MOSES LAKE — McKenna Holman put her hands over her eyes and got out of the Moses Lake High School greenhouse. McKenna, an MLHS junior, just couldn’t be in the same greenhouse with the colorful array of petunias, geraniums and various flowers.

“If I look at the flowers I’ll buy every one of them,” she said. Nor was McKenna the only person tempted by the greenhouse Thursday morning, as the MLHS horticulture class and FFA chapter got ready for the annual plant sale Friday and Saturday. Hours are 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

Assistant principal Greg Kittrell wandered through, looking for vegetable starts – although the advance sale for teachers didn’t really start until after school. Other teachers asked for plants to be reserved. And a chaperone accompanying students from the JATP program at Big Bend Community College was making selections from the flowers and vegetables. “I think this might be my first place to shop in the spring,” she said.

The plant sale is a tradition by now. “Friday morning is when everybody knows about it,” said MLHS senior and FFA member Lindsey Strobel. At previous plant sales customers were already waiting when the crew arrived at around 5:45 a.m. to open the doors, she said.

The horticulture class plants everything, a mix of seedlings and starts, and does a lot of the work, but there’s “only one class of greenhouse,” so the FFA provides assistance, Lindsey said. And what’s available in the greenhouse? “Well,” said FFA president Sara Munck. That was a good question; Sara didn’t help with the planting, so there were some holes in her knowledge. The greenhouses – the school has two – were full of hanging baskets of petunias, lots of geraniums and other flowers, tomato starts, starts for bell peppers, hot peppers and more.

Kamiree Daniels was one of the FFA members working the greenhouse in support of the hort class; it was bare when they started, she said, but by Thursday morning it looked great in there. “So pretty,” she said.

The plant sale is one of the chapter’s three main fundraisers, Sara said, the others being a pumpkin sale in the fall and a Sadie Hawkins dance in the winter. The money raised pays the membership fees for all FFA members. The state FFA convention opens soon, and the money raised by the chapter pays most of the fees. “(Fundraisers) pay for that. It comes out to about $12,000. The students don’t pay anything at all,” Sara said. The fundraisers also help pay for the trip to FFA Nationals every other year.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.