Despite the Orange and Blue football scrimmage on Saturday and gray skies Sunday morning, about 400 people showed up to buy around $9,000 worth of plants, shrubs and flowers over the weekend at the annual Spring Plant Sale on campus.
Hosted by the Environmental Horticultural Club and the Environmental Horticulture Graduate Student Association, the event raised money to fund a trip for some students and faculty in the Department of Environmental Horticulture to a foreign country, as it does every year.
Students study plants or flowers native to the country they visit. Last year they learned about roses in France.
This year, the club plans to travel to Holland, where it will focus on tulips.
Most items sold were donated by nurseries and greenhouses around Florida. Because the plants were free, they were sold at prices 25 percent to 75 percent less than most retailers can offer.
Alison Heather, a graduate student and member of the Environmental Horticultural Club, said about a dozen people lined up Saturday morning at 7:45 a.m. waiting for the sale to open.=
"It was nice to see students come out," Heather said. "I had a couple people ask me about taking care of plants in their dorm, which is cool."
