.
[00:33:23] Deanna Kitchen: But if someone was listening and they'd never grown a garden, but maybe we're feeling inspired, getting to hear the, the ripples of kindness that can move out and through that, what would your advice be to someone who was just starting out?
[00:33:39] Sue Carney: Don't start big. Don't go. Don't go crazy. And if you're in a small area, the advice that I read that you must have given to the person who started with pots, if you don't have a big spot, start like that and pick plants that are going to be really productive. Cosmos zinnias, which those are my faves. Um, and just.
[00:34:03] Sue Carney: Check out online and see what is going to be the easiest grow basically, and the most prolific. Everybody seems to have a top 10. I
[00:34:10] Deanna Kitchen: Mm-hmm.
[00:34:11] Sue Carney: I just know you wanna have a little filler, but if you're tight for space, you can go get stuff on the side of the road, put some, um, queen in's, lace in your, you know, you can pick other things in to supplement what you have and give, give, give.
[00:34:24] Sue Carney: I say, oh,
[00:34:26] Deanna Kitchen: I love that advice. I love, that's perfect advice. So Sue, I think I was gonna als well, Sue, I was also going to ask you what your favorite flower to grow and give is. But it sounds like Zia is, that's your top. Can you tell us more about why that's your favorite and why that's one that you would recommend for someone who's maybe just starting.
[00:34:46] Sue Carney: It is not even sentimental. It's just that the varieties are. Unlimited I, I can't even tell you how much I love them. And now that they're being bred more, I always do support the breeders just because I really want them, and I know they're super expensive. So I just say to myself, you are creating more chances for different breeds, but.
[00:35:08] Sue Carney: I love them. I mean a, a lay, a flat lay of, I did a couple of the ones I had this year and I, I can't even tell you, I did save a few seeds. I don't know what will happen, but I put 'em in a jug. I did some early winter sowing and I'm gonna try and have the discipline to self pollen or to pollinate them. I don't know if I can do it, but I saved some of my favorites.
[00:35:28] Sue Carney: We'll see, the bees were so busy this summer. I'm sure they were all cross pollinated and who knows what, but yay, Zenia, I say, and all the varieties.
[00:35:37] Deanna Kitchen: I love that. It is pretty incredible flower to grow. When you look at, you can go from all the way down from those, you know, tiny little variated blooms, like the jazzy mix all the way up to, you know, the Benice Giant and the Queen Lime series. There's just so many beautiful colors and sizes of zinnia out there, and like you said, so many breeders doing really incredible things, creating really new colors and, um, creating new colors and varieties right now.
[00:35:59] Deanna Kitchen: So, excellent recommendation. Um, I'm gonna pause. And just say, um, uh, just hang on. I'm looking at my notes. Sue, gimme two seconds. Thanks for your patience. Um, oh, I think I wanna, I wanna, I do wanna hit this question 'cause I think this is actually one that's really special. Sue, over the years you have given thousands and thousands of flowers away. How would you say that growing flowers and giving them away has shaped you and helped you become who you are now?
[00:36:35] Sue Carney: Oh, that's a tough one. Well, I guess it's not that tough. Um. One thing it's done is it's kept me busy because I, and not, that's not a little thing. I always wanna learn something new, but I always like to kind of be a teacher. I, it's like one of my weird things. So if I can kind of grab somebody and walk them through the garden and talk about it, I do love that.
[00:37:03] Sue Carney: Um. But I also like to give things away. I, I am a giver. My friend Jane always says, I used to say, oh, someone can be a taker or a giver. She goes, you're a giver. I always say, yeah. So I try to cheer people up and I, I'll say I'm not always the nicest person. Sometimes I say, and I, you might have to cut this out, I doubt it, but I think I'm on my way to hell and I'm just trying to score points to get myself back up.
[00:37:29] Sue Carney: All these bouquet counts. That's where I am. But, um. That's it. I just, I just like to share. And if I have an abundance of something, like during the year, I always order too many seeds. I can't help myself. So, um, last year I sent out, I won't do tubers this year 'cause I do have jumping worms. Ah. Um, but I just send things out and, um. I share, I so I share as much as I can. Even the, not just the flowers, even seeds, even tubers, you know, just to make it nicer. We need it nicer around here. That's another thing. We need that positive feeling 'cause we're not always getting that,
[00:38:07] Deanna Kitchen: Absolutely.
[00:38:08] Sue Carney: doing my
[00:38:08] Deanna Kitchen: a rarity. Yes. But it also is, it's, it's, it's evident listening today that it's who you are. To give is who you are. And so this is an extension of who you are. Thank you for sharing yourself and your flowers with the world so freely, and thank you for sharing your story here with us today.
[00:38:30] Deanna Kitchen: It's been so inspiring to listen to and I am sure that if anyone listening today has been on the fence about maybe thinking about growing a garden, they will be very inspired, um, to go maybe plant their first seeds and get going. So, um, my face hurts from smiling. Is that a thing? I feel like this is like, I'm gonna have to do more like prep before these podcasts.
[00:38:58] Sue Carney: Well, that's a good thing, at
[00:38:59] Deanna Kitchen: It is such a good thing. Thank you for making me smile so much. This is so delightful. Well, um. Sue, I I would love to wrap up our conversation today with a question that I have the honor of asking all of our podcast guests, and that is, what is a memory? Oh, let me, lemme pause and see. I should read this one down so I nail it.
[00:39:21] Deanna Kitchen: Um, has, um, Sue, I wanna, I wanna close today with a question that I have the honor of asking all of our podcast guests, and I think it just reminds us all that there really truly is. No such thing as a small act of kindness, and we never know how far lasting or how far reaching even the tiniest act of kindness can be.
[00:39:44] Deanna Kitchen: What is a time that somebody did something for you in kindness that you still carry in your heart with you today?
[00:39:53] Sue Carney: well, I have one really quick one you sent me Delia's.
[00:39:57] Deanna Kitchen: Oh.
[00:39:58] Sue Carney: ended up being sponsored and I thought, I thought I signed up for a giveaway and that was like the greatest thing. That's where my friend Barb got some of hers, but it, it, it wasn't that one. I run a knit along every year and my little note's still on the board and, um, somebody sent me a prize.
[00:40:12] Sue Carney: 'cause after you do it, you get a, I draw names, the person gets a prize and it's Martha B. Don't know her, right in the note. I opened it up and out, felt a packet of unicorns, Zia, which I know you know. From Flora, and it was last year when all of my garden was in such a disaster and many of my zinnias were ruined.
[00:40:33] Sue Carney: And it was the year that they weren't gonna sell anymore. I posted it 'cause I was so beside myself when I found 'em, because I had only saved a few from the last year. And so from their team, the Floret team wrote and said, make a wishlist. We'll send you. Flowers for next year seeds. So they supported this year's seed grow group.
[00:40:55] Sue Carney: They sent me packets of zinnias that they had before they sold again this year. Last year they didn't sell, so that kind of went out to all the rest of the community.
[00:41:06] Deanna Kitchen: and what a beautiful ripple of
[00:41:08] Sue Carney: Yeah, it was sweet. It was
[00:41:10] Deanna Kitchen: For you and then for you to be enabled and empowered to keep going and giving this year. That's beautiful.
[00:41:16] Sue Carney: So Martha B's got her little note. I've never met her, but I have her little note up on the top to enjoy these seeds. I'm like, how did you know that? Those were my favorites, number one. I have many.
[00:41:27] Deanna Kitchen: meant to be. It was meant to be.
[00:41:30] Sue Carney: So good. That's it.
[00:41:32] Deanna Kitchen: that's beautiful. Sue, thank you for the beautiful work that you are doing in your community. One bouquet at a time, one bloom at a time, and just for being here with us today to share your story. It's truly been a delight to get to be with you.
[00:41:49] Sue Carney: I have such a big head now. I don't know if I'll fit through the door.
[00:41:54] Deanna Kitchen: I think we all need to be encouraged and, and reminded and, and I just got to hold up the mirror for you today and show you who you already are.
[00:42:02] Sue Carney: But not the headphones.
[00:42:06] Deanna Kitchen: That's okay. We don't mind at all. Sue. I'm gonna, I'm gonna hit stop on the record button, but, uh.
