SDSU Floral Crops Quality Evaluation Team

The SDSU Flower Judging team has been active since 1993 and has done rather well over the years.  Most recently one of our students took first place overall at the national competition held at Texas A&M University last April. 

What does the Flower Judging team do?  Scott Rusch, my Assistant Coach explains as follows: 

Members of the team judge the quality of cut flowers, flowering potted plants, and foliage plants. Practices are held in the headhouse of the Greenhouses on Tuesday Nights starting at 6pm. During a normal practice the Coach and Assistant coaches will explain how to properly judge all different types of horticultural crops for quality. (Which is something that we don't really get in classes; And its a skill that is invaluable once you get into the workforce).   After the criteria are explained for judging a practice class is judged and explained. Then the judges are allowed to set up some classes for judging and get to defend their placing with everyone else. After the judging is done the material is packaged up for delivery the next day. Not only is this a great learning experience but is also a lot of fun. This year the National Contest is in California at Cal. Poly. in San Luis Obispo (10 miles from the Pacific Ocean!) During the past several years I have been involved and have gone to Penn State and Texas A&M. At the contest you will meet loads of students from other universities, go on tours of the host schools facilities, and tour local horticultural hot-spots. (Plus you get to "network" with future colleagues at party's and bars afterwards, if you want!) :) There is no charge to join, no life altering contract to sign, and basically no commitment to the cause right now. We are just looking for people who might be interested. If you want to come to a practice just to see how it works feel free to do so. So there is no pressure, which is nice, isn't it? The first practice will be Tuesday November 21st at 6pm in the greenhouse classroom. If you have any questions please feel free to contact the coach,  Dave Graper at david_graper@abs.sdstate.edu. or the assistant coaches Scott Rusch at scottrusch@yahoo.com or Jason Krulish at  jssn@excite.com.   We will be more than willing to tell you more about it.

So how do we come up with the money to have these practice sessions.  We generate most of our funds from participants in our Frequent Flowers Program

This program was designed to generate the funds we need to buy plant materials to grow in the greenhouse or purchase from area wholesalers. For more information and an application form, click on the link above.