Hundreds of people visited the Blacksburg campus for the Horticulture Club at Virginia Tech and Hahn Horticulture Garden’s annual Spring Plant Sale.
A variety of annuals and perennials, as well as trees and shrubs, filled two greenhouses and a portion of the garden for the three-day event.
Managing the plant sale gives the student chairs real-world experience in managing a large event. The student leaders ordered plants, coordinated delivery, established pricing, maintained inventory, interacted with customers, and managed the collection of payments. Planning the sale is a large endeavor that requires months of planning and preparation.
The horticulture club activities include educational trips, scholarships, a spring banquet and a donation to the National Collegiate Landscape Competition Team. This year, the club awarded $6,000 in scholarships to club members at the spring banquet. Scholarships are awarded based on volunteer hours and meeting attendance.
Historically, the plant sale provides the garden with 5 to 10 percent of its annual operating budget.
