Poplar Bluff’s High School’s FFA program has a long history of holding a spring plant sale, dating back to 2002, and this year is no different. However, with about half the school’s greenhouse still full, the students and staff have decided to do something special for Mother’s Day.
“She’s planning on having us plant some baskets,” said senior Tanner Robinson of his teacher, Kathryn Clark’s, idea for the Mother’s Day sale, which will take place Wednesday and Thursday.
The event will be a drive-thru sale outside the high school’s greenhouse on the northwest corner of the Oak Grove Road campus.
“There will be a drop box outside for money, and we’ll put the flowers outside. You can drive by, pick your flowers and drop off your money,” said Robinson.
Prices, Clark said, “will vary based on the size of the basket.”
During the regular plant sale, small pots sold for $3, while larger ones went for $5 and baskets were $15.
“It will be mixed baskets of what we have left,” said Clark of the Mother’s Day plant sale availability.
“We have marigolds, we have these things called rocking blue suede shoes, a lot of different types of petunias, impatiens, dragonwing begonias, sunflowers, tomatoes, bell peppers,” said senior Colin Lamberson.
The Mother’s Day event is an extension of the annual plant sale, which began last week, Clark said.
Students from multiple classes work in the greenhouse throughout the school year, Clark said, as part of the FFA program.
“We’ve been working on this for probably two months,” said Lamberson. “Usually in the fall and the spring, Mrs. Clark will order a bunch of plants. This year, it was mainly flowers and other small things.
“We got them in little trays and had to end up planting each and every one of them in different pots.”
“We all teamed up and split the plants. After we got going, Colin and Tanner were better at planting, and it ended up with me mixing dirt constantly,” said senior Johnathan Martin.
The annual plant sale, Clark said, is the FFA program’s “big fundraiser for our FFA kids. Between this and our fall mum sale, that’s how we fund our kids’ competitions.
“It pays for these kids to do competitions and other things I don’t think they should have to pay for because they’re doing the work and learning the skills necessary to compete on those teams.”
Any flowers not sold will be donated, Clark said, including to the local elementary schools and the Poplar Bluff Parks and Recreation Department.
“We try to donate what we have left to the community to give back,” Clark said.