The Career Center’s greenhouse held their last sale of the school year from 1 – 5 pm today. The sale consisted of a multitude of plants, ranging from flowers such as geraniums, lantanas, and sunpatiens to vegetables including cucumbers, broccoli, and watermelons.
Floral design teacher Sherie Rodekohr, who has been an instructor for more than 24 years, spearheaded the year’s final sale and could be seen busy at work fluttering about the vibrantly colored greenhouse. For Rodekohr and her students the sale marked the end of what was a long and tedious process, with many of the plants existing in the greenhouse from seed to sale.
“The vegetable plants were all grown in this greenhouse from seed,” Rodekohr said. “Most of the flowering plants we buy in as little tiny plugs just maybe just a few weeks old, maybe one to two weeks old, and then we plant those little plugs into either the four inch pots or the four packs.”
In addition to plants grown on location the sale boasted a wide variety of Proven Winners, which is a well known brand for producing beautiful and easy-to-maintain plants to add to your garden. The nursery also contained an abundance of plants of different sizes and shapes housing hanging baskets, four packs of annuals, and large pots filled with greenery reaching nearly four feet.
These sales, popular within Columbia as well as with RBHS teachers and students, have become a vital part of the greenhouse’s continued success, serving as a way to raise money that is then put right back into Rodekohr’s classes.
“It [the proceeds from the sale] goes into our extracurricular activity account, or ECA, and it’s what funds basically the whole program,” Rodekohr said, “the landscaping class, the floral design class, and the greenhouse class. So it helps us purchase soil and seeds and plant starts and whatever chemicals we may need or fertilizer. For floral design we go through a lot of cut flowers for the students to use to learn to design and so everything we earn just goes back into the program and basically back to students in a learning environment.”
Despite the end in this year’s sales, Rodekohr and her students will continue to unload their budding and blossoming wares as the 2015-16 school year begins.
By: John Flanegin