Watch VideoPlant your greeting cards to grow flowers
Story By: Bea Karnes
Source: NBC
Sharon Quercioli has always been environmentally conscious. She used to run a recycling company, until she came up with a unique idea. "Sprouts!" was the idea of helping the environment and creating something beautiful," Quercioli explained.
The idea quickly bloomed into a booming business. "Sprouts!" makes everything from greeting cards and bookmarks to favor boxes and promotional items, but it's what's inside the paper that gets your attention. "We actually take recycled linen paper and we put plant seeds in it or we put herbs," said Quercioli.
You can plant the paper right in the ground. "We simply take the card and we kind of stick it under a thin layer of soil." Water it and within five to ten days, it "sprouts," and later you get flowers.
This year the company introduced bee friendly paper to address colony collapse disorder. "Honeybees are dying off in droves all over the country and it's a major problem because honeybees are used to pollinate almost all of our food," said Creative Director Dawn Doderhoff. When you plant the paper in the ground, it grows flowers that attract pollinators. "It will attract all different kinds of bee species, butterflies, dragonflies, hummingbirds to your garden," Doderhoff said.
The cards are generating more than just a buzz, they're inspiring people to live a "green" life. "We're trying to create an awareness and educate people to be more green and to care about the environment," said Quercioli.
