After nearly six months of hard work nurturing herbs, hanging plants, succulents and vegetables, Horticulture I and II students loaded up all their plants early last Saturday morning and set up a booth — most likely the only booth for this year — at the Downtown Farmer’s Market of Manhattan.

“A whole lot of [preparation went into this],” junior Jacoby Kerr, horticulture student, said. “Probably the biggest part [was] planting and getting pots and soil. But there’s a whole bunch of other stuff like we spent two days alone just deciding what we were going to price everything at and how we were going to organize the pricing and countless hours choosing what we’re going to sell and how we were going to sell it and when we were going to sell it.”

With this being the first year that Manhattan High has offered a Horticulture II class on top of a Horticulture I class, students were able to put forth the time and effort into this plant science — as well as business — learning experience. Students worked with nutrient profiles and learned the sales and marketing side of horticulture through this year-long project.

“Working with plants is … a fun part of my day,” Elissa Mullinix, horticulture teacher, said. “But more importantly, [my favorite part of this has been seeing] the ownership that these students have taken on as they planned projects, [took] care of their projects and ultimately completed their projects.”

At the event, the students learned many valuable lessons about running a business and understanding horticulture.

“[From this project, I’ve gained] the knowledge of how to sell to certain types of people,” junior Lauren Walradt, horticulture student, said.

The students’ efforts paid off and all the proceeds will go towards MHS plant science classes.

“[I feel we’ve gained] maybe the encouragement that we can do it,” Mullinix said. “Maybe the feeling of accomplishment and, to be honest, I am so proud of my students and the hard work that they’ve put in not just in class, but you see them here on a Saturday morning owning their project and that is so cool.”