A volunteer with Joy Petalers carefully snips the delicate stem of a soft, ruffled coral lisianthus. Yesterday, this pretty bloom—along with hundreds of others— decorated the wedding reception of a newly married St. Louis couple. Today, a group of volunteers is transforming those wedding-day flowers, including roses, ranunculus, baby’s breath, and trailing green foliage, into small bouquets. The next day, the arrangements will begin a second life when they are delivered to senior living facilities, cancer centers, and hospital guest houses throughout the St. Louis area.
Joy Petalers is a nonprofit founded by Colleen O’Neill Rohm and Trish Morningstar. Operated entirely by volunteers known as “floristas,” Joy Petalers accepts donated blooms from weddings and other special occasions and upcycles them into fresh arrangements. Within 24 hours of an event, volunteers deliver the bouquets to local hospitals and organizations, delighting recipients and giving the flowers a renewed purpose.
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One such recipient is Dunn Road Village, an apartment complex in Florissant for low-income seniors. For the past year, Joy Petalers has delivered bouquets to the 102 residents of the facility, which is operated by EverTrue Living, a nonprofit that provides a range of senior living services.
“We all love it when the delivery arrives—it’s so exciting to see the residents’ faces when they get the flowers,” says Leigh Anne Hoorman, service coordinator at Dunn Road Village. “One of our residents has no family nearby and no real connections in St. Louis. She says she feels so loved every time the flowers are delivered.”
Rohm, who serves as executive director, says retail florists, wholesalers, wedding couples, and corporate events are the lifeblood of the Rock Hill-based organization, providing a steady stream of fresh flower donations. “Our volunteers pick up the flowers, and then we deconstruct them,” Rohm explains. “We trim them if necessary, treat them with flower food, and put them in the cooler at our workshop. Within 24 hours of receiving the flowers, we’ve made them into bouquets and they’re out the door.” Each arrangement is paired with a card bearing words of encouragement or a cheerful greeting.
Joy Petalers came to life after a chance phone call connected Rohm and Morningstar. A cancer survivor, Rohm had been searching for ways to give meaning to her experience. “Life looks very different after you’ve gone through 18 rounds of immunotherapy,” she says. “You wonder how you can give back.” While on a business trip with her husband, she met a woman involved with a California-based nonprofit doing similar work, and felt she had found her mission.
Back home, she researched comparable organizations and was connected with Unexpected Blooms in Kansas City, where she learned about another St. Louis woman who had recently reached out hoping to start a similar operation.
That woman was Morningstar. As a Florida snowbird, Morningstar had already volunteered with a like-minded organization in Dunedin. When the two women met, they quickly realized their complementary skill sets—Morningstar is a master gardener, floral designer, and veteran of a similar floral nonprofit; Rohm has a background in business and marketing—made them a natural team. Joy Petalers officially took root in the fall of 2024.
Last year, Joy Petalers created more than 10,000 bouquets. This year, the organization has set a goal of delivering 20,000—and if the first few months are any indication, “we should blow past that easily,” says Rohm.
Reaching that number requires a true community effort. More than 450 volunteers help with everything from sourcing inexpensive vases to picking up donated blooms and cleaning up after one of the three weekly workshop sessions.
“Our superpower is our volunteers,” Rohm says. “We have some amazing corporate sponsors, and we’re actively looking for additional funding to sustain our mission. Even with donated flowers, it costs us roughly $4 to get each bouquet out the door. It’s a challenge, but I’m so grateful I get to do this.”
Hoorman echoes that sentiment. “In a world with so much negativity, it’s wonderful to see the positive light that comes from these flowers—and how happy they make our residents.”
