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Flourishing florists
By DONNA WINCHESTER SEMINOLE -- Students and staff at Seminole Vocational Education Center call the 21 days before Christmas "silly season." They arrive at school early and stay late. They return at night and on weekends. They grab lunch on the run and make up missed academic work during hours snatched from their personal time. For most of December, a sea of red, white and pink poinsettias dictates their schedules. The temperamental blooms, filling three greenhouses on the school's 47-acre property at 12611 86th Ave. N, demand food, water and attention. Toward mid-December, poinsettia customers begin competing with the plants for the students' time, and their schedules get even more hectic. "The poinsettias come first these three weeks," instructor Wayne Ackett said. "Orders are coming and going. It's just crazy." For 15 years, the students in his environmental horticulture classes have teamed with Tony Woodward's floral design students to produce poinsettias for local nurseries, banks and churches. The project teaches them horticultural and marketing skills and doubles as a fundraiser that keeps their programs running. This year, the horticulture students grew 2,400 plants from seedlings they started in September. They began delivering the plants last week to the floral design students to be "dressed" with foil wrap, floral pics and decorative bows. "Silly season" was in full swing last week when the owner of Carlson Wildwood Flowers in Belleair arrived during Mr. Ackett's first period class. The teacher dispatched three students to the greenhouses to round up 30 plants for Elmer Gumto, who had already sold the two dozen poinsettias he picked up four days earlier. While Bryan LaVenture and Jacob Leach, both 15, and Aaron Johnson, 19, slipped protective sleeves around 6-inch plants bursting with brilliant red blooms, Gumto, who has been in the floral business for 47 years, reminded them that he would be back the next day to pick up the first batch of a 194-poinsettia church order. The florist was so pleased with the students' product last year that he decided to buy all his poinsettias from them this season. "So far this year, I've had nice, positive comments on the quality and the size," Mr. Gumto said. "They're florist quality, not the garden center variety. They're grown on an individual plant basis. More care goes into them." Steve Raisch, 18, a student in Mr. Ackett's environmental technology class, worked with the poinsettias for the first time this year. He learned that rearing poinsettias is much more difficult than growing oak trees, another project on the vocational education students' agenda. "They're definitely a lot more trouble," he said. "The trees just sit there. The sun shines on them, the irrigation system waters them. (Poinsettias) take a lot more attention." Raisch spent most of last Tuesday loading poinsettias onto a tractor and delivering them to Mr. Woodward's students. Nicole Morgan and Cassie Hammock, both 17, wrapped the plants in yards of shiny red foil and handed them to Mr. Woodward, who attached gold lotus pods, red satin bows and red-and-green gift tags. After working steadily for a half hour, he stepped back and counted to make sure they had 28 plants ready for school director Matt Fischer to deliver to the Pinellas County Schools' administration building. The school district orders several hundred poinsettias every year, Mr. Woodward explained. Some plants go to individual schools, including Osceola High and Azalea Middle. A special order of triple-stalk poinsettias grown by Mr. Ackett's students and decorated by the floral design students graced Tuesday's School Board meeting. Besides working with the poinsettias, Mr. Woodward's students create holiday floral arrangements and wreaths for special orders and for the brisk walk-in trade that began this week. The school does no advertising, but loyal customers return year after year, knowing they can count on the quality and craftsmanship of the students' work. Sarah Colcord, 14, painstakingly wrapped tiny plastic candy canes and musical instruments in florist's wire while the rush of poinsettia preparation swirled around her last week. She attached them, along with miniature gold and silver balls and red holly berries, to a 5-inch Christmas tree she had fashioned from mixed evergreens. At another work station, Jennifer Moore, 18, worked swiftly, tying red velvet bows for candle arrangements. "I teach a basic lesson and then I let them go," Mr. Woodward said, explaining his classroom method. "I have about a half-dozen (students) who could go out in an a second and work." Kimberly Chaves, 17, spent her junior and senior years in the floral design program. She started working for Mr. Gumto about three months ago. She said the training she got in Mr. Woodward's class prepared her to work in a real-life setting. "If I hadn't taken that program, I don't think I would have gotten into this," she said. "They give you the basics and make you feel confident that you know what you're doing." That's why Mr. Ackett and Mr. Woodward go through "silly season" year after year. "The program teaches not only the skills of the trade, but also the employability skills. We want them working in the field," he said. "That's our goal." In the meantime, Steve Raisch is having fun. Referred to Seminole Vocational Education Center almost four years ago by his teacher at Seminole Middle, who feared he was at risk for dropping out of school, he expects to complete the program in June with a 3.7 grade point average. "You can graduate from high school and still have fun," he said. "Before you know it, you're learning and you don't even know you're learning." To helpPoinsettias, wreaths and floral arrangements are for sale on a first-come, first-saved basis at the school through Dec. 20. Call 545-6405 for information and availability.
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