On Saturday, April 15, hundreds of students and community members lined up for the Spring Plant Sale at Gibson Farm Market. It is one of the largest plant sales of the year for the Fresno State horticulture nursery students.

Those students host a biyearly plant sale: one in the fall and one in the spring. The sale featured a variety of vegetable, herb, succulent, perennial and house plants raised by Fresno State staff and students.

The event began at 8 a.m. and was scheduled to end at 1 p.m. However, by 10 a.m. all the plants were selling out.

“This is our huge spring plant sale. Everything that is here, we’ve grown from seed. We start about January, then raise them up to a good soluble size and bring them all over here and sell them,” said Calliope Corriea, a nursery instructional support technician III who helped coordinate the event.

Corriea emphasized how important it is to buy from students because everything is grown locally and the plants are acclimated to the Central Valley area. All of the proceeds go back into the Fresno State farm to support the agriculture programs.

Rolston St. Hilaire, the new dean of the Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology hired six months ago, said the fall sale was not half as busy as the spring sale.

“This is what Jordan College is all about, and the University of Fresno State, where students are involved in hands-on skills and that’s one of the products,” Hilaire said. “So they get a chance to put the skills that they learn in the classroom into a product that the public and Fresno State can enjoy. We are always proud of that.”

Students were very proud to have their work supported by the community.

“We start from seed all the way until sale. It’s a big intensive process, months of preparation, a lot of transplanting, working with soil, fertilizing and really just nurturing these plants to get them here,” said Patrick Velazquez, a plant science major who is a student assistant for the Ornamental Horticulture department.

This was Velazquez’s second year participating in the event. He also felt that he had never seen the event so busy. Velazquez said this is something that he would want to do for a career and was happy to see the students work pay off.

“I just really just encourage people to come out here and support Fresno State students. This is really empowering to be part of this and to have people plant our stuff at their house,” Velazquez told The Collegian.

Another plant science student, Joseph Borchardt, who helped grow some of the plants, was also content with the community turnout. It was his first time participating in the event.

“I definitely get the feeling of appreciation from all the people here,” Borchardt said. “If you’re skeptical, just come out and see how many people are excited about it. There’s going to be a plant for everyone, whether it’s summer or fall.”

Anne and Marty Montgomery are more experienced with the event than others. They heard about the sale through Facebook and decided after last year’s plant sale, that this year they’d come early and prepared with a wagon.

“[Last year] we came really late, so there was a little bit left, but it looks like you got a great turnout today… We like to plant all these so that our kids can just eat out of the backyard,” Marty said.

Anne, a Fresno State alumna, said she loves supporting Fresno State and the variety of plants the students offer doesn’t compare to normal stores, using the green eyed tiger tomatoes she was buying as an example.

The students had multiple variations of tomatoes, beans, peas, peppers, eggplants, squash, herbs, flowers, okra and more. The greenery blanketed the tables inside the market and the truck beds outside.

As tables emptied, the students who were working slowly replaced the empty areas with more plants. Three lines wrapped around Gibson Farm Market: one line inside that looped in and around the store, and two lines outside that extended to about a mile long connecting to two makeshift registers.

Families, students, faculty and staff were in attendance. Many came prepared with wagons or crates to carry their plants while they waited in line.

Correia had advice for anyone thinking of attending any future sales.

“Come early! Seriously, come early. You can see the table’s already empty, and it’s only nine o’ clock,” Correia said.

The next plant sale will take place this fall.