Tulsa Botanic Garden Donates Flowers To Local Hospitals

The Tulsa Botanic Garden is making sure some hospital workers still get to see their beautiful spring flowers, even though the garden is closed.

It's springtime at Tulsa Botanic Garden, and that means they have Tulips - thousands of them.

Sadly, only the staff was seeing them because they are currently closed, but CEO Todd Lasseigne didn’t want them to go to waste.

"Our Tulips are in bloom and they're glorious. We decided instead of us just looking at them - why don't we share them?" Lasseigne said.

He's giving away hundreds of the bright, beautiful flowers to Tulsa hospitals in hopes to lift the staff and patients. Thursday, he made a personal delivery to Ascension St. John.

"They're just a gift from us to hopefully make the caregivers and the doctors and the patients feel better," he said.  

Horticulture Manager Cynthia Robinson has worked at the garden for five years and says cutting the flowers feels a bit odd.

"Normally we have this really strict like no picking rule, so that they're here to enjoy everybody, but I think this situation has kind of turned all the rules on its head, so now it's the opposite, now we're picking them to make sure that everybody can see them," she said. 

Like other non-profits in Oklahoma, Tulsa Botanic Garden is taking a big financial hit by not having visitors during one of its busiest times. Last year, it had about 10,000 people come for the tulips.

"That's a combination of people who pay admission to come in or if they're members they come in for free, so we're talking tens of thousands of dollars of lost income," Lasseigne said.

He said despite the financial loss, he just wants to share the beautiful tulips with hardworking Tulsans.

The Tulsa Botanic Garden hopes this reminds people to continue supporting local non-profits during this difficult time.