It’s ugly outside, but inside Reiman Gardens it’s toasty warm and full of flowers. However, since they don’t sell the flowers, there are only two (legal) ways to take them home – you can take pictures, or you can become a volunteer.

And they will love you if you volunteer.

“This place, really, probably could not run without the volunteers,” said Jo Simpson, education coordinator at Reiman Gardens.

She’s not kidding – last year volunteers logged more than 9,000 hours, according to the slideshow shown at Volunteer Orientation last Tuesday.

Because of the weather, only two other future volunteers came.

Pat Kunz, volunteer coordinator at Reiman Gardens, read through the slideshow about the architecture, staff, displays and volunteer opportunities at the gardens, before showing the three of us around.

She led us through the greenhouses, and the minuscule seedlings waiting for volunteers – us – to delicately move them to larger pots. If we want to do things such as lead tours or volunteer in the Christina Reiman Butterfly Wing, we’ll need another session of training.

“That’s how I got started,” Kunz said. “When I retired from teaching I came out here to volunteer.”

She also showed us a back room with a table and rack covered in flowers and with two walk-in refrigerators full of more flowers.

The plants on the table had been pulled out of the garden after starting to wilt. The ones in the refrigerators were being forced to bloom out of season, and were going in as replacements – more work for volunteers.

A sign on the rack declared the flowers to be free. I think the one I have is an azalea. It’s very pink.

Despite the numerous hours the volunteers already put in, Reiman Gardens can come up a little short. Eight people are needed each day for the Butterfly Wing alone.

Volunteers receive e-mails each month – more often if they have the training to give tours – letting them know where they are needed.

“I am just amazed at what people are willing to do with their time,” Kunz said. “They just give.”

Megan Krueger is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Homestead.