HAYDEN — Members of the Hayden Meadows Elementary Green Thumb Club have a little trick up their sleeves for making the most memorable valentines.

The young nature stewards coaxed pink and red tulips into blooming early, just in time to be presented to residents of a local assisted living facility for Valentine's Day.

"We learned that you can actually force a tulip to grow by making it think it's spring by putting it in the warmness after you freeze them," Green Thumb member and fifth-grader Gus Taylor said Wednesday.

Gus said it feels nice to know these special flowers will show how much the people in the care facility are loved.

"It will probably make them really happy that it's being delivered on Valentine's Day," he said. "Then they know that someone planned it ahead of time for them."

Hayden Meadows art teacher Vern Harvey, who oversees the greenhouse program at the school, explained that the kids planted the tulip bulbs in cans in the school gardens last fall so they could get cold and freeze. Then, the kids dug them up out of the snow in early January, warmed them up in the 50-degree greenhouse, "and Valentine's Day we're blooming."

It's a project Harvey's greenhouse students have done for several years, and it's one that's handled with a lot of love.

"It's really good to see the kids are so immersed and engaged," he said. "They're thrilled to be giving them to someone else. It is a great lesson for them, for the students to know there are things they can do to brighten other people's worlds."