FFA members win horticulture awards

Four Fallbrook Union High School students and FFA members recently won agriculture awards in various competitions, according to their advisor George Kreutz. Mr. Kreutz exclaimed, “It’s fantastic! I appreciate the effort the kids put into it — most people don’t realize how many hours they put into these contests.” Emily Sherman, Cassandra Ponce and Brittany Kirchmeier’s team won first place at the State FFA Finals in Nursery Landscape (formerly Ornamental Horticulture) at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in early May. The team will now travel to Louisville, KY, in October to compete in the Nationals. The team was awarded a silver bowl, a plaque and a blue rosette ribbon. They celebrated their win by taking the bowl to Cold Stone Creamery, where it was filled with ice cream that they quickly consumed as a team effort.The State Nursery Landscape Finals competition was comprised of plant identification, with approximately 250 plants on the list. At the national level the contest will be even more advanced, with marketing plan development and blueprint reading as well as other challenges. Emily Sherman, a sophomore, has ornamental horticulture in her blood. A part of the Sherman family who own Myrtle Creek Nursery, she has grown up around plants and works at the nursery in her spare time. She enjoys the team comradeship she experienced as part of the Nursery Landscape Team. This is her first full year in competition. Brittany Kirchmeier, a senior, has been involved in ornamental horticulture for four years and is currently serving as FFA president. Her mother is a landscape designer and she has been interested in plants since she was a little girl. She plans on studying landscape architecture. Cassandra Ponce, a senior, was on the Nursery Landscape Team but also won the FFA State Proficiency Award in Turf Grass Management. She took home a plaque, a large pin for her jacket and a certificate for $100. Cassandra has been involved in FFA for four years and was FFA recorder last year. This year she serves as chaplain. She learned about turf grass management from a summer job in landscape recovery at Costa del Sol Golf Course. She is interested in pursuing turf grass management as a career because she loves sports and loves the outdoors. Several of Cassandra’s family members have graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo with degrees in Ornamental Horticulture. Cassandra, herself, plans to attend a two-year college and then transfer to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Joseph Kueneman won the Outstanding Plant Science Award at Cal Poly Pomona as well as a $100 scholarship. Joseph, a junior, has been involved in ornamental horticulture since he was a freshman. He enjoys landscape work, especially his work on the 2004 San Diego County Fair project, which took first place. The team took one day to level the area then plant the 15-gallon plants, then two more days to plant the smaller plants. The team then had to maintain the landscape during the fair. “We wanted it to look perfect,” he said.