Hint of spring

Wu says she has received many photos from buyers showing the roses in blossom in their homes. "It's amazing how much comfort flowers can bring to people."

The photos also encouraged Wu to continue with the project.

"For people in cities, buying flowers means being romantic, while for the growers in Yunnan, selling them means livelihood," Wu adds.

By March 14, the group's donation of 100,000 yuan were used in two ways-80 percent was donated to the China Organ Transplantation Development Foundation to buy vacuum cups and sanitary towels for medical workers in Wuhan and 20 percent to buy forget-me-not flowers to give them.

"One reason we chose the forget-me-not is that the flower is easy to keep, which won't take too much time of the medical staff," Wu says, adding that she was touched when the foundation sent her photos of medics with the flowers.

Wu says for a long time she couldn't understand why her mother, who was a doctor, left her as a child and went to the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to help local hospitals. "Now I finally know and I am so proud of her."

At the peak of orders, Wu's team had around 30 volunteers to assist the online store. Since the donation was made, some have left because they felt the purpose of helping the growers had been fulfilled.

Wu says there is still a lot she can do to both help the growers and medical workers.

"There are different species of flowers that cannot be sold year-round, and Yunnan's local growers may need a hand with the online sales," she says.

"Looking back at my experience of selling flowers online and working on the donation, I can see there were many obstacles that seemed impossible to pass, but we did it."

Now, Wu plans to continue running the store with other two volunteers and cooperate with charities to launch a flower foundation-to send flowers to medics across China.