Joe Winter
Special to the Catholic Herald
Theirs is a task that needs teams of volunteers with green thumbs, and the call for plant-watering services will hit its peak soon with Christmas services coming.
Several volunteers for watering plants inside St. Croix County churches say this is a silent but not small ministry.
“You don’t hear about this that much, but it is needed at virtually every parish, and that it takes more time than you think,” said Deb Bauer-Bieniek.
This is especially true at bigger churches with more space, which means more flowers.
Some parishes go with spreads of plastic flowers and avoid the need for continual watering, weeding, pruning and occasional bits of fertilizer. But even those churches have holiday flowers to adorn their spaces.
“This happens every holiday season, and we’ll fill (that need),” Bauer-Bieniek said.
Poinsettias are one of the main flowers that gardeners know need the most water to prevent premature dropping and discoloration of leaves and petals.
However, there are other flowers too that require watering at least once a week, ideally more. Easter lilies are on that list.
A lifelong and very active parishioner at St. Patrick’s Parish in Hudson, Carol Landry, had for many years done virtually all of the plant watering and maintenance.
“It took a lot of time but was rewarding and this is just something that needed to be done,” she said. Now retired, she had a busy volunteering schedule across various ministries, which included a lot of the meal-making at parish events.
Then, a replacement, Bauer-Bieniek, picked up the pace for a few years, but she too was busy, and after her watering appearances started to trickle, she decided to gracefully bow out.
Several others have helped fill the bill since then, all through the summer season, and two different people have taken up the mantle just recently, when the need is arguably highest, said Emily Todd, one of the parish office department heads.
“However, I had not seen anyone doing watering in the church for a few weeks,” added parish receptionist Ellen O’Brien, noting that the parish liturgy, arts and environment committee was tasked with looking for one or more replacements.
She herself also heads up the parish cemetery committee, which also requires lots of watering.
River Falls
“The (gardeners) will report back to us that a certain plant was not looking fully in bloom, or that its plate as a base needed attention,” said Lindsey Andrea, a parish office assistant at St. Bridget’s Parish in River Falls.
Andrea, who has overall clerical and reception duties, fits it in her schedule to double as, well, a scheduler. “We make calls to arrange for someone on a team to come in regularly,” she said, ideally trying to ensure someone is there every week from a crew that right now is four in number.
“Their calendar this year had been filled in before the year had even started,” Andrea said.
Randy Koller, maintenance director at St. Bridget’s, stands near one of the many plants maintained by volunteers. Flowers and plants have meaning in Catholic liturgy and are essential as both beautification and symbolism. (Photo by Joe Winter)
