NUHS Students Sell Plants to the Public

NUHS+Students+Sell+Plants+to+the+Public

On Friday, May 11, students from the New Ulm High School agricultural department held the first plant sale out of the greenhouse located on the high school campus. There were two classes that participated in preparing and conducting the sale. The two classes were Landscape and Design and Greenhouse Management.

Students began preparing for this sale in late February. The students spent approximately five days planting seeds. To ensure the plants stayed healthy, the classes would tend to them everyday. The students also prepared advertisements, which were then put on Facebook to make the public aware that this event was happening.

The sale offered a variety of different plants to the customers. Some of the things that were offered were various types of tomatoes and peppers, kohlrabi, summer squash, zucchini, petunias, alyssums, geraniums, hanging baskets and coleus. The biggest seller at the sale were the beefsteak tomatoes. The classes sold over 100 beefsteak tomato plants.

There were approximately between 30-40 customers that attended the sale. The sale brought in a profit of $625. This money will be used to make improvements to the greenhouse.

In the future, Kelsey Brandt, instructor of the Landscape and Design and Greenhouse Management classes, hopes to bring a larger variety of plants to the sale, which she believes would increase the amount of profit that this sale brings to the department.

Brandt says that this event taught students a variety of different skills. “They learned how to take care of plants, and think like a business person. They had to think about how to make their product something people want to buy. They had promote their product and help customers. They got an idea of what it was like to run a little business for one day,” says Brandt.