Bullard High School floral design students expand their talents into new floral territories

Students in Bullard High School’s advanced floral design class recently had the opportunity to expand their skills into new floral territories. Led by teacher Jamie Dildine, students in the school's Prickly Pear Floral program create beautiful floral arrangements for staff and district events, organize a Flower of the Month program and more. Now, they can add creating arrangements for bridal showers, rehearsal dinners, and weddings to their portfolio.

The experience began last year when BHS teacher Amy McKeethan's son became engaged. He had previously purchased a balloon and flower decoration package provided by Prickly Pear Floral at Bullard FFA's Labor and Merchandise Auction. He used the package at the couple's first bridal shower. Both the bride and groom's families then requested Prickly Pear Floral to provide flowers at future showers. Since everyone was so impressed with how the shower arrangements turned out, the bride and groom decided to utilize the program for the rehearsal dinner and wedding as well. For their services, the families covered the costs of the flowers and made a donation to the Prickly Pear Floral program.

To help illustrate what they had in mind, the bride and Mrs. McKeethan provided inspirational photos to Ms. Dildine and her students. They needed table centerpieces and stand-alone pieces to add to additional decor, along with bouquets and boutonnieres.

“The students and I looked up flowers based on our wholesaler's availability," Ms. Dildine said. "One of the learning opportunities here is that specific colors and types of flowers are not always available when purchasing wholesale. So, after the wholesaler gave us the options and prices available, we could devise a plan. This process greatly resembles the business world when working with suppliers and clients and how to build relationships with both to accomplish a goal."

Once the flower order came in, the next learning opportunity came as students learned how to maximize the life stages of flowers and how to know when they are at their peak for specific occasions.

“The life stage of flowers goes from 1-10, with stage 10 being where blooms are fully open and full,” Ms. Dildine said. "Usually, when the students work with the flowers for our Flower of the Month club, we process the flowers when they are at a 2 or 3 so they will last on the desk or at the home of the teacher for more than a couple of days. For a wedding, students learned that the flowers should be at a stage of 7 or 8 so they open up to full bloom for the actual event.”

Ms. Dildine hopes her students learned that patience and effective communication are key when working with real-world clients. Mrs. McKeethan gave students and Ms. Dildine rave reviews for their skills and professionalism. 

I was impressed not only by the level of dedication and commitment of these students to this project but also by the outstanding quality of their work,” Mrs. McKeethan said. “They completely brought my vision for the rehearsal dinner arrangements to life, even better than I had imagined. The wedding arrangements were also just what the bride had hoped for. Seeing how Mrs. Dildine and her students worked together on this project was awesome. She is an amazing teacher and mentor.”

Senior floral design student Avery Clayton said creating the wedding arrangements is her favorite of all the arrangements she has created so far.

“I never thought floral design would be one of my talents,” Avery said. “I have enjoyed every opportunity I have had while in this class. Of all the arrangements I've made, the wedding flowers are by far my favorite. It took a lot of time, patience, and perfection, which all flower arrangements do. But most of all, it was an honor to help make the Goodrich-McKeethan wedding so special.”

The advanced floral design class is part of the Plant Science program in the Agriculture graduation pathway.