Did you know that horticulture is a competitive event? Not many do, but Senior Everett Henry competes in the event at a national level.

Horticulture is the practice of garden cultivation and management. Henry was introduced horticulture competitions when a woman put it in a newsletter. His family decided to give it a shot.

“She had a bunch of tables with different plants and things laid out and you had to I.D. them and figure it out,” Henry said. “Our whole family does it, and at the county level we did well enough that we could go to state, so then all three of us do it every year for fun”

At the State Fair 4-H Horticulture Identification Contests held in August, there are four competitions: insects, weeds/grasses, trees and plants. Those who compete in the trees category are given around 40 branches with leaves on them to identify. For the other three categories, there are around 100 specimens ranging from a big plant to seeds to twigs. In addition, there is a 50 to 100 question test. The final test for horticulture participants is to be a part of a judges section. For this event, judges lay out four plants for participants to arrange from best to worst based on a certain characteristic.

“It’s interesting to say the least,” Henry said. 

Henry competes on a team with his brother, Westside Junior Darien Henry, as well as Waverly High School senior Abby Babcock. This past year, Henry and his team had the opportunity to compete at nationals.

“At the state level, if you’re in the top four they invite you,” Henry said. “I was invited two years in a row [but] I waited for my brother to be invited so we could both go together.”

The National Junior Horticulture Association hosts the event in Lexington, Ky., took a little more preparation than the state competition.

“We met four weekends in a row with a UNL educator and we would sit down for 6-8 hours and cram,” Henry said. “It was interesting because it was 5-6 days with a bunch of people from all across the country so it was neat to hang out with people and learn about stuff.”

Henry says he may continue studying horticulture in the future.

“I am still not sure what I’m doing for college, but something in “ag” [or agriculture] would be interesting”, Henry said. “We know a lot of teachers and professors at UNL and a lot of head people in the state, like the forestry people and all that, so it’s something new that I didn’t know about and now I do and it is kind of interesting.”