Opelika High School students host plant sale

On Monday, students at Opelika High School prepared for their much-anticipated 26th annual plant sale.

The sale, which begins today, will start noon and end at 3 p.m. The sale will continue until all the plants of sold, which should be by the end of the week, said Becky Brown, public relations for Opelika City Schools.

Last year the sale made $18,000 in the first three hours. By the time the sale ended, students had made between $25,000-$30,000.

The money goes to fund the FFA and this year $10,000 worth of scholarship money will be given to 13 FFA seniors.

“It was unbelievable last year,” said Jerry Williamson, horticulture teacher at Opelika High School. “It was wall-to-wall people.”

Williamson said the students started growing the plants in June. They grew them from seeds, plugs, small plant grown in a tray with its own separate cell, and cuttings, he said.

Around noon on Monday, students were moving the plants out of the greenhouses at Opelika High School and setting them out for sale. Prices at the sale range from $1.50 to $10, Williamson said.

Students will be selling annuals, which are blooming plants, vegetables and three types of ferns — Kimberly Queens, Boston and Asparagus.

The sale is a first-come, first-serve basis, he said.

“We have people dropping cars off as early as eight in the morning,” he said.

He said they usually sale 75-80 percent of the plants in the first day.

“What’s great about this,” he said referring to the kids selling the plants, “(Is) seeing these plants leave, the satisfaction.”

He said it is a sense of pride for the students.

Meredith Mosely, a senior at Opelika High School who plans on majoring in horticulture in college, is manager of the greenhouses at Opelika High School.

“This gives them a skill they can use the rest of their lives,” he said.

This is the last year for Williamson, who was teacher of the year at the high school, last year. And his last plant sale.

“This is his favorite thing to do,” Mosely said. “I know he is going to miss it a lot.”