MCDONALD COUNTY, Mo. — Green thumbs were busy planting seedlings, today, in McDonald County.
“Little tiny plants, little tiny seeds, cuttings, all the way up to, we have a big sale,” said Lizzi Wilkinson.
It’s all in preparation for the annual greenhouse plant sale at Rocky Comfort Elementary. On Friday, students planted close to 10,000 seedlings.
“The whole community comes together and we make plants, and we plant them so they can grow and then we sell hanging baskets, flowers, and houseplants and people buy them and we make quite a bit of money off it. It’s really fun,” said Nevaeah Houston, 8th-grade student.
School officials say preparations for the event began in September.
“It starts about September and so we start taking cuttings and making hanging baskets, we all discuss all the different plants that we are going to order, which ones did well last year, and which ones didn’t. And so it’s just a big process. We do a lot of math on calculating how many cubes of soil we need for doing all the hanging baskets or doing 6 packs so there’s a lot that goes into it. It’s definitely an all-year school process,” said Wilkinson.
Many plants and flowers will be available to purchase during their big sale on April 28th and April 29th.
“They can get all sorts of petunia and greenery hanging baskets. They can come get vegetables like
tomatoes and peppers and all sorts of beautiful bedding plants and flowers,” added Wilkinson.
The event can be a good way to bring the whole school together.
“I was telling my boss this morning that I can’t believe I get paid to do this job because it’s super cool. I get to hang out with the cool kids plant flowers and we have a great time doing it,” said Wilkinson.
“I feel like it brings us together, especially as a class, to learn how to do these things. It like really helps us out and it’s just really fun to get to know how to grow them because then we could even do it at home and stuff and it’s just a really nice learning process,” said Houston.
