Perry Students Win State Floriculture Competition | News

Four Perry High School students took home the top prize at a state competition.

These teens area of expertise may surprise you.

The students can identify 90 species of plants. The young floriculturists can also diagnose disease and problem solve to heal sick plants.

After winning the Georgia Floriculture competition last weekend at Fort Valley State University, Mitchell Freeman, Tyler Claxton, Samantha Strickland and Jake Parker will move on to nationals in Indiana next fall.

Jake Parker said he started learning about plants in middle school. He said, "It's just learning stuff you can use always later in life, landscape your own houses. You can win a lot of money. That's one incentive for it."

Tyler Claxton says he became interested in floriculture, because his dad is the agriculture teacher at Perry High School.

Claxton said, "People ask you, 'Hey, what's that?' Just trying to get an answer out of you. It's pretty fun to be able to answer them correctly."

The ag students will practice identifying plants throughout the spring and summer for the national competition in October.