Annual Horticulture Club plant sales provide hands-on learning experiences
by Kathleen Sprouse, posted April 23, 2008
MU Horticulture Club hosted its annual bedding sale Thursday, April 17, and Friday April 18, in the Anheuser-Busch Building. The club finished selling plants Tuesday, April 22, and will donate the remaining plants to community gardens throughout Columbia, Mo.
The Horticulture Club bought the plants from the Mennonite community in Latham, Mo., and from a local plant auction. The club buys some small plants to grow in the greenhouses for the sale. And club members grow all the vegetables, herbs and some flowering plants from seeds for the sale. All the plants are annuals, meaning they will only last for one season. Students working at the sale are plant science majors who are knowledgeable of Missouri’s soil and climate and who can help customers find the right flowers and plants.
“Petunias,” said Claire Weiss, a senior plants and science major. “They have been cultivated so well, they withstand our hot summers.”
Most of the sale’s customers are local Columbia residents and MU faculty and staff. Supporting the Horticulture Club by purchasing plants at its sale is tax free and affordable. A small four-pack of tomato plants was $4 and a pot was $2. The sale raised more than $1,200 this year, the second largest fundraiser after the club’s rose sale in February and its third sale, the poinsettia sale.
“We broke even yesterday [Thursday],” said Tracie Zimmerman, a sophomore plant science major. “So, today we’re already making profit.”
Seven students from the MU Horticulture club used the money from the sale to support a trip to Powell Gardens, a botanical garden near Kansas City, Mo., on Saturday, April 19, to learn more about horticulture. The club enjoys donating money from their sales to charity.
“We adopt a family for Christmas,” said Nick Guntli, MU Horticulture Club’s president. “We donated money for the New Roots Urban Farm in St. Louis; we also are always looking for new ways to donate and help the community.”
The club also picks apples at the Bradford Research and Extension center in Columbia, Mo., to donate to the Central Missouri Food Bank. The club enjoys helping the community while learning more about horticulture through its fundraisers.
“These sales allow us to learn hands-on what goes into growing plants,” said Victoria Rousset, vice president of MU Horticulture Club. “We also learn what it takes to put on a sale (planting, growing, moving plants, pricing plants, advertising, etc.).”
The majority of the club’s members are plant science majors with an emphasis in landscape horticulture.
“I have met and made many good friends while in the club,” Rousset said. “We go on trips together and make time to eat out together as well.”
For more information about the Horticulture club or its upcoming events and sales, go to the club Web site.
