The University of Kentucky Horticulture Club sold plants and unique crafts to students and faculty at their annual winter sale.

Mistletoe, holiday door swag, poinsettias, holiday planters and living ornaments were sold on Dec. 10 and Dec. 11 in the lobby of the North Agriculture Science Center at the winter sale. 

Alexandra Taylor, a freshman majoring in agriculture and medical biotechnology, said club members had been assembling wreaths and arranging plants for a few weeks to prepare for the sale.

She said all the plants there were potted or in dirt could continue to grow while remaining decorative at the same time.

Taylor said they offered decorations that were more environmentally sustainable than plastic plants and everything aside from the poinsettias were hand-assembled by club members.

“It’s a more meaningful decoration for people to buy, and I think people seem to really value that,” Taylor said. “It’s really fun, interactive decor. You get to grow plants and then also use them as Christmas decor. Then once Christmas is over, you can take those plants and repot them and still have a plant that you can take care of and grow.”

Taylor said all profits from the sale would go to the Horticulture Club to fund educational activities for their members.

The living ornaments were made of glass and resembled a small terrarium with plants inside.

Taylor said the living ornaments hold humidity and moisture so they do not have to be watered very often.

President of the Horticulture Club Katie Taliaferro said she has seen some of the living ornaments live for over three years.

Taliaferro said the living ornaments and planters were all plants taken from the Horticulture Club’s own plants and tropical plants grown in their greenhouse. She said the poinsettias were from Pemberton’s, a local greenhouse in Lexington that the club has worked with for multiple years.

According to Taliaferro, the plants club members used to make door swags and wreaths were brought from the Arboretum. The mistletoe, which grows high up on tree branches, was gathered by being shot off of trees by a shotgun.

Taliaferro said she enjoyed the crafty aspect of putting on sales and made door swag out of gathered plants and parts of trees for the first time for this sale. She said people always enjoyed the winter sales for the three years she has been in the club.

“It’s always fun having our sales in Ag North because we get the traffic of people going to and from classes and I think that allows people to actually see our sales and what we have to offer,” Taliaferro said.

Administrative Associate for the Plant and Soil Science Department Zoë Womack said she bought three plants for a staff Christmas party as rewards for trivia contest winners.

Womack said she runs the Plant and Soil Science Department’s social media and was familiar with the Horticulture Club’s sales because she shares the club’s events on social media often.

She said she enjoys the designs and arrangements made by the club because they can be displayed on office desks or in dorm rooms and can fit into a lot of different environments.

Womack said she comes to the club’s sales often to see their arrangements.

“This is the first time I’ve made it to the first day … when I go the second day, most of it is gone,” Womack said.

She said while she does not work with plants directly, she enjoys seeing the Horticulture Club encouraging others to take an interest in caring for plants.

“I can’t keep a plant alive to save my life,” Womack said. “I think people who can are cool.”

Taylor said she enjoyed the opportunity to give people plants they could care for on their own and seeing the whole club working together to set up the sale.

“We’re a club for plant lovers of any kind,” Taylor said.