Marina Vargas hunched over her cornucopia basket, pushing greenery into a chunk of florist’s foam.
She had her eye on some red silk poinsettia blooms as the focal point of her Thanksgiving cornucopia centerpiece, and was slowly building a base of greens on which to plant it.
And to top it off? “Put some glitter on it,” said Vargas, focused on her floral arrangement.
Spray glitter, it turns out, is one of several secret weapons used by professional floral designers. It is also something taught to these teens, all of whom are involved in floral design through East Hall High School’s FFA program.
Some of the young women started learning about floral design a year or two ago, taking a floral design class at the school taught by Barbara Saunders. Others heard about the opportunity to continue learning about the trade when the class was cut due to budget constraints this year — and now they are learning professional techniques and even competing in FFA floral design competitions.
Daisy Pinonez, an East Hall senior, recently placed fifth in an FFA floral design competition. It was the highest a team member has placed in the floral design competition to date.
“The theme was the bridesmaid’s bouquet,” Pinonez said. “They gave you the stuff, and it’s just you. You have to do what you think. It’s all up to you.”
She said it was nerve wracking, having only 30 minutes to complete the challenge. Her steely nerves prevailed not only for the competition, though, but also for a recent gathering of FFA members to put together dozens of cornucopias for the school’s Flower Club.
The Flower Club is a service FFA members provide teachers at East Hall middle and high schools. For $40 a year, the students will create a new bouquet each month and deliver it to the teachers.
“It’s fun working with flowers,” added Pinonez. “It’s hard because you don’t know anything, really. But then you just get used to it.”
And that’s what FFA advisor and horticulture teacher Saunders wants the students to realize. Floral design can be a creative outlet — and it can also be a path to a career.
Overall, there are about 90 members of East Hall’s FFA club, with about 50 active members. Club activities range from volunteering at Jaemor Farms in Alto to attending state conventions and working on public speaking and other job-related skills.
“It’s training these girls for the floral industry, and that’s what the contest, the FFA, is doing,” Saunders said. “It gives them employability skills.”
And Saunders doesn’t mind scouring dollar stores for post-holiday markdowns on greenery, pine cones and ribbon, because floral design is one of her passions, too. Her trailer at East Hall high is filled with boxes of lotus pods, dried grasses, silk flowers and various greens attached to wires.
She also attends floral design workshops and quizzes her friends in the industry about tricks to constructing arrangements.
“A lot of my floral buddies, I ask them, ‘How do you do it?’ So they show me the standards, so that’s what I teach,” she said. “I like (the students) to have creativity, too. I don‘t want to stifle that creativity, but you still have to show them the basics.”
That creative outlet is what drew junior Mary Tate to the FFA club.
As Tate raced to assemble a well-balanced cornucopia — and move on to the four others she had to assemble for the Flower Club — she paused to admire her work.
“I just got into floral design,” she said. “I like to play with flowers and stuff.”