Grant County Floral Design students get a taste of the business world

Grant County FFA teacher Erin Butler’s floral design students have been taking the four Ps of marketing--product, price, place, and promotion--very seriously this winter.

In preparation for their flower sale during the week of Valentine’s Day, they analyzed risk, studied their target audience, priced products, and worked with the school’s technology class to produce 3-D printed vases.

Students also got a lesson in floral preservation. The flowers were delivered Friday, Feb. 9 and had to stay fresh throughout the next several days.

They learned how to condition and feed them, how to cut the stems at a 45 degree angle underwater, and how to prevent the fungus that can grow on roses while in a cooler.

The floral sale benefits students and staff by providing the chance to purchase quality flowers at affordable prices. There was no thought of marking the flowers up four times as a professional florist would.

“You can’t outprice your market,” Butler said.

With that mandate, the class calculated what they had invested in each product and set prices at about half what you’d pay at a florist shop.

“These kids would never get to go to a florist,” Butler said.

But they lined up three and four deep during the school’s lunch periods to buy flowers from their entrepreneurial classmates.

The class set up shop in a prominent location with two large banners behind them picturing a solid blanket of red roses. On the tables, bright fuchsia five gallon buckets held a rainbow of roses and carnations waiting to be turned into prized treasures for lucky recipients.

Students waited behind the flowers, ready to fill orders. The class had made bar codes for their products using QuickBooks, and Emma Mullins stood by with the scanner.

While the floral design students created arrangements in glass vases to fill orders for teachers and staff, they had to come up with something different for their fellow students. Nothing glass can be taken on a school bus.

To hold flowers for the students, the class came up with 3-D printed vases; elongated paper “nosegays” to hold a single flower; and low-sided pale pink bags reminiscent of purses, each containing three roses, five carnations, and wisps of baby’s breath.

“The goal today is to break even,” Butler said. The leftover flowers will be used to practice making the corsages and boutonnieres the class sells for prom.