College program cultivates thriving nursery profession

Think about your last encounter with a particularly good staff person at a lawn and landscape company, flower shop or nursery. Did they answer your questions with the “why” as well as the “what”? Were they professional and knowledgeable and seemed to love what they were doing?

If so, you probably encountered one of the graduates of the Spokane Community College’s horticulture program. Since the early 1970s, this program has been giving students the academic and hands-on experience to work in the fields of landscape and turf management, greenhouse and nursery management and floral design. Recently the horticulture program merged with the SCC’s water resources, natural resources agriculture and agricultural technology programs, to form the Department of Environmental Sciences.

The quality and diversity of SCC’s program got an important vote of confidence recently when it received accreditation from the Associated Landscape Contractors of America, one of the largest green (horticultural) industry trade associations.

To get the accreditation, SCC’s program had to meet specific standards of skills, competencies and curriculum.

The program also had to demonstrate strong support of an outside advisory committees and the SCC administration.

“We were granted accreditation with only one thing we needed to add as a requirement – an internship program.” said Peter Shaw, instructor in the program. “Their comment was that this was one of the best programs they had ever come across in the accreditation program. There are less than 10 two-year programs currently accredited by the ALCA.”

Shaw says that this recognition is due in large part to the strength of the faculty and the quality of the facilities the program has access to. For the students, accreditation means they graduate with the required skills to get jobs in the green industry anywhere in the country.

One of the major strengths of the program is the hands-on learning the students do as part of their course work. In some cases, the first year of the program is mostly practical and the second year is focused on theory. The program is made of several tracts of study with some being only one quarter long, and others up to a full two-year program for landscape and turf management option.

Students come to the program from many different directions. Some are straight out of high school and looking for the credentials to start a career in horticulture or floral design. Laurie Parrish, a second-year student in the program came out of an elementary teaching background because she loved plants and wanted to learn more.

“Who knows, I may even go back into teaching after I finish here,” she said. Parrish has found there are so many classes she wants to take that it’s probably going to take her three years to finish.

For students in the greenhouse and nursery program, this quarter has brought a very interesting hands-on challenge. In this program each student is required to raise three crops through the year. This quarter’s crop is poinsettias. Each student has a block of one or more of the 47 colorful varieties that they are totally responsible for.

Some of the varieties are so new to horticulture, they don’t even have names yet. “Our goal is to teach the students how environmental factors have to be controlled and manipulated to grow a successful crop,” said Cindy Fritchman, the course instructor.

Each student has to monitor their plants and meticulously record data on what they did and when. They are responsible for applying growth regulators, fertilizers, watching for pest and cultural problems and watering. “In early October the weather was so warm we were checking our plants for water twice a day, says Parrish.

All this work has a bonus to the public though. On Monday through Wednesday, all these beauties will be on sale at the SCC’s Greenery’s annual Open House. The sale runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Most the plants are in 6-inch pots and stand 18 inches to 2 feet tall. Prices are very reasonable and all proceeds go to support the horticulture programs.

The Greenery is located in Building 10 and can be reached off Market Street at the north end of the SCC campus. Parking will a bit of a challenge because school is in session, but look for space in student parking lots.

According to Fritchman, on the Monday after Thanksgiving and the sale, the students will meet to review the final results.

“If there aren’t any plants left, I guess we succeeded in growing some good plants.”

For more information on the SCC Environmental Studies program please call (509) 533-7256 or go online at aghort@scc.spokane.edu.