David McLaughlin
Occupation: Assistant professor of horticulture, horticulture program coordinator for Richland Community College.
Hometown: Hamilton, Ohio (through high school), Danville (25 years), Decatur (six years).
Family: Wife, Tanya, and two girls, Leah, 15, and Hannah, 17.
Education: Danville Community College, associate degree ornamental horticulture; Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, bachelor's degree in plant and soil science, and agriculture education, and University of Illinois, master's in agriculture education.
If you had one of those "I'd rather be -" bumper stickers on your car, it would read "I'd rather be" doing what? There is nothing I would rather be doing than what I am doing now: teaching about the wonderful world of horticulture and the vast career possibilities.
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Hobbies/interests: My greatest pleasure is taking an overgrown landscape and transforming it into a pleasing outdoor garden that could include all of the elements that make a good landscape.
Why I do what I do: I trace the true beginning of my love for horticulture back to age 13, when I contracted to mow a neighbor's field. That assignment was just the start of a lifelong devotion in the field of horticulture. Along the way I began teaching full-time agriculture and horticulture while developing Custom Landscapes Inc. on a part-time basis. In 1989, I realized my dream of a full-service, high-quality landscaping company that served the most discriminating clients in Central Illinois and Indiana. In 2001, I started teaching at Richland. I love to teach, and I love to work in the horticulture field.
Community involvement: The horticulture program is very active in the community. I am most proud of our funeral flower program. We have several funeral homes that bring us the flowers. We take the donated flowers from a family who recently lost a loved one and use the flowers in the floral design program to practice designing flower arrangements. The rearranged floral pieces are delivered by RSVP to the area nursing homes for the clients to enjoy. We have sent nearly 2,000 floral arrangements in the past four years. We donate about 3,000 flowers and vegetable plants yearly to the CONO group for distribution to the area neighborhood groups to beautify the neighborhoods. We have participated in the Million Flower Project and have continued to grow the flowers for the hanging baskets on South U.S. 51.
What is the All-American Selections display garden? AAS was the first organization to establish national trial grounds for testing new flowers and vegetables grown from seed. All-America Selections is an educational organization with the purpose to encourage breeders to develop new varieties, provide home gardeners with new flowers and vegetable varieties.
The AAS Display garden provides the public an opportunity to view the AAS winners in an attractive, well-maintained setting during a Field Day. This year's event is from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 26.
How did Richland get selected as an AAS site? To be considered, you must have a greenhouse in which to grow the seeds provided by AAS; the location must have grown and displayed annuals for at least two years; the people responsible for the display garden must be employed by the garden (school); irrigation must be available; it must have garden space for up to 50 varieties, the garden must be open to the public and conduct a field day.
How does this benefit the college and its students? The Richland horticulture program is one of five display gardens in Illinois that have both vegetables and flowers. The AAS sends brochure to more than 6,000 garden communicators each spring urging them to visit the gardens. We are linked to the AAS Web site that has over a million hits each year. The students benefit greatly by working with the seeds from the beginning through the growing process, planting, harvesting and displaying during the field day.
How do residents benefit from it? Residents can visit the display gardens any day and any time. They can view the latest varieties, view how they are growing in this region and decide if they would like to grow the plants in their own gardens. The residents can take classes in the horticulture program and learn how to be successful growing their own plants.
You guys are really good at growing flowers and vegetables. Are they ever for sale? We have a yearly, one-time spring plant sale on Mother's Day weekend. We try and grow a wide variety of annuals, perennials, grasses and vegetables for the sale. We grow and sell finished poinsettias for Christmas. We sell the vegetables from the demonstration plots in the summer.
Everything we sell is grown here by seed, plug, division or cuttings. Nothing is bought finished from another company and sold. We are not here to be in competition with other horticulture businesses in the area. What we sell is very limited in quantity. Our goal is to teach students to be successful in growing skills, marketing the products grown and how to make money in their field of study.
When people think of agribusiness, they generally think of large farms and major manufacturers. But there's more to it than that, isn't there? The field of horticulture is a part of agribusiness. Instead of 500 acres of corn or soybeans, a horticulturist could be growing 500 acres of trees or shrubs, tomatoes, potatoes or cut flowers. A 10-acre nursery can have an inventory worth $500,000.
At Richland, we teach landscaping, greenhouse, turf and floral design, with many related sub-areas.
What jobs are available to those with a horticulture degree? The latest statistics state that for every community college graduate in horticulture, there are 26 job openings in landscaping and turf. You can find a list of available jobs at www.hortjobs. com or www.careersinhorticulture.com. Many jobs in the horticulture industry are not filled because there is a shortage of qualified people to fill the positions. To get qualified for these great opportunities, starting here at Richland Community College would be a great first step.
What are the benefits to your program of having the Farm Progress Show in Decatur? The program exposure that we receive is the greatest benefit. An example would be the AAS Field Day, two days before the Farm Progress Show. The AAS and horticulture gardens will be open for visitors
The horticulture landscape design and construction class will be building a pond and waterfall for the entrance of the Visitors Tent for Farm Progress.
The horticulture classes will design and install landscapes for the Richland display, WAND-TV news set, designing and installing landscapes for the FFA secondary education display.
Area high school FFA students will be eligible for a drawing for 10 full-ride scholarships for the agriculture and horticulture program.
