Johnston, SC – The Strom Thurmond Career and Technology Center (STCTC) greenhouse is full to bursting with brightly colored flowers, fresh herbs, ferns and vegetable plants. Everything is being made ready for Saturday’s (March 18) popular annual Spring Plant Sale offered by the Strom Thurmond Future Farmers of America (FFA) Program.

“Yes, it’s crunch time right now,” stated STCTC Future Farmers of America Program Instructor Jacob Laughlin of the final 48 hours prior to the start of the sale. “It is a lot of cleaning, staging and organizing to be sure everything is clean and looks good for everyone on Saturday.”

The sale will be held at the Strom Thurmond Career and Technology Center greenhouse, located at 17 Par Dr, Johnston, SC 29832, and begin promptly at 8:00 a.m. Patrons should plan to arrive a few minutes early. 

“We have the full support of our community here and we’re so grateful for that,” commented Laughlin. 

What may take other school agriculture programs weeks to sell, the Strom Thurmond FFA Program sells in just hours.

“We will normally sell most of what we have in a matter of hours,” stated Laughlin. “Other ag teachers across the state tell me they are still trying to sell things after two weeks, but not here. Our community really looks forward to it.” 

Laughlin says many spring plant sale patrons are looking for healthy ferns, but that the program will also sell plenty of tomatoes and bedding plants.

“It’s a busy day, but a fun day,” he added.

For Laughlin, the annual spring plant sale is really a celebration of the hard work of his students, many of whom will be trading in their greenhouse work gloves for glitzy prom dress attire later on Saturday.

“They work really hard and are the ones who make all this happen, I just try to point them in the right direction,” he says. “A lot of them will be out here helping with the sale, even on prom day.”

A full listing of plants that will be available for sale may be found by visiting the Strom Thurmond FFA Program page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thurmond.ffa. 

**Only CASH or CHECKS may be accepted and there are no pre-sales**