Starkville FFA Plant Sale starts off despite pandemic

A Starkville springtime tradition continues with the opening of the annual Starkville High School Future Farmers of America (FFA) Plant Sale.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the sale has modified many facets of its operation, mainly being curbside delivery for those purchasing plants. The sale is also staffed by Millsaps Career and Technology Center staff and family members as opposed to the FFA students that usually operate the sale. However , the plants for sale were raised over the school year by SHS agriculture students. The sale began Monday, and will open to the public again at 9 a.m. Thursday.

“The plant sale is such a huge impact on the community, and such a big relationship between the programs here and the community,” said Starkville High School agriculture instructor and FFA Sponsor Randy Carlisle. “We tried to come up with a way to make this happen, and still not break any ordinances from the city and keep our social distancing and that kind of stuff, so we came up with a curbside plant sale.”

The plant sale volunteers took customers' orders from their vehicle, and then loaded the vehicles with whatever plants were requested. Carlisle said the plants offered this year were similar to the sale's usual offerings, including ferns, hibiscus, coleus, sweet potato vines, petunias, begonias and other ornamentals. Ferns are available by special order only, with Thursday being the deadline. Some vegetable plants will also be available.

“It's still a working relationship between the community, the Starkville FFA and the school system, even though we're in kind of some uncharted times,” Carlisle said.

He said despite the changes, the sale was still drawing a crowd.

“It's been back to back from nine o'clock to 12,” Carlisle said. “We didn't stop. At one time we had two lines deep, with 10 cars in each line. I've been getting messages and emails, where they wanted to support it and stuff, so we needed to figure out a way.”

“I want to showcase what the kids have done all fall and spring up until now,” Carlisle added. “It still shows the effort that the kids put in up to this date. These kids didn't cause this. It's a society