Growing with Enthusiasm!
The UCF Arboretum Greenhouse team has blossomed tremendously over the last couple years, and we aren’t slowing down anytime soon! Although this very active team engages in a variety of activities, two stand out as the defining current projects and plans; plant sales and nursery development.
The plant sales have emerged as a major new source of revenue that opens up doors for new possibilities and further program expansion. The plant sales are a culmination of our horticultural practices, entrepreneurial spirit, creativity, and most of all, teamwork. We aim to make each sale original and exciting with a new diversity of plants on top of our usual staples. We also have themes sales based on holidays or other special occasion, such as Valentine’s day. Our sales began as small pop ups, and have expanded into something that resembles a small farmer’s market where independent student artists offer their crafts, and live musicians create an inviting festive atmosphere. In turn, the UCF community has provided us with endless support, and given us a means to build a future where our program can thrive more than anyone thought possible just 3 years ago, before we implemented our Learning by Leading student leadership development program, which has greatly expanded the size, capability and contribution of our student teams.
More specifically, our successful plant sales have given us the opportunity to fund and build a brand-new nursery facility. This nursery will be created on the former location of original community garden. We plan to honor the old community garden space by transforming it into a large, lush green space filled with Florida native plants, trees, ornamentals, and more. This nursery will not only support our current sales but will also enable us to hold larger plant sales for the greater community, which will increase revenues and make the new facility self-supporting. We look forward to great things to come from our new nursery, which we hope to establish this summer and fall, and we look forward to see our friends and supporters at our community plant sales.
Our greenhouse program has two eyes, with one focused on helping us thrive in the present, and another building our future. We are immensely grateful to the UCF community and the Arboretum administration for providing the resources to make this program flourish as fully and fruitfully as the plants we grow.