National Plant a Flower Day flourished on SE Campus as students painted pots, planted flowers and sowed seeds on March 12. Student Activities hosted the event for students, and employee Alex Searsy sat at the front table checking them in.
“For this event, we have some information they can take about pollinators, like the monarch butterfly. That’s one of our local ones.” Searsy said.
She said the pamphlets gave students a simplified explanation on how pollination works, and which Texas plants attract pollinators.
After signing in, students were given a pot and directed to a table covered with acrylic paints and brushes to decorate with other students. After the paint dried, one would pick from a selection of flower seeds to plant inside their personally designed pot.
Students could choose from either cosmos, sunflowers, marigolds, China asters and zinnias. Each flower’s seed packet had a short description of how to plant it, the amount of water and sunlight it would need and the expected length of its growth period.
Pinwheels were placed on the table as well for students to decorate with markers while waiting for their flowerpot to dry. Searsy said it was also to give everyone something to take home that resembled a bloomed flower since students would have to wait for their potted plant to grow.
The event was to give students an educational experience.
“Planting the flower, it kind of gives [students] that connection to the earth. We’re promoting pollinators and giving them a personal piece of it,” Searsy said.
SE Environment Club Madelin Alvarenga said she felt the event was a good experience for students to engage in a fun and relaxing event while also learning valuable information about Texas’ vast ecosystem.
“You also get to take care of the plant afterwards, so you will see it grow and see all your work that you put in,” Alvarenga said.
She sat mixing blue, white and red to achieve what she said was the perfect purple.
“I’m really enjoying it because it does take your stress away,” Alvarenga said. “It’s making a mess, but it’s a good mess.”
Also mixing colors together to create a very specific blue was Mason Richards. He was accepted into a Drum Corp group called Crossmen and painted his pot in the colors of their ‘24 uniform, blue and orange.
Richards graduated from high school last spring, making this his second semester at TCC. He said he attended the event because he wanted to try getting more involved on campus.
“I haven’t really done much the whole semester, so I thought this was a good place to start because I saw people already engaged,” Richards said. He said he had originally intended to visit a different event on SE Campus but stumbled upon this one and decided to stay.
“I feel very relaxed and happy doing something with my peers,” Richards said. Student Grace Halliday said she also felt at ease while painting her current hyperfixation, the Dressrosa Arch in “One Piece.”
With a plate full of red, green, yellow, blue and black, Halliday outlined her pot with important symbols from the anime.
“It’s not a great painting, but I try and that’s what matters,” Halliday said.
The event kicked off the beginning to what she said would be a worry-free spring break with absolutely nothing planned for.
