PLANET Student Career Days (SCD’s) is an annual capstone event for our BYU-Idaho Horticulture Department.  2012 marked the 36th year of the event and was hosted by Kansas State University. Our eighteen member team, practiced all semester long to place well in the competition. The competition is designed to bring students in close proximity to industry. Generous green industry companies both sponsor and judge the twenty-eight competitive events giving them an up close and personal look at future interns and employees. One student said that the event “felt like a family reunion of the green industry”.  SCD’s allows students, industry and educational institutions to come together and aid in the common goal of raising professionalism in the green industry.

Our BYU-Idaho Horticulture Department is a “hands-on” department.  When we talk about designing, building or maintaining landscapes in the classroom, we immediately apply the book learning in our five acre demonstration garden where we marry both the art and science of horticulture. This garden is also where we install, plant, build and climb in preparation for many of the competitive events.

PLANET SCD’s events are structured so that applied university programs, like ours, does well in the competitive events, but there is so much more to the event.  Students continually talk about the scholarships they receive, the networking that takes place and the perspective they gain. Even though the economy is in a slump, each one of our students who sought employment or internships received opportunities from the best companies in the industry. PLANET SCD’s is truly a win-win for everyone involved. Thank you PLANET and Industry for making it all possible. Some representative student comments follow:

The decision to participate in PLANET Student Career Days was one of the best decisions I’ve made for my future career. It was a great opportunity to network with the cream of the crop in the green industry. On the trip I, was also able to develop great friendships that will last a lifetime. I would recommend PLANET Student Career Days to anyone who is serious about leading in their career path choice.
-Ethan Petersen

 

PLANET Student Career Days was a wonderful opportunity for me to network professionally, as well as to compete with students from schools across the nation.
-Lanae Senger

 

PLANET Student Career Days was an excellent opportunity to meet with industry leaders and network with them. Throughout the career fair we learned how big and vibrant the green industry is and during the competitive events we expanded our skill level and stretched our abilities to achieve great things. For those interested in succeeding in the green industry I would highly recommend going to Student Career Days.
-Melinda Snapp
 
 
     Very early in the morning on December 27th, 2011, several students and Sister Infanger left for Pasadena, California. They were headed to attend the annual Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade. The trip lasted one week and the students were able to participate in the making of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade. Two of the participating students were new to the trip this year, Mallory Layton and Liesel Hirschi. They were able to go and work as floral designers on a few floats that the Phoenix Decorating company produced. Returning alumni were Hayley Sheppard, a senior at BYUI, and Kristin Wheelwright, a graduate of BYUI who flew all the way from New York to participate. Hayley and Kristin were actually hired by the Phoenix Decorating company to design and put together some of the floats. Because there were a few days before Sister Infanger and her students could start working on the floats, they spent some time sightseeing in sunny and warm Pasadena. They were able to go to the Griffith Observatory, they experienced the winter beach at Santa Monica Pier, and they even got to go shopping in the Old Downtown area! And then the work began. Out of the 44 floats that were in the Rose Parade, the Phoenix company produced 22 of them! Lucky Sister Infanger and crew got to work on these beautiful pieces of art! The theme of the parade this year was Just Imagine. It was held on Monday January 2, 2012 and the float decorators worked hard all Saturday night to be sure the floats were ready for final judging on Sunday. The four girls and Sister Infanger were separated onto teams that took care of several different floats. The work that they did largely included designing the floral part of the floats. Some of their other responsibilities included wiring, greening, and finally placing the flowers to bring to life the magnificent floats. The girls and Sister Infanger stayed in Pasadena for the final judging and then drove home that night. “I was actually home in time to watch it on TV! Which was weird!” stated Sister Infanger. The girls had worked hard and were rewarded with the satisfaction of several floats winning trophies in the tournament.

The floats, which the girls and Sister Infanger worked on, that received awards are as follows:

-Craftsman Trophy- Trader Joe’s “Hot Lava” (Sis. Infanger and Liesel)

-Directors’ Trophy- Bayer Advanced “Garden of Imagination” (Kristin)

-Judges’ Special Trophy- Donate Life “One More Day” (Sis. Infanger and Liesel)

-National Trophy- Western Asset Management “Imagine in America” (Mallory)

-Princesses’ Trophy- Rotary International “Inching Towards the End of Polio” (Hayley)

-Theme Trophy- US Bank “Idea Factory” (Kristin)

-Tournament Special Trophy- RFD-TV “Happy Trails” (Mallory)

(For a list of all the floats that received awards click here.)

     This trip was deemed very successful and was “a good experience” all around. The students were able to network with recognized national leaders in the Floral Design and Event industry. Attending this event gives them the opportunity to design in one of the largest floral events in the nation. Not only is this Pasadena trip an annual opportunity, but students from the Horticulture Department also have the opportunity to apply for and attend the annual Grand Floral Parade in Portland, Oregon. The application to the Portland event for this year will be available in March.

 
 
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The team of Florists sent to Portland, Oregon just got back from decorating 8 floats for the Grand Rose Parade. The team included instructors Bro. Romney and Sis. Infanger. Also students Jaime Garrett, Amy Gallup, Haley Checketts, and Emily Davis went to gain some experience and have some fun. They were privileged to have a whole week there. Starting Tuesday they did a lot of sightseeing. They wound up in Astoria, Oregon and It just so happened to be Goonies day, commemorating the 26th anniversary of the release of the movie the Goonies.  Wednesday they checked in with Studio Concepts which had just received the shipment of flowers, and so they were able to help process all the flowers shipped in. They finished in the afternoon just in time to go see the Japanese garden, Chinese garden and the Rose test garden. Thursday they started decorating floats. They completed 4 floats that day. The estimated time for a completed float is about 1000 man hours. That is starting from the basic automobile structure to constructing the frame of the float all the way to complete detailed decorating like using potatoes as cobblestone pathways. Friday they decorated the final 4 floats and just in time to get judged for the parade. When getting judged all the moving parts get turned on and you just take a step back and see all the work you’ve accomplished. After a long week they headed back to the campus to catch up on everything they had missed. See more Pictures Here
 
 
Amazing job to all those who participated in the competition from Bro. Dewey's HORT 201 Plant Culture class!  You really know your stuff. 
Here is a list of the participants from our department:
Group 1 – Toffer Hansen, Kaitlin Lewis, and Richelle Walton – their presentation was on Ecocradle (using mushrooms as packaging insulation)
Group 2 – Casey Halling, Chun Lee, and Allison Smith – their presentation was on the effects of the gulf oil spill on aquatic plant life – this presentation won the competition.
Group 3 – Ivan Harper, Jenese McKamey, Desiree Smith, and Leanne Thompson – their presentation was on aromatherapy.
Here are two of the videos shown at the competition in case you weren't able to attend. Hope you enjoy!
THE WINNING GROUP:
 
 
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Here is the application to sign up to participate in PLANET next year.  If you are in town, please deliver to Bro. John's office.  Otherwise, fill it out, scan it and send it back using this form below.  We can use any and all participants with the necessary knowledge.  Apply and start preparing!
planet_student_career_field_days.docx
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This is a competition that we have been having between our department and the Agriculture department.  Every semester two classes research and present on a topic in front of a panel of judges.  The judges then determine the winner, either Horticulture or Agriculture.  It is a fun filled evening with lots of neat information presented.  Refreshments will also be served.  Come and support your peers and root for the department.
Wear your Hort t-shirts to the competition to show which team you are on!!
 
 
Ashley Kelley, Justin Scoresby, and Kaitlin Lewis have won the photo contest and their pictures are displayed in the header above. Congratulations! 

Ashley Kelley: Open Tulip
Justin Scoresby: This is a photo of Spring Meadow Nursery in Grand Haven Michigan. That is where I did my internship last year.
Kaitlin Lewis: This is a hibiscus I saw in the Swiss Alps by Lake Geneva. It is like a microclimate there.
 
Photo Contest 06/15/2010
 
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It's time to switch out the photos in the header of the site and we are turning it over to you so supply the photos.  Please submit photos of anything that depicts horticulture to you.  It can represent any emphasis or horticulture in general.  These can include any class projects, plants, landscapes, flowers, etc.  If your photo is chosen, it will appear in the header for the next few weeks and you will get credit for the picture.  Please only send pictures that are yours so we don't have any copyright issues. You may submit more than one. You may email your photo directly to byuihorticulture@gmail.com with your name, email and description of the photo or you can fill out the form below.
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We are defending our title on Wednesday! Come and support those participating, enjoy some great pizza and feast on plant knowledge!
 
 
As a Horticulture Department, we want to have a casual t-shirt that all horticulture students can wear for special events, field trips or just to classes to advertise for the department. The best way to do this is to put it in your hands. If you want to participate, here are the things you need to know.
--The front of the t-shirts will look like this (below) with the BYU-Idaho logo and Horticulture underneath. What you are in charge of designing is the back.
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--The designs must be appropriate as we are representing the school as well as the department. Inappropriate or suggestive designs will be thrown out of the competition.
--The back can be funny, witty, creative, serious and everything in between. It can have visuals as well as words. We will only print in one color however so keep that in mind.
--Also, remember that our department colors are green and black, if that influences anything you do.
--The more submissions the better.
--February 5th is the deadline to get your designs submitted to byuihorticulture@gmail.com.
--Voting will be open to the students from February 8th-12th.
--Use the picture below to design on so all of the submissions will be uniform and make sure that when you are done, to have the photo as a .jpg so it can be uploaded onto this blog for voting.
--Any other questions, you can filter to byuihorticulture@gmail.com.
--Good luck and have fun!
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