On Thursday evenings , Abby Vernier fills her vintage Volkswagen bus with colorful bouquets and heads to a intellectual nourishment truck event in her Pensacola , Fla. , locality to sell impertinent flower .
Vernier , an 8th - grade student at Beulah Middle School and a fellow member of Beulah Academy FFA , has been growing flower and design bouquets for the retiring two years . She started planting bulbs and sow cum in the school greenhouse and working alongside her FFA advisor and USDA education instructor , Leanne Jenkins , to create colourful sweetness .
“ I love nature and all type of efflorescence , ” Vernier say . “ I also liked the meaning behind it , that we were making these heyday bouquet for someone who really needed it at that clock time or as a token of appreciation . ”
Jenkins was surprised by Vernier ’s passion for floriculture and her flowered design skills .
“ you’re able to teach a stack of thing , but you ca n’t teach an eye ; you either have it , or you do n’t , and Abby was just a rude , ” Jenkins says . “ You could tell it brought her joyousness , and she just developed this passion . ”
In 2022 , Vernier decided to turn her passion into a business . She started the Viloula Flower Bus and manages all aspects of the stage business , from develop flowers — or purchase them from the wholesale market — to design and sell redolence .
run a flowered aim business has teach Vernier a raft about pricing analytics and measure client need . She bonk that flowers of certain colors deal considerably than others and some blossom , no matter how beautiful , are too expensive to include in bouquets . Vernier has also learned a lot about postharvest handling , including the grandness of reduce stem and lend white vinegar and sugar to the H2O to help the flowers last longer .
After each issue , Vernier break down which flower , colors , and cost points were the most popular and uses that selective information to plan succeeding events . All these deterrent example made it the arrant supervised agricultural experience ( SAE ) .
“ Miss Jenkins thought it would be a great SAE , ” Vernier come back . “ I recall it really would because it ’s all about agriculture and yield and selling . ”
Vernier wanted to check that other FFA members could go through the joys of growing flowers . She create the role of greenhouse managing director , in which she ferment alongside young students , offer encouragement and counseling .
“ Our school greenhouse has just taken off , and we ’ve made so much money off of plant that we ’ve grown in the nursery , ” Jenkins says . “ It ’s just really cool to see Abby read ownership of what we ’re doing ; it ’s just a great , full - circle experience . ”
For more info : FFAwww.ffa.org
