The small, plastic-covered greenhouse behind the College's Townsend Hall is a beehive of activity as students collect their seedlings and prepare to transplant them into tiny pots. An observer might wonder if this is a class or a commercial enterprise planning for the spring onslaught of home gardeners. As it happens, it's both.

The bedding plant sale, an Ag Day tradition for more than 20 years, is actually a spin-off of a class--Plant Science 154, "Production and Management of Ornamental Plants," taught by horticulture Prof. Dave Frey.

Undergraduates taking the class grow flower bedding plants, timing them for the end-of-April sale. But, the primary reason for the plant project is the real-world experience students gain in the laboratory segment of the course. Profits from the sale each year purchase the supplies for the next spring's class.

Frey designed this introductory plant course to be basic and hands-on. When the semester is over, he expects students to leave with the know-how necessary to grow a bedding plant from seed and a foliage plant from a cutting.

"It seems incredible, but during the nine years I spent in the plant sciences, from my bachelor's degree through my doctorate, I never had to grow a plant from seed," Frey says. "When I came to UD 28 years ago, I set up this course so students would understand exactly what goes into growing a plant."

In offering an overview of the nursery business, Frey uses the greenhouse and gardens around Townsend and Worrilow halls to teach everything from propagation techniques and transplanting to the art of pruning, as well as when and how to apply pesticides and fertilizer.

Each student starts the semester with 1,000 seeds and is expected to get 20 percent, or 200 plants, to complete the project successfully. A student is assigned one variety to nurture from seed to plant, with the results sold at Ag Day. This year, with 29 students in the class, home gardeners could choose from among at least that many selections, including cosmos, marigolds, impatiens, alyssum and petunias. UD Horticulture Club members grow extra tomato and pepper plants, also offered the day of the sale.

"Students are responsible for everything but watering," Frey explains. "They fertilize, pinch, prune, transplant, diagnose and handle pest management."

As the students press a soilless medium into pots, Frey explains the use of the hand-held dibble, a simple wooden tool pointed at one end. The dibble not only makes a hole into which the transplant is inserted, it also separates the tiny seedlings too delicate to be picked up with fingers. Although it's a tedious process, Frey works quickly, deftly demonstrating this age-old technique.

"Greenhouse workers are expected to complete eight flats an hour when transplanting, and a flat holds 42 plants, which gives anyone trying it for the first time an appreciation for the intensive work involved," he notes.

Success or failure in the class is measured by how well students understand the process. Before issuing grades on final projects, Frey takes many factors into consideration.

"Even if all the plants die, it doesn't mean students have failed," Frey says. "As long as they know why the plants failed to thrive and what to do about it next time, then they have learned something."

Veteran Ag Day visitors know they haven't completed the circle of activities until they have bought a few tomato and zinnia plants at the small greenhouse across the road from Fischer Greenhouse Laboratory. It's a tradition they aren't willing to give up, and as long as Frey is teaching Plant Science 154, they won't have to.

--Susan Morse Baldwin, AS '95M