Grassland FFA

Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve

FFA Members Receive Symposium Scholarships

on February 22, 2015

On February 6th, 3 Grassland FFA members (Jenna Diehl, Bethany Sauder and Jessica Zimmerman) traveled with Miss Pray to Longwood Gardens for the Today’s Horticultural Symposium. Jenna, Bethany and Jess applied for and received scholarships to attend this amazing conference. They spent the day learning about the Wild World of Succulents, the Disorder of Plant Diseases, Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener, Vegetable Gardening with Flair, Managing Natural Lands in the 21st Century and Garden Design. In addition to the lectures, the students also had the opportunity to meet industry people during the luncheon and had time to walk around and study the many plants found at Longwood!

The girls had this to say about their experiences:

 

Today’s Horticulture at Long Wood gardens was something I will not forget. Not only was the food excellent, I especially loved the fruit tarts, but the speakers grabbed my attention. I really enjoyed the speaker on Plant breeding, his presentation definitely made me excited for spring to come. I can’t wait to see the different flowers I can make and start creating new varieties of tomatoes with my dad’s tomato plants.  I also found the presentation on Succulents to be intresting, it’s amazing how many varieties there really are out there. I especially liked the looks of the Dudleya Candida and the Agave Impressa. Thanks again for the opportunity to attend the Symposium.  – Jenna Diehl

 

I really enjoyed my experience at Longwood’s Horticulture Symposium this year.  I liked seeing all of the different succulents and variations of them in the one presentation and I also enjoyed seeing the many different orchids that Longwood had on display.  Throughout the day I learned a lot about different ways to garden and how to make it more fun and experimental.  In particular I enjoyed the one talk about making hybrids of your own plants.  Overall, I had a very enjoyable day and I was able to learn many things that I could take home with me and that I will be able to apply in my own horticulture experience.    – Bethany Sauder

 

 

I enjoyed the symposium because I was able to learn about all the different topics in one day. One that I really liked was “Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener” because it is something that I can try out and do at home. I thought it was interesting how he was able to grow all the different colors of corn, and how he experiments with tomatoes and gets so many different colors, sizes, and tastes. From “The Wild World of Succulents, Out of the Wild and into the Gardens” I learn that there are many more succulents than I realized and I enjoyed his stories about going and finding plants in their natural habitats.    – Jessica Zimmerman

 

1604781_692636154178325_5997800866522632802_n

At the entrance to the Symposium!

 

All of the High School students and their Teachers in attendance

All of the High School students and their Teachers in attendance


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *