With the homecoming game Thursday, floral design classes have been hard at work for the past week tying up the last few ribbons of their first major project this year: making mums. 

Mums have been a Texas tradition for years, and floral design teacher Jessica Rocha loves kicking off the year with a creative project. 

“I think my favorite part about floral design and making the homecoming mums is that ah-ha moment that they get when they see how creative they can be and see how excited they get,” Rocha said. “That’s always so exciting to see them, their enthusiasm in this class.”

Students begin by folding ribbons onto a base, followed by attaching longer ribbons for the tail, flowers for the center, and finally finish it off with bells and glittery decorations. 

“We do homecoming mums and an introductory to ribbons,” Rocha said. “You can learn about cutting things and measuring things out so that when we start out with flowers and we’re able to get that basis down to where that we know how to cut things, know how to measure things. We know how to do that basis and it gets them excited for floral design just because of football season and having that excitement.”

Junior Maddie Passmore enjoys the project because it gives her an opportunity to make a special garter for her boyfriend. 

“The process of making it is really difficult and I like a good challenge and the creativity,” Passmore said. “And just making it personal for my boyfriend, it just makes me feel really good.”