Plant sale gives student gardeners a chance to blossom
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) - When the Hoosier Hills Career Center students step into the empty greenhouse at the beginning of the school year, it's hard for them to believe that it will be full of plants come springtime.
Just days before the center's annual plant sale, the greenhouse is bursting with greenery: lush ferns, bright geraniums, delicate vincas and cheery marigolds, along with houseplants and vegetable plants ready for pots and gardens.
Hoosier Hills students have been in the greenhouse since the week after Christmas. While the weather outside was frightful, the balmy warmth inside the structures helped students nurse plants from cuttings and seeds. They learned to fertilize, to prune with care, to divide plants and start new ones in a process called propagating. Now, they're preparing to send their plants out into the community at the annual plant sale, this Thursday and Friday, putting a cap on the agricultural program's semester.
A group of students from Amy Remsburg's plant and soil science class recently walked down the gravel path to the greenhouse. They left the chill of the late April morning for the damp warmth of the greenhouse, smelling of wet earth and chlorophyll. Grace McGlochlin and Nathan Owen each grabbed hoses with sprinkler heads to water the hanging baskets and waiting plants, while Remsburg walked up and down the rows of tables to pinpoint sprouts that needed the most care.
The class teaches students the intricacies of growing and caring for plants, maintaining proper soil and water levels and running a greenhouse, and with that an element of salesmanship and customer service in the selling of plants to support the whole operation. The proceeds of the annual plant sale will feed back into the agriculture program as well as the school's Future Farmers of America chapter, but the benefits don't stop with sales. The sale helps students refine their customer service skills and professionalism.
"You definitely have to learn your people skills at that point," McGlochlin said.
Veteran gardeners sometimes know exactly what plants they want, and require little help beyond transporting the plants to their vehicles. Others come in browsing, not sure what they'd like or what color they'd like it in.
"They'll see we've got a million other colors," Owen said, and suddenly the red geraniums they had their heart set on no longer seem quite right. Owen, who is also studying landscaping, will ask questions to find out where customers hope to place their new plant. What are the colors of the surrounding flowers or shrubs in the plots they are looking to fill? Or the color of the paint on the house or the porch? Indoor or outdoor? Garden bed, flower pot or hanging basket?
He'll use their answers to guide them to a plant that will look best in the spot they have in mind, as any good greenhouse owner would. Customers can rely on his expertise, and the expertise of his agriculture program classmates, at the annual sale Thursday and Friday.
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Source: The (Bloomington) Herald Times, https://bit.ly/2HVVXn6
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Information from: The Herald Times, http://www.heraldtimesonline.com