The “Weird Word” that Kids Don’t Know

September 25th, 2018

   When researchers ran a focus group with middle schoolers on why so few youths are interested in plant-related careers these days, they were surprised to find that not a single middle-schooler even knew what horticulture was.

The new BLOOM website is an attempt to make kids familiar with horticulture, er, “plantology.”

   The kids told them that “horticulture” was a “weird word.” They suggested that “plantology” rang better to their ears.

   A separate phone survey found that less than half of Americans between the ages of 18 and 35 know what horticulture is. And of those who do, only about a quarter of them consider jobs in horticulture to be a viable, fulfilling and respected career path.

   Most equated horticulture with jobs in lawn care, and that’s about it.

   That pretty much explains why 40 percent of the 59,000 open jobs each year in horticulture are going unfilled – at a time when 58 percent of graduating college seniors aren’t finding jobs in their field.

   You’d think kids would be flocking to plant-related fields.

   But they’re not, and that’s what led 150 plant companies, universities, and gardening organizations to band together to form a new organization called Seed Your Future.

   Founded in 2013 by Chester County’s Longwood Gardens and the American Society for Horticultural Science, Seed Your Future has been trying to figure out how to tell youth that horticulture means more than cutting grass and slinging mulch.

   One of the first things the group realized is that, ironically, a lot of young kids said they were very much interested in the environment and in careers where they could be creative and “make an impact on the world.”

   Seed Your Future’s executive director, Susan Yoder, says those are traits of many plant-related jobs. But the disconnect is that kids aren’t aware of “cool” jobs in horticulture, such as urban hydroponics farming, planting with drones, lab experiments on plant growth, and restoring native habitats.

   Seed Your Future’s first attempt to do something about that is a new website called BLOOM!

   The site is geared to middle-schoolers and is a colorful, action-packed, graphics-rich platform with the tagline of “improving the world through the power of plants.”

   Kids can take a quiz to see what kind of plant interests they might have and find out assorted curious “Did You Know” factoids, such as how being around plants can lower blood pressure, how burn ointments are made out of aloe vera, and how a bumble bee living near wildflowers is four times more likely to survive another year.

   The heart of the site is a series of short videos made by twenty- and thirty-somethings in plant-related fields.

   One focuses on Nicole Sherry, head groundskeeper for the Baltimore Orioles. She shows how a hidden sod farm behind center field has extra grass for patching the baseball field and shows her right-field office where she’s stationed during games at Oriole Park at Camden Yard.

   Another focuses on seed breeder Josh Guy, who tells that his job is to “make plants stronger” and takes us into a sci-fi-like, purple-lit room where experimental seeds are about germinate.

   BLOOM! is bound to have an impact – if kids go there in the first place.

   That’s likely the bigger challenge because of what’s known as “plant blindness.”

   That’s a term for unawareness of the plants around us, which apparently has become widespread as people spend more time inside and as items such as smart phones and video games out-compete for our attention.

   Seed Your Future cites research showing that an average American can recognize more than 1,000 brands and logos but fewer than 10 plants in their local areas.

   To counteract that, the group is targeting teachers, parents, grandparents, and youth-group leaders to include more plant-related fare in their daily doings.

   The BLOOM! website is rich in resources that are available free for the clicking, and it links to Scholastic’s site that has a treasure trove of free curriculum, games, quizzes, and contests on plants and more.

   In the works is a plan to spread the effort to the college level.

   “There have never been so many opportunities to join the field of horticulture as there are today, yet awareness of these opportunities is at an all-time low,” says Anna Ball, CEO of the Ball Horticultural Co., one of the lead corporate backers of Seed Your Future.

   “Horticulture is one of those fields whose value to society is not fully appreciated,” adds Paul Redman, executive director of Longwood Gardens and co-chair of Seed Your Future. “Enrollment in horticulture programs has declined dramatically at a time when the need for graduates of these programs is more important than ever. As an industry, it’s imperative that we take action now to change the tide and shore up the next generation of leaders.”

   And Yoder wrote earlier this year in Greenhouse Product News magazine: “If we don’t teach young people about plants, they won’t grow up to have an appreciation for our world. They won’t understand that we need horticulturists to feed the world with food that is safe and nutritious; to preserve native habitats; to imagine landscapes and bring them to life; to tend to landscapes that welcome us home and invite us outdoors to play; to soothe and delight with flowers and foliage; to wonder and experiment, and to ensure the future of our planet.”

   Maybe a few more budding, BLOOM-inspired “plantologists” will be a start.