MOSES LAKE — This is the time of year when FFA students get to show the fruits of their labor – literally – at plant sales all over the Columbia Basin. Nearly every high school will offer flower and vegetable starts for sale around the end of April and the beginning of May.  

“Our prices are really competitive with the box stores,” said Ephrata High School FFA Advisor Landra Kosa. “And actually, we are probably cheaper in a lot of things. I feel like … people are coming and supporting a good thing, and they’re getting a good value.” 

Warden High School has its plant sale today and tomorrow, and Wahluke’s is April 23-25. Othello will sell plants April 24-25. April 30-May 2 will be a busy time for plant lovers: Quincy, Ephrata and Royal FFA chapters all have sales on those days. Those overlap with Moses Lake’s sale May 1-2. For those who waited a little too long, Almira/Coulee-Hartline will have a sale May 6-8, and Wilson Creek will hold its sale May 7. 

“We have a full selection of flowers ranging from full sun to shade,” said Moses Lake High School FFA Advisor Tony Kern. “We have at least 15 different colors of petunia. We’ve got a great selection of petunias this year in terms of color … (One of our) big sellers is the sweet potato vines; we have the purple as well as the lime. We have lots of different varieties of tomatoes and peppers this year. We tried to have a few more hot varieties for those people looking for spicy peppers.” 

Hanging baskets are a hot seller as well, Kern said. 

In Ephrata, the students will have hanging baskets in Tiger orange and black, said Meagan Haight, FFA co-advisor, as well as more mundane colors like pink or red, white and blue. Those are made by the EHS Skills USA students, she said. 

“We have a tall herb box and a shorter flower box and then a tabletop flower box,” she said. 

Each plant sold in Ephrata will have a little informational card to go with it, Haight said. 

“Is it a filler, a spiller or a showy one?” she said. “Is it drought tolerant? Is it shade-loving or sun-loving or part shade? If (customers) are nervous, they can look at those cards or ask questions. We’re going to have student helpers at the plant sale so (customers) can ask members questions.” 

The students are working hard up to the last minute to get the plants ready, Kern said. For the last week or so, they’ve been pinching plants to remove shoots. It may seem counterintuitive, but that actually improves growth, Kern said. 

“Plants have natural hormones, and (one of them) is auxin,” he said. “When you remove part of the plant, you remove that auxin, which triggers the plant to grow more shoots and stems and leaves and flowers. It’s like a defense mechanism … If you do it correctly, you have a fuller plant with more branches and shoots.” 

The horticulture classes at MLHS have been working up to the plant sale all year, Kern said. They started in September raising a vegetable garden as kind of a practice run, and at the end of the first semester, they keep everything they’ve grown. Then in January, they clean out the greenhouses and start planting the seeds that will grow into plant sale merchandise. 

Some of the flowers that don’t sell at the plant sale will be put out later in May in the 135 flowerpots that decorate downtown Moses Lake, Kern said. Haight’s students will work with the Ephrata Chamber of Commerce to plant pots downtown as well, she said. 

The plant sales are more than just a way for students to show off their green thumbs. They also pay for student activities, especially travel to competitions. 

“Floral (students were) able to go to Wapato and Burlington-Edison and Connell before the state competition because we had funds in our chapter,” Haight said. 

The funds from the plant sale go into the Associated Student Body fund, which pays for student activities, Kern said, then the ASB fund pays the school back for the materials and supplies that the ag classes have used, like soil, fertilizer and seed.  

“We're able to provide a lot of experiential learning during the day at very little cost to the taxpayers, because at the end we have a product to sell,” he said. 

Whatever money from the sale is left after those expenses goes to pay for student activities like travel, Kern said. 

“We have 52 FFA members who are going to be attending the state FFA convention in Pullman,” he said. “We've had great participation. But that cost is about $350 per kid, so we're going to end up spending about $20,000, which is our biggest expense. We can afford to do that because we fundraise.” 

Students in many MLHS extracurricular activities have to pay at least part of their travel expenses for out-of-town activities or not be able to go, Kern said, but that’s not the case with FFA. 

“We really take pride in working hard with our fundraisers,” he said. “There should not be ever a single kid in our Moses Lake FFA chapter that can't participate because of money.” 

Ephrata has about 30 students going to the state competition as well, Haight said, and the plant sale revenues will help get them there. 

In the end, Kern said, the plant sales are more than just one more fundraiser. 

“This plant sale supports our ag program and our kids in FFA in so many ways,” he said. “It gives them the experience of growing the crop and working in the greenhouse and getting that experiential learning. It gives them the pride in raising an awesome product that the public can come in and see what they've done, or they can take these things into downtown Moses Lake and build that kind of civic pride and community pride. It also turns a profit, and those profits can now be spent on kids and their activities with the FFA. It's one of the foundational pieces to our entire ag program.” 

Upcoming sales: 

Warden: April 16-18 

Wahluke: FFA April 23-25 

Othello: April 24-25 

Quincy: April 30-May 2 3:15-5 

Ephrata: April 30-May 2 

Royal: April 30-May 2 

Moses Lake: May 1-2 

ACH: May 6-8 

Wilson Creek: May 7 

Contact the school districts for times and locations 

    Flowers and vegetables fill the greenhouse at Ephrata High School in preparation for the EHS plant sale April 30-May 1.
  

    Moses Lake High School has two greenhouses ready for the sale May 1-2, FFA Advisor Tony Kern said.