Students put love into Valentine’s Day bouquets

By Matthew Gonzalez STAFF WRITER

Students flowed into the garden, escaping the busyness of campus and stress of classes to unwind through floral therapy.

Associated Students held a Dried Flower Bouquet Workshop at the San Jose State University Community Garden for students to make a personalized array of flowers for Valentine’s Day.

Kinesiology senior Elisa Ramos said bouquet-making was a welcomed break and the garden is a place she has personal roots to where she finds great comfort as she added red, orange and pink flowers to her colorful bouquet.

“This is definitely a great change of pace for me because I’m always in a classroom,” Ramos said. “This [garden] reminds me of home as well, because my dad gardens, so it’s always nice to be in this calm, peaceful area.”

The flowers for the bouquets were dried and sourced from Lunaria Flower Farm in Pescadero, Calif.

Lunaria flowers are purple and pink and native to Europe and Asia, according to a Sept. 28, 2022 article by The Spruce, a website that offers decorating and gardening advice.

Environmental studies graduate student and community garden organizer Matthew Spadoni said this is the second year A.S. has used the Pescadero-based farm as a vendor.

Spadoni said using dried flowers instead of fresh was intentional and necessary to prevent wasting natural resources.

“It’s actually more sustainable to have the flowers dried,” Spadoni said. “Lunaria farm also does fresh-cut flowers, but stuff that they don’t sell, they can then dry and preserve for longer so that they’re not wasting any of the products that they’re growing on their farm.”

Animation freshman Celeste Esguerra said she appreciated the extra steps taken to ensure the aesthetically-pleasing appearance of the flowers.

“I think it’s really cool that they sourced [flowers] from a different farm,” Esguerra said. “And the way that they were dried, I never knew that you had to turn them upside down to make sure that the stem stays straight.”

The garden’s small size provided an intimate setting for students to mingle with each other and share which flowers they wanted to include in their bouquets.

Business administration sophomore April Murphy said the friendly setting added a sense of comfort to her.

“[Dried Flower] not as anxiety-inducing as bigger events would be, I think having it be more intimate is definitely easier to talk to the people you came with,” Murphy said.

Occupational therapy graduate student Brianna Gilbert said she had followed the SJSU Garden account for a long time and keeps tabs on future events.

She said being in her master’s program can limit her interaction with others outside of her group, but events like the Dried Flower Bouquet Workshop give her the opportunity to meet other students.

“Being in my program, we are kind of all together all the time,” Gilbert said. “So it’s fun to go to different things on campus just to see different people that exist on campus.”

Gilbert also said being able to see the creativity of her peers was interesting and enjoyed seeing the variety of flowers people chose.

Even though some students didn’t have significant others to make a bouquet for, they still found it important to show their love for other people in their lives.

Sociology senior and A.S. student program assistant Lilyenne Huynh said recognizing self-love and your love for others is what Valentine’s Day is all about.

“[Valentine’s Day] is just another reason to show appreciation for yourself or someone else,” Huynh said. “So whether [students] are making a bouquet for someone or just making something nice for themselves, I think it’s nice just to have something.”

Esguerra also said Valentine’s Day is a good opportunity to spend time with those you are not romantically involved with.

She said she was going to give the friend who informed her about the event a flower, exemplifying Valentine’s Day isn’t just for lovers.

A similar sentiment was shared by Murphy, who said it was paramount that people know they’re loved.

“A lot of people do feel like they’re not worthy or not loved,” Murphy said. “And I think even just small acts or you know, just a couple of words of affirmation can really help someone feel that they’re meant to be here and that people love them.”