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| OA Photo by B Kay Richter |
• Fundraiser for Ector County ISD’s horticulture program
Staff Report
• Odessa American
ODESSA, TEXAS - The annual Ector County ISD horticulture program’s poinsettia sale is back.
It will be held from Dec. 5-15 at the ECISD Agriculture Farm, 7649 W. Dunn St. The price range will be $5 for small plants and $10 for the larger ones.
Christina Butler, horticulture/agriculture and mentor teacher, said there aren’t many left because they have already had pre-orders.
They grew about 500 this year not knowing what the demand would be, Butler said.
They haven’t grown their own poinsettias since COVID. The colors are red and a variegated pink and white.
“In the new greenhouses, they actually turned out really well. We didn’t have very much loss,” Butler said. “It doesn’t look like we have much, but we kind of started lower. We didn’t know how the community would turn out on it and if they wanted the poinsettias or not, so we came with only 500 this year.”
About 50 students participated from horticulture and other programs like agriculture and animal science, she said.
“Now that we’re out here on the farm, all the kids can pitch in and help, which is really nice,” Butler said.
Odessa High School students Madison Whitlock, a 16-year-old junior, Averi Wagner, a 17-year-old junior, and Brianne Vidal, a 16-year-old sophomore, took pride in their participation.
Wagner said growing poinsettias is a long process and something that people wouldn’t think you’d have to put a lot of work into.
“It’s a lot more than you’d expect, but it was very enjoyable,” Wagner said.
Whitlock said it was very hands-on, which made it a cool way to learn.
Vidal thought the process of growing the plants was hard at first.
“But I think the more that you start getting used to taking care of it, it starts getting easier. You just kind of have to know what it needs. It was a lot of information, but it was a lot of fun growing them,” Vidal said.
She added that they grew kind of fast.
It depended on who was tending to them.
You have to get the plants in the perfect sunlight for the plants to change color.
All three students said they would like to keep growing flowers and it was nice to see the poinsettias bloom.
Asked how they felt about selling the plants, Wagner said sometimes she just wants to buy them.
“Not everybody has the time or even the patience to grow plants because it’s something that takes a long time to take care of and then focusing on keeping them alive. It’s hard, so when we grown them and we have them good, healthy and then they buy them,” Wagner said.
She added that she has confidence that the buyers will take care of the plants.
“I’m just excited that somebody enjoys what we made. It’s like a kid; just watch your kid grow up. It’s very enjoyable, though,” Wagner said.
Vidal said the class was really awesome because it’s all hands-on learning ...
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