Cal Poly estimates nearly 3,000 plants were available for sale Dec. 2-4 for their annual Holiday Plant Sale.
While the individual sales window was brief, the Poly Plant Shop and will still have the plants through December while supplies last.
In an announcement explaining how the sale works a Cal Poly representative wrote that: “The flowering holiday plants are grown by students in the university’s Poinsettia Agriculture Enterprise Project, which begins every spring. Five students, all majoring in agricultural and environmental plant sciences, are overseeing the enterprise project: Josh Cortez, Samantha Senet, Sonny Bergen, Killian Vendler and Cody Martinez. Professor Virginia Walter is the project advisor. This year’s poinsettia project offers more than 15 red, eight white and 17 other variegated varieties.”
Working in the greenhouses on the first day of the sale, Bergen added that the plants, “aren’t too hard to grow” but the “trick” lies in customizing the colors that the plant shop has become known for aside from traditional red.
Unlike many of his fellow students who end up working in crop sciences after participating in the project, Bergen planned to continue working in greenhouses with an eye to sustainability in Cal Poly’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences.
The Poly Plant Holiday Sale also features student-made wreaths, centerpieces, succulents, ornaments and gifts.
The Plant Shop is on campus off Via Carta Road at the entrance to the Cal Poly Arboretum. They’re normally open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday and Sunday. For more information, call them at 756-1106 or go online to: www.polyplantshop.com.
