Photo provided Last week employees of the Kurt Weiss Greenhouses near Washingtonville delivered over 4,000 Easter lilies donated to residents and employees at 15 area healthcare facilities. 

WASHINGTONVILLE – “Our greenhouses are full of color with few orders going out due to the coronavirus outbreak,” said Nikki Burrows of Muncy, General Manager at Kurt Weiss Greenhouses (formerly Bryfogles) near Washingtonville.

What to do with some of the 30,000 traditional Easter lilies whose historic symbol is of hope and life was solved by donating the blooms to patients in hospitals, senior care units and staff.

“Due to ‘No Visitor’ restrictions, workers in these places are the only human contact patients have. Staff cares for the people just as we cared for these flowers over many months, so workers received lilies too,” Burrows said.

Included among the 15 or more drop-off locations were facilities in our area including UPMC at Muncy which received 70 cases of eight pots, about 560 lilies. A total of 400 cases or 3,600 were given to others including Hillside Assisted Living in Williamsport, with more going to sites in the Danville, Watsontown and Lewisburg areas.

Delivery personal included Jashelle Puello, Montgomery, and Justin Bay of Watsontown. ” We’ve had lots of positive feedback. We love our flowers, they are important to us and we’re glad they will be enjoyed,” said Burrows, a 17-year long employee.

Kurt Weiss greenhouses is a family-owned business dealing strictly with wholesale buyers. “We also seed and grow vegetable plants hoping when weather warms, people will purchase them for gardening,” Burrows said.

The manager concluded, “We are in uncharted waters during these times. It’s important to keep everyone’s spirits up, including our workers. Today (last Friday) we had pizza brought in for everyone here.”