![\"Sean](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/TWSTDD3VWV5I7MZYZLTNZXKF34.jpg\")
Sean builds his bouquet of flowers for his mother.Jonathan Wiggs\/Globe Staff<\/p>\nToday, about a half-dozen patients are busy assembling bouquets: a musician, an artist, an activist. All have full identities beyond the hospital; all have been touched by mental illness and crave an oasis.<\/p>\n
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Sean builds his bouquet of flowers for his mother.Jonathan Wiggs\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n
William, 44, has bipolar disorder. He says his illness often leads to being pushed out of public spaces, like coffee shops. He loves to dance. He can\u2019t easily do that at the hospital, but arranging flowers gives him a channel for self-expression.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy thing is to create things, because I\u2019m a creator,\u201d he says, adding a white rose to his bouquet. \u201cThis bouquet is about setting good intentions. A new year, an intentional thing. Things are going to be good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before arriving at the unit, patients are evaluated by a physician and psychiatric triage team before being admitted for round-the-clock care.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey may have thoughts of wanting to hurt themselves or somebody else, or they just can\u2019t function safely in the community,\u201d says Steve Reider, the hospital\u2019s director of behavioral health. \u201cThat might mean they\u2019re not eating, sleeping, or attending to daily activities like showering because of their mental illness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once admitted, patients meet daily with a physician or nurse practitioner and a social worker. Ultimately, they\u2019re discharged back into the community, into partial hospitalization, or into longer-term residential treatment. The duality is striking: capable people flattened by unpredictable illness, temporarily confined and far from home. <\/p>\n
![\"Jenni](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4KMWM57TCBRAPULFF3EXNC4DOM.jpg\")
Jenni builds her bouquet of flowers at the Acton Garden Club Flower Day at Emerson Hospital.Jonathan Wiggs\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we partnered with the Garden Club, it was about bringing the benefit of flowers \u2014 and that quieter cultural element \u2014 to our patient population,\u201d Reider says. \u201cWe want to decrease stress, anxiety, depression, and mood dysregulation. It\u2019s a time to focus, to complete a task, and to walk away knowing you\u2019ve created something. There\u2019s a sense of purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patients sometimes give their bouquets to visiting family members. Other times, they offer them to staff. And sometimes, they place them in their rooms as a reminder of brighter days ahead.<\/p>\n
Jenni, 39, once studied art at college in Virginia. Now, she\u2019s helping fellow patients assemble bouquets. Usually, she makes necklaces \u2014 birds are her favorite motif, a symbol of a partner who passed away \u2014 but today, flowers will do.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love anything creative; it helps me so much,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is really fun, because you can kind of have a free-for-all. Do what you want. I\u2019m just going with it, and I like how it\u2019s coming out.\u201d<\/p>\n
She grins. She may give the bouquet to her grandmother, who has always been supportive, or to her daughters-in-law, with whom she\u2019s remained close. Or she may keep it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if they\u2019ll hold up,\u201d she says. \u201cIf they come for a visit, maybe they will. I\u2019d love that. I\u2019m actually going to save some of the petals in my journal.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Acton](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/TR6B22QLJWKZO3XJ4RWRO6P2UI.jpg\")
Acton Garden Club Flower Day Volunteer Jean Butler was at Emerson Hospital with Erica.Jonathan Wiggs\/Globe Staff![\"Colleen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/CT5OZQQWYKO4XU3JX6Q3A5OJXM.jpg\")
Colleen builds her bouquet of flowers at the Acton Garden Club Flower Day at Emerson Hospital.Jonathan Wiggs\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n
Erica, 27, has been hospitalized at Emerson before, sometimes for weeks. She has post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, borderline personality disorder, and premenstrual dysphoric disorder.<\/p>\n
\u201cI specifically come to this unit because I use their [therapy] groups,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s the only unit I haven\u2019t been afraid to come back to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside the hospital, she\u2019s been an anti-bullying advocate and a long-time Girl Scout. Here, she\u2019s drawn to the scent of eucalyptus and the brightness of flowers in a sterile environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt brings a nice smell to your room. It makes you feel a little more awake,\u201d she says. \u201cWe don\u2019t get to go outside very often, so this brings nature inside. It\u2019s nice sensory input if you\u2019re having a hard time.\u201d<\/p>\n
She plans to give a bouquet of yellow roses to her mother; last session, she kept one for herself.<\/p>\n
Sean, 24, is making a basket for his mom \u2014 roses, daisies, baby\u2019s breath. He\u2019s smiling this morning, but anxiety has untethered him. He\u2019s been hospitalized for about a week after a stretch of relentless panic attacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just didn\u2019t know what to do,\u201d he says. \u201cI couldn\u2019t function. I felt like I was going crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mornings are especially hard, he says, but he pushed himself down the hall for this session.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no doctors here, no medications,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s just people sitting around a table, making art and having fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
G, 41, grew up in Scotland. The flowers remind him of heather and thistles back home.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/HFA67GAR7MFKDDVIGPPLEC244A.jpg\")
The Acton Garden Club has been having Flower Day for many years at Emerson Hospital. Flowers were donated by a local Trader Joe\u2019s.Jonathan Wiggs\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n
\u201cRubbing them and smelling them is so therapeutic,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you\u2019re struggling with mental illness, you can become hypersensitive to sensory input. Activities like this bring us together.\u201d<\/p>\n
His mom should visit later that day. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe might be the lucky recipient,\u201d he says, holding his wicker basket. \u201cBut, for now, this reminds me that home is still there.\u201d<\/p>\n
He came to the United States for college and stayed. Life has been fragile, he says. He struggles with bipolar disorder, anxiety, and body dysmorphia, and he\u2019s been unemployed for two years.<\/p>\n
But here, he says, he sees bouquet-making as a literal and metaphorical act of assembling broken pieces into something whole.<\/p>\n
The Acton Garden Club\u2019s garden therapy program has reached more than 11,000 patients since starting in 1982. Flowers \u2014 carnations, chrysanthemums, daffodils, tulips, baby\u2019s breath \u2014 are donated weekly by Trader Joe\u2019s in Acton. What began as a twice-monthly program became a weekly event in 2018, by popular demand.<\/p>\n
Each week, two Garden Club volunteers retrieve the donated flowers, assist patients during the workshop, and clean up afterward, under the supervision of an occupational therapist.<\/p>\n
\u201cI say this all the time, but watching the patients light up when we arrive with the flowers makes us smile, too,\u201d says Jean Butler, one of the program\u2019s longtime organizers. \u201cI feel like my heart grows three sizes when I\u2019m working with the patients.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colleen, 54, left her room specifically for the session. Outside these walls, she\u2019s a musician. Here, she can channel her creativity in a different way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something to literally get out of bed for,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I knew it was time for this, I jumped up. It lifts my spirits. You have to make a little beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across the table, Sean puts the finishing touches on his bouquet as Jenni watches, beaming.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese activities really integrate people back into society. It takes courage to come out here and try to get better. It\u2019s nice to see how many people go through similar things,\u201d Sean says. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou can never tell. Anxiety, OCD \u2014 it hides in the shadows.\u201d<\/p>\n
But in this room, there are glimmers of yellow and orange, petals reaching toward the winter sun.<\/p>\n
Kara Baskin can be reached at kara.baskin@globe.com<\/a>. Follow her @kcbaskin<\/a>.<\/p>\n