By Blake Haas

BLOOMINGTON – Stop and smell the Roses has always been an old saying, but for one Bloomington native that has turned into a life long dream.

With the seed being planted in 4-H, one local florist didn’t know what she would be doing then would blossom into the face of the Governors Mansion in Springfield.

“I was a kid in 4-H and I took flower design and horticulture as a project and then enjoyed it and kept doing it over the years and [then] I majored in horticulture in college,” added Candice Hart, owner of Pollen and Pastry located at 2121 Morrissey Dive in Bloomington. “I started my business during Grad School [at University of Illinois in Champaign] and kept going with it.”

When Gov. Bruce Rauner first moved to the mansion in 2014, he found peeling paint, over grown trees and shrubs, buckling walls and other problems including problems with the roof, but after a $15 million renovation was announced on July 18, 2016, by Illinois First Lady Diana Rauner, that paved the way or ‘planted the flower’ for Hart.

“This was really an opportunity to kind of partner with Illinois flower farmers,” added Hart, who’s business offers flowers and desserts. “Another flower farmer Becky Newton [owner of Wren’s Gate Garden and Studio] out of Decatur kind of helped organize this event for us. Basically we took all of the products from the farmers who were willing to donate and everything came from a 100 mile area of Springfield which is relay awesome. We used things like Sunflowers, Vivias, a lot of different perennial cut flowers that we were able to harvest really a lot of great products that we were able to use that were locally grown.”

A Facebook page called ‘Central Illinois Flower Farmers,’ blossomed into six designers and six flower farmers across central Illinois working hand-in-hand to volunteer their time to harvest, plant and design flowers for the new renovations at the Governors Mansion.

“It’s totally volunteer. The farms donated the product [flowers] and then the designers donated their time to put it all together,” added Hart. “We [farmers accross central Illinois] knew that it would be great idea to give back to the state in general , but then also to have kind of an opportunity to promote local grown products. We wanted to get it out there that there is all of this great flowers that are growing here in Illinois that people can utilize.”

The seed that was planted in 4-H cultivated into a dream for Heart who is loving every minute of volunteering her time with the renovations.

“It means a ton, especially when you walk into the mansion and you see all of the beautiful art that they have in there,” added Heart. “Just the fact that our flowers are kind of coordinating with the art and the beautiful space around it. It was such a great opportunity to showcase that product [flowers] in a spot that we knew people were going to see it.”

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].