Flower Power
Good News
From a Booming New Class at LHS to a New Shop in Flatonia, Floral Design is Making Fayette Co. a Lot More Colorful
Amongst the expected forecasted heat, dry bare grass, and endless growing weeds and wildflowers, something is in full bloom at La Grange High School…floral design.
“My first year of teaching at La Grange was last year and this is when we initially started the Floral Design program, a very last-minute course addition for the school year,” said La Grange High School Ag Science teacher Kylee Zapalac. And this last-minute course addition continues to be of growing interest because it filled up quickly again this school year.
She had 30 students enrolled in Floral Design last year, all 30 passing their Industry Based Certifications. This year she has 50 students enrolled in Floral Design and 20 in Advanced Floral Design. Students in 10th through 12th grade can take floral design as long as they have previously taken our Principles of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources class. This class is classified as a prerequisite for floral design to lay the foundation of the agricultural industry and its opportunities.
Last year floral design was approved as a new Fine Arts designation for Texas High Schools and Zapalac, who graduated from Schulenburg High School in 2017 and from Texas A&M University in the Fall of 2021 with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science, is excited to be making an impact in students’ lives and be able to give them the opportunity to grow as individuals. “I think it’s a great opportunity for students to broaden their horizons. Floral Design is an art type, as we are utilizing basic principles and elements of art within a design. I look at it in the sense that students are learning the importance of art along with the basics but they don’t have to draw or paint to be able to express themselves, instead, they can utilize flowers and foliage.”
Zapalac’s floral design curriculum is designed to develop students’ ability to identify and demonstrate the principles and techniques related to floral design as well as develop an understanding of the management of the floral industry. The students are taught about the history of floral designs, traditions, and contributions of diverse cultures. Through these techniques, they can design and create floral arrangements depending on the season and will typically create a floral arrangement at least once a month. Plus In addition to working on floral arrangements and with Homecoming right around the corner, the floral design students are now also working on designing and creating their homecoming mums or garters of their choosing.
Floral designs are not the only thing Zapalac hopes to teach her students. “The Advanced Floral classes are given the opportunity to ‘run a business’ within the school with our Flower of the Month Club. They will name their business and offer subscriptions to anyone interested in a floral arrangement of seven, four, or three designs throughout the school year that are created and prepared by them. This allows them to create designs according to the season, plan, budget, work with a team, and get the module feel for how a floral business would operate,” said Zapalac.
“I hope that students leave my class knowing that they always have an opportunity to do something in the industry even after high school. The floral industry offers many opportunities while students are in high school and even long after. Being that these students will graduate with an Industry Based Certification that they can utilize after they graduate has also gained a lot of attention for the class. One of the very first lessons I teach is careers within the floral industry where students are given a list of careers in floral and they are to research the job requirements, certifications needed, college requirements, and salaries. They are to present and compare each job to one another and the possibilities they can have at these types of jobs. I already have a few students utilizing their certifications while in college working for local florists.”
Along with La Grange High School, Flatonia is also taking over the flower power scene. Hey Poppy, a full-service florist and small gift shop has recently opened in Flatonia at 115 E. North Main Street. Owner and Flatonia native Kelly Homan is very excited about this new hometown adventure, “I started Hey Poppy when my family and I moved back to Flatonia this year. My husband has been serving in the Army as a Blackhawk pilot for the past ten years so we have traveled quite a bit. We always wanted to come back to Flatonia to plant roots and he ended his service in March of this year and we headed back to Flatonia in late May. We have a daughter, named Elliott, who is ten months old. She is one of the biggest reasons I started Hey Poppy. I wanted to be flexible enough to spend as much time as possible with her. We have been welcomed with open arms back into my home community and couldn’t be happier.”
Before Elliott and Hey Poppy, Homan taught elementary school for eight years and knows, like Zapalac, the growth and lasting effect a trade can have on students. “I love that floral design has made its way into public schools. As a former long-time teacher, I feel it is extremely important that we support young scholars with as many future avenues as possible. Allowing them to learn new skills and gain credits in the world of floral design is wonderful,” said Homan. “I hope that students can learn the basics behind the mechanics of floral design as well as the basics of running a business. Fads and trends are forever changing, but those two things stay the same. If they get a strong foundational start, they can be successful.”
Also, like the student’s Flower of the Month Club, Homan has the Hey Poppy Flower Club which is a monthly subscription where customers can sign up for a recurring arrangement to be delivered to them on the first Monday of each month. Currently, this is only available to Flatonia residents but she is hoping to extend it in the future.
As for now while the rest of Fayette County may only be able to see dust, dirt, weeds, and wildflowers surrounding them Mrs. Zapalac’s students and Hey Poppy see beauty, potential, and growth in unexpected places.