Local florist providing floral arrangements to Primrose seniors

WASILLA — Fleurish, the art of flowers owner Tonja Hall is preparing floral arrangements for 61 seniors living at Primrose Retirement Community of Wasilla.

“I’m making sure everyone there is getting flowers,” Hall said.

Hall is providing festive floral arrangements to Primrose residents at no cost to them by taking $20 sponsorships from the community through a program called Santa for Seniors. She said that there’s still time to reach out and sponsor a senior by Sunday, and she’s delivering all 61 arrangements on Monday.

“I’ve been trying to come up with some kind of promotion that I can do, a community event, something during the holidays that would fit my business, that would fit what I’m doing,” she said.

Each Primrose resident will receive a special floral arrangement with a Christmas themed centerpiece. Hall said she got the idea on social media through one of the groups she follows.

“I saw a shop down in the states doing something similar. I thought, ‘oh my gosh, that’s a great idea’ and I tweaked it a bit… and I talked to Primrose and talked to them to see if they’d be interested in it and of course they jumped on it. They thought it was a great idea,” Hall said.

Hall said that she admires the work being done at Primrose.

“My dad lived at Primrose. I’ve got a lot of friends that have their parents that live there. I just know that they’ve been dealing with a lot since COVID happened. Being a high risk community over there, they’re not able to leave. They’re not allowed to be around loved ones. It’s all for their safety and everything, but the holidays come around and it’s hard,” Hall said.

Hall said this is her first time working on a community project of this scale. She said that prior to this, she “flower bombed” various sites across Wasilla, including the Wasilla Police Department, and Wasilla Area Seniors, Inc with surprise floral decorations.

Hall opened Fleurish in June of 2019. Hall said that her shop’s overall business has fared well through the pandemic.

“It’s been good. I can maintain business pretty much online or by phone; because, you know, with doing no contact,” Hall said. “This is one way that people can still reach out to their loved ones, by sending them flowers and whatnot.”

Hall said that she’s enjoyed working on the Santa for Seniors project and plans to engage in similar endeavors throughout the year as she further acclimates her new business into the community. She said that she’s received a lot of calls to sponsor a senior.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Hall said. “I have really found that the community has been really, really great about supporting small business, supporting local business. I’ve been talking to other small business owners. We all agree. We all can feel it. We can feel the community supporting us so this is just one way to give back.”

Hall thanked everyone who’s sponsored a senior at this point. Those looking to make a $20 sponsorship to Santa for Seniors have until Sunday to make the call or stop by the store.

Fleurish, the art of flowers is located at 472 North Main Street Suite A in downtown Wasilla. For more information, call 907-373-5387.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com