GIYOU in the Shenandoah queen’s hands and Sean Astin’s jacket

Apart from the joy GIYOU flowers bring, what we find the most valuable about them is that they allow us to meet wonderful people from all over the world. Like the Astin Family.

The Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival Queen

Since 1924, the annual Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival has been held in Virginia. (https://www.thebloom.com). A celebration of the beauty of spring and apple blossoms, the festival is known for the many events organised throughout the two weeks of its duration, as well as its famous guests. While setting up the festival in spring, Winchester residents clean up the town and put up green, pink, and white decorations - the festival’s colours. And every year, a new Shenandoah queen is crowned.

Ali Astin (@ali_astin), an American actress known for its part as Eleanor Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, was the 2014 queen. Her sisters Elizabeth and Bella were crowned in 2018 and this year, respectively.

We were overjoyed to learn queen Bella decided to use silver GIYOU flowers as her ornament.

It’s likely that over the 100 years of the famous U.S. festival’s history, no queen has used a jewellery or floral decoration made by Czech jewellers.

Sean Astin

The three women are daughters of none other than the American actor Sean Astin (@seanastin). Sean has appeared in many movies and TV shows and is perhaps best known for his role as the hobbit Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

He was also historically the first person to ever decorate his breast pocket with a GIYOU flower :-).

Christine Harrell, the Academy Award-nominated producer of the 1994 show Kangaroo Court, Lava Entertainment CEO, and the publicly involved 1984 Miss Teen Indiana, is the trio’s mother. She and Sean married in 1994.

When asked why he thinks people will remember his story, he once said, "I would like it if [my daughters and future grandchildren] were to focus on kindness. I think kindness is a nice legacy.”

GIYOU flowers in Virginia.