Florist Hides Bouquets Across Irish City for Strangers

John Paul had a simple idea for Random Acts of Kindness Day: turn his entire city into a garden of surprises.

The Derry florist and his team prepared dozens of small bouquets and placed them throughout the Northern Ireland city center on February 17. They tucked arrangements outside the Central Library, in Guildhall Square, and in front of the iconic Derry Girls mural.

Each bouquet carried a tag with a gentle invitation: keep it or pass it along to someone else. Some people pocketed the flowers with grateful smiles, while others continued the chain, gifting them to strangers they met minutes later.

One moment stood out above all the rest. Paul personally handed a bouquet to a young couple visiting Derry on holiday, right in front of the Derry Girls mural.

The pair seemed hesitant at first, surprised by the unexpected gesture. But later that day, they reached out to Paul with a message explaining what the flowers really meant.

"We have been dreaming to visit Derry for a while," they wrote. "To have such a nice surprise to start our visit, it really made our day." The couple shared that they'd experienced challenging travel troubles before arriving, and the bouquet completely shifted their experience.

The Ripple Effect

The kindness didn't stop with people who found flowers on benches and windowsills. Staff at the Guildhall Cafe discovered one of Paul's bouquets and decided to give it to a customer, creating exactly the ripple Paul had hoped for.

"It reminded me why flowers and kindness matter," Paul says. The overwhelming response to what he calls a "small gesture" showed him how hungry people are for unexpected joy.

While Paul has created "lonely bouquets" before, this was his first time tying the project to Random Acts of Kindness Day, part of the global awareness week held each February. The response has already sparked bigger plans: he's committing to doing it again next year and hopes other local businesses will join in, amplifying the wave of goodwill across Derry.

Sometimes the smallest gestures plant the biggest seeds.