Leadership Blossoms on State Winning FFA Floriculture Team

by Lura Roti

Holding some zinnias, Anna Arhart thoughtfully adds a few statice and bells of Ireland.

A smile spreads across her face. The bouquet is complete.

“I love the design aspect of floriculture,” explained Arhart, a member of the state winning FFA floriculture team. “You can let your imagination run wild and have fun. Floriculture is not all tests. It’s playing with flowers, showing your creativity – and you can see others’ creativity and learn from them.”

It’s a hot August afternoon and Arhart is standing in her coach’s flower garden with the other members of the Wessington Springs FFA floriculture team: Mariah Messmer, Mercedes Jones, Carissa Scheel and Alyssa Grohs.

Because the team won the South Dakota State FFA floriculture contest, this August afternoon they are preparing for the 2024 national FFA contest. It was held October 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the team placed in the bronze category competing against more than 40 teams from across the U.S.

“Watching us practice, I know floriculture looks easy, but a lot goes into this contest,” Grohs said.

The South Dakota State University freshman explained that in addition to demonstrating creativity and knowledge of design through the flower arranging portion of the contest, she and her teammates would be tested on their business management and problem-solving skills as well as general knowledge of floriculture. They all needed to be ready to correctly identify 100 flowers and 100 tools.

“Like all FFA career development events, there is application of the skills they learn beyond this contest,” said Wessington Springs FFA Adviser Brady Duxbury. “These members are not just designing something beautiful; they are learning teamwork, accounting and business skills.”

The business aspect of floriculture is something team coach Katie Jones understands well. She and a friend/neighbor started a cut flower farm business called Ranchy Stems in 2023.

“We learned you cannot be good at just one part of the contest,” explained Katie, who raises all her own flowers on the family’s crop and cattle ranch. “So, as we compete, we looked at the areas where we were giving up the most points and in practices, we focus on those. There were practices where we did not even touch flowers.”

Although no one liked the idea of the 7 a.m. practices Katie scheduled, they all appreciated her dedication and the hours she volunteered to help them succeed. 

“Katie is the reason we are here practicing for the national contest,” Scheel said. “She spent a lot of time outside of our practices on her own preparing for us. She created practice tests for us, she found resources for us, she taught herself things so she could teach us.”

Katie said volunteering to help students succeed is part of the culture of Wessington Springs. “All of these kids’ parents volunteer their time to help kids and our community,” Katie said. “The students are accustomed to seeing adults in our community invest in our youth. Basically in this community, if we see value in it, community members volunteer their time to make it happen.”

Katie’s daughter, Mercedes, said that with her mom as their guide, the team invested in their shared goal to win state.

“We are a team that built each other up and pushed each other,” Mercedes explained.

Messmer agreed. “I love being on this team. We support each other to be the best we can be.”

In order to win state, the team practiced six or more hours a week. Balancing basketball practices, floriculture team practices and high school graduation, Scheel said she will apply the skills she has gained as an FFA member and a member of the floriculture team as she pursues her dream to become a veterinarian.

“Floriculture has helped me learn work ethic and perseverance, which will help me in the future because vet school is very competitive,” said Scheel, a freshman at North Dakota State University.

Preparing young adults for their future has been the focus of FFA since its beginning nearly a century ago. Duxbury said it was his experiences as an FFA member and state FFA officer that made him want a career as an agriculture education teacher/FFA adviser.

“I knew I wanted to impact lives and help young people realize their potential because this is what my FFA adviser did for me,” Duxbury explained. “Getting to work with this team and their coach has been an honor.”