The greenhouses for the horticulture program at Hennepin Technical College’s Brooklyn Park campus are bursting with plants and flowers, just in time for the annual plant sale at the college.
The bountiful green growth is part of the educational process for horticulture students, who spend months planning, planting seeds and transplanting and caring for the plants in anticipation of the annual plant sale.
Dawn O’Conner waters plants in one of the four greenhouses that are bursting with plants as Hennepin Technical College students and volunteers prepare for the annual plant sale May 7-9 at the Brooklyn Park campus. (Sun Post staff photo by Gretchen Schlosser)
The event is 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, May 7-9, on the HTC campus, 9000 Brooklyn Blvd., Brooklyn Park. The sale is in the lower green houses on the north side of the campus.
The goal is to teach students the real-life work of the greenhouse, according to Deb Kvamme, Hennepin Tech horticulture instructor. Just about any plant is available at the sale, except for trees and shrubs. The proceeds from the sale are reinvested in the horticulture and landscaping programs at the college.
“There is not anything you cannot get at our plant sale,” said Kvamme. “We turn this building into a mock full-service garden center.”
Volunteers Janice Swanson and Judie Russell (back to camera) work on repotting plants before the annual plant sale. The women call their volunteer efforts “horticulture therapy” and spend full days at the college in preparation for the sale.
The sale includes perennials, annual bedding and garden plants, many types of herbs, including more than 30 types of basil, and a wide variety of vegetables including more than 66 varieties of tomatoes and more than 40 varieties of peppers. There are more than 600 hanging baskets, planters designed as Mother’s Day gifts, house plants, trough gardens, and fairy gardens are also available.
Along with many standard plants, Kvamme and her students also select a few unusual plants, seeking to learn more about plants they haven’t grown before.
The planning begins in the fall, and students begin seeding the plants in January. They spend hours transplanting the seedlings and watering and caring for the growing plants and putting together the containers. The lessons start not with seeds, soil and water, but with scheduling and organizing the efforts to make sure the plants are ready when gardeners are ready for springtime. Prior to the sale, the students were learning about advertising and designing flyers promoting the event.
“Before you even start the planting, you have to start the planning, in August,” said student Jodi Gehrke.
Student Kyle Frederixon learned quickly after starting class that he had plenty of work to do before he got his hands dirty. “You think it is all hands-on,” he said. “But the planning starts even before you get your hands in the soil.”
The goal is to prepare students for work in the horticulture industry, Kvamme said, and give them knowledge and experience, not to compete with commercial greenhouses.
“What people have to know is that we aren’t competing with the commercial businesses,” she said, noting that students learn vital lessons, such as the need to have the plants ready for sale at the right time. “The plants have to be there when the people are there.”
The work also teaches students the quantity of work that goes into growing a plant for sale.
“It’s not just a plant,” said student Tammi Kolasa. “It’s all the hard work that went into it.”
Kvamme and greenhouse technician Jenny Nguyen rally a troupe of volunteers and alumni to help the horticulture and landscape students get the greenhouses and grounds ready and finish the final preparation of the plants for the three-day sale, which started years ago on a much smaller scale. Customers come from all over the Twin Cities, and many shoppers come for the native and unusual plants and unique varieties that are available at the sale.
For more information, contact Kvamme at 763-488-2470 or debra.kvamme@hennepintech.edu.
Contact Gretchen Schlosser at gretchen.schlosser@ecm-inc.com