Gage Peine, Stetson Miller, Hannah Matile and Paige Powell with their finished creations.
The Central Heights FFA Chapter wrapped up a successful semester with its annual Christmas horticulture project. This year, students in the horticulture class planted Christmas trees. When it became time for the trees to be trimmed, the class took a unique approach to reuse the discarded branches: making Christmas wreaths.
Senior Paige Powell and sophomore Hannah Matile construct a Christmas wreath in their horticulture class at Central Heights High School.
In addition to Christmas tree branches, students added pine cones they collected from the school grounds. They used plain grapevine wreaths as the base, then tied in the branch trimmings and pine cones to create unique Christmas wreaths.
“This project taught me to use the resources around me to make something that can last and stand out against other Christmas decorations,” said senior Paige Powell.
Sophomore Hannah Matile’s favorite part of the project was, “getting to pick the different plants and the order to put them in to make it look full.”
Sophomore Gage Peine constructs a Christmas wreath.
The wreaths’ meaning goes beyond the educational aspect, focusing on spreading holiday cheer among students.
“This project was special,” said Stetson Miller. “To me, it meant making something I would be able to look at for the holiday season and knowing it had meaning to me and my family, rather than just having a wreath from the store or somewhere else.”
Powell brought her wreath home and immediately hung it on her door. “I would say the community likes the projects,” she added. “If it didn’t take so long to make, I would have made more for more people.”
The Central Heights FFA Chapter does a different project each year. In previous years, the chapter made floral arrangements for local nursing homes. However, due to fire hazards and regulations, they were unable to donate these wreaths.
Nevertheless, students still had fun ending the semester with this unique project. When asked about next year’s plans, sophomore Gage Peine added, “We could make Christmas centerpieces for Christmas parties.”
Central Heights FFA will continue to develop distinctive and innovative projects.
