MSU-grown poinsettias featured during sales, displays this week
Contact: Meg Henderson
STARKVILLE, Miss.—From Mississippi State’s campus in Starkville to its Poplarville experiment station, traditional and unique varieties of university-grown poinsettias will be on sale and display at holiday events taking place this week.
Campus and the Starkville community are invited to MSU Horticulture Club’s annual holiday sale Friday [Dec. 5], 8 a.m.-5 p.m., at the Dorman Hall greenhouses, 32 Creelman St. Cash, check or Venmo payments are accepted. For more information, contact Richard Harkess, MSU Horticulture Club advisor and professor of plant and soil sciences, at richard.harkess@msstate.edu or 662-325-2311.
At the university’s Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station’s South Mississippi Branch in Poplarville, more than 50 varieties of poinsettias are nearly ready for public viewing at this location’s fifth annual Poinsettia Open House. The station, at 711 West North Street, welcomes visitors Friday [Dec. 5], from 1-4 p.m., and Saturday [Dec. 6], from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. The event will offer refreshments and a variety of backdrops and displays for holiday photos, from traditional Christmas settings to kid-friendly themes.
Behind the beautiful blooms are MAFES scientists and students who work months in advance, from plant selection to meticulous cultivation, to ensure the plants peak at just the right time for the holidays. On MSU’s main campus, preparing for the annual sale gives students a rewarding hands-on experience in ornamental horticulture, said Harkess, who has grown poinsettias for more than 30 years. Profits from the sale fund educational trips and other club activities, including the spring plant sale and an annual scholarship. Over the years, the club has earmarked donations for outreach projects, such as supporting the student gardens on campus, providing seeds and plants to local schools, and donating landscaping materials to Habitat for Humanity.
For more on the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, visit www.mafes.msstate.edu. MSU’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is available online at www.cals.mstate.edu.
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