The Newton County chapter of Future Farmers of America will be reviving an old tradition this year.
The organization will have its first plant sale in several years at the Newton County Career and Technical Center beginning March 19 and will continue each weekday and Saturday until it’s gone.
Matthew Breland, animal and plant science teacher at the career-tech center, said the 30 students in his classes have been in the greenhouses at the center planting and preparing plants for sale.
“The students have been working hard getting them ready for the plant sale,” Breland said. “We won’t probably have as many plants this year as we will have in the future, but just about one of our greenhouses is full. We will sell them as long as they last.”
Breland said the greenhouses weren’t used for the last few years and were in need of repairs. He said they are using one house to grow the plants while the other house will be used to show the plants off during the sale.
“We have been restoring them so that we can use them,” Breland said. “We had a bit of a setback when a storm came through caused some damage to the houses. This year, we were just trying to get them to where we can use them and then be able to do more next year.”
The variety of plants the students will showcase is wide. They will have both decorative plants and row crop plants. Items already planted includes spider plants, blue and orange petunias, squash, geraniums, wandering Jew, big beef tomatoes, cucumbers, verbena and many other plants.
Proceeds from the plant sale will go back into the FFA program to help the students with entry fees, trips and other costs the students compete and participate in state and national events.
“Everything we raise will go right back to the students,” Breland said.
Hours of the sale will be from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.
