Alba-Golden students raise, sell poinsettias

By LYNN MONTGOMERY | East Texas Edition

Horticulture students are (front row, from left) Ilyana Martinez, Sharon Gallimore, Kelley Smith, Brandi Brookins, (back row) Gena Forcier, Bobbi Glover, Josh Chapman, Randell Reeves, Marcus Russell, and Bryce O'Donnell. -- Staff photo by Montgomery

December 4, 2003 -- With the Christmas season here, many are buying poinsettias to decorate their homes and businesses.

At one East Texas high school, there are literally row-after-row of beautiful poinsettia, but they are not for decoration, but rather to raise funds for the school projects.

Led by ag teacher Jennifer Henderson, the horticulture classes at Alba-Golden, a small school where grades kindergarten through 12 are all on the same campus, have raised and marketed poinsettias for the past 10 years. They also raise fall and spring bedding plants.

Beginning the first week of school, this year it was around Aug. 18, the horticulture classes get their shipment of poinsettia cuttings which were about three-inches tall.

Henderson stated they get their plants about two weeks behind other poinsettia growers, and therefore the beautiful, velvety-leaved plants are ready about two weeks later than everyone else.

"We don't have any control over when school begins," she explained about the "later" date for starting the plants.

"We started with 800 plants, but due to weather conditions and the stress of transplanting, we lost about 100 plants," Henderson said.

The horticulture classes, which consist of about 30 students, have the task of helping the plants get to maturity. During this time, they also had 250 to 300 flats of pansies to raise.

Henderson detailed the students' tasks involved in raising the colorful plants. "The first of October, the students pinch the tops off the poinsettias. This process is what makes the poinsettia branch out real pretty," Henderson added.

In mid-October, the plants were moved to a more environmentally-controlled greenhouse.

"People think poinsettias like the cold, but they are really a tropical plant and like a temperature of between 75 and 80 degrees," the teacher explained.

One of the big obstacles this year has been unseasonably-warm temperatures. Due to this, the classes had to hook up a water system during the hot October days. With outside temperatures over 90, the students expressed, "They like to have died" inside the greenhouse, where the temperature ranged from 10 to 20 degrees hotter.

At this time, some of the students wondered why they got into what they believed to be class without many stresses or chores.

"I thought this was going to be a blow-off class, but it isn't. It's lots of fun," said Kelley Smith.

The hotter temperatures also made the "Christmas favorite" plants more accessible to diseases, and fungicides had to be used.

Now, the poinsettias are ready, and beginning this week (Dec. 1) deliveries are under way around Alba-Golden (in the eastern portion of Wood County). This year, the school has red, and a few white, poinsettias. Cost is $6 for red, $5 for white.

"Each year we have a call list of people who have bought poinsettias or are interested in buying poinsettias (as of Nov. 20, about 100 of the poinsettias were not spoken for). We start contacting these people in November and then, the first week after Thanksgiving, we will deliver half of the plants to areas around Alba-Golden. We deliver quantities of 20 or more," Henderson stated.

The best time to call the school (903-768-2101) about the poinsettias is between the hours of 9:30 and 10:15 a.m., according to Henderson, and ask for the ag department.

The flowers will be available until all are sold, or until the Christmas holidays at the school arrive.

Any poinsettias not sold will be taken to area nursing homes.

The beginning horticulture students said they have enjoyed the class and some are going to take the advance course. One student, Ilyana Martinez, said because of the class, her future plans are to major in horticulture in college.

Once the Christmas holidays are over and the students are back at school, Henderson and her horticulture students will begin preparing the greenhouses for other fundraisers.

"Between February and March, we will get in between 400 and 500 flats of different variations of plants, which will be for sale around the first of April," the teacher said.