While April showers appear to be overstaying their welcome, locals will still be able to pick up plenty of May flowers this weekend.

Nurses with Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital will host their annual Flower Sale this weekend, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday at Farr Park in front of the Dowagiac hospital at the corner Division and Main streets and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Beckwith Park downtown on Front Street. Organizers will have more than 350 hanging flower baskets for sale, including petunias, mini-petunias, ferns, fuscia, begonias, geraniums and more.

Flower baskets will cost $15, and fern baskets will cost $16.

Members of the Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital Shared Governance Committee are organizing the annual springtime sale in partnership with Dussel’s Farm Market & Greenhouses in Cassopolis, which is supplying flowers for the event.

“They have a beautiful flower selection,” said Sarah Bell-Ingalls, co-chair of the shared governance committee and a registered nurse with Borgess-Lee. “They work with us every year, and they are amazing.”

Dussel’s crews will deliver baskets of flowers to the sale throughout Friday and Saturday, ensuring that organizers will not run out of stock, as demand for the plants is always quite high with Mother’s Day around the corner, Bell-Ingalls said.

Proceeds from the sale will go toward the various initiatives the shared governance committee supports throughout the year.

“It’s our biggest fundraiser,” Bell-Ingalls said.

The majority of the committee’s fundraising dollars are allocated to a scholarship awarded each year to a Borgess-Lee nurse or staff member, which is used to advance their education or earn their certification or recertification. The committee has strict criteria for recipients, requiring applicants to submit an essay among other requirements.

The committee also helps pay for programming for Nursing Week every year at the hospital, which takes place this week as well. The board funds classes and other training opportunities for staff and chips in with other efforts, including helping pay for improvements to the oncology department’s waiting room and the hospital’s Christmas party last year.

“It [the sale] is for a great cause,” she said. “Not only does it support nurses but the entire Borgess-Lee staff.”

Customers who cannot find a basket with flowers they like may purchase a voucher they may take to Dussel’s storefront at 21765 M-60, Cassopolis, to pick up flowers at later date.