WHIGHAM — The Whigham Future Farmers of America members will hold their annual Spring Plant Sale on Saturday, March 16 at Whigham Elementary School.

“We offer customers a variety of plants from houseplants all the way to trees and everything in between,” said FFA advisor Tracy Champagne.

The sale will feature vegetables and flowering plants such as tomatoes and peppers, as well as bedding plants such as coleus, geraniums, begonias, impatiens and gerber daises.

“We’re kind of like a one-stop shop like a garden center,” Champagne said.

Plants will range in price from a low of $1 to a high of approximately $25 for trees. Champagne estimated the average plant at the sale would cost approximately $3.

The sale will run from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday in the school’s greenhouse. Champagne said the greenhouse will then be open to customers during school days from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. until the end of the school year or until supplies are exhausted.

“We have customers who come in as late as the end of April and say ‘hey, do you have some vegetable plants?'” Champagne said. “The kids are still maintaining the plants, so we’ll sell them. As long as we have plants available, we have them for sale.”

The sale is completely run by Whigham middle school students, who also grew and maintained the plants and cleaned and maintained the greenhouse.

“It helps the kids to learn the business aspect of it as well,” Champagne said. “They’re working with the public and being able to talk to adults and learn speaking skills. It’s all under my supervision but they do the bulk of the work.”

Champagne said Bonnie Plants and local nurseries have donated or sold some of the items to the school that will be available Saturday. 

The FFA advisor said not every plant grown at Whigham School is planted from seed, but that the bulk of the products at the sale were grown by students.

“The students maintain them, they learn how to prune, they learn how to fertilize,” Champagne said. “Even if they don’t physically plant a seed or a plug there’s still science behind every single type of plant with its own specific need. Watering, fertilizing, catering, learning about diseases and bugs. It’s a lot of work and it’s pretty impressive that these kids are so young and do such a great job.”

All proceeds from the sale will go toward the Whigham FFA chapter.

Champagne, also an agriculture teacher at Whigham School, said the school has held a plant sale in March ever since a greenhouse was built on campus three years ago. The group also holds a plant sale in fall.

Upcoming FFA projects at Whigham include expanding the school’s horticulture area and purchasing new equipment to be used in maintaining a produce garden that provides fresh food in the cafeteria grown by other students.

All 175 Whigham middle school students are required to take agriculture in sixth, seventh and eighth grades and all are FFA members.

Champagne said Whigham was among a handful of schools in Georgia selected to run a pilot program offering agricultural education from kindergarten through eighth grade.