BATTLE GROUND HIGH School Horticulture Teacher Chris Yorke is shown here among a variety of plants in one of the high school’s two greenhouses. Yorke will retire at the end of this school year.
THOSE WHO ATTEND the annual FFA Plant Sale at Battle Ground High School May 2 and 3 can choose from among about 1,200 hanging baskets that will be available for purchase.
The annual Battle Ground High School FFA Plant Sale is coming up Sat.-Sun., May 2-3, and will be the last plant sale for Battle Ground High School Horticulture Teacher Chris Yorke, who has run the annual sale with his horticulture students for the past 15 years.
After teaching at Battle Ground High School for 25 years, the 58-year-old Yorke will retire at the end of this school year. He has been in charge of overseeing the annual plant sale at the school since taking over the horticulture program in 2000. Yorke started out teaching agricultural science and animal science at the high school in 1990. He took over as horticulture teacher and running the greenhouses in 2000.
“It was a good opportunity to take over a large, productive greenhouse program,” Yorke said of assuming the role as horticulture teacher.
Yorke said the annual plant sale has definitely grown over the past several years, bringing in more than $28,000 last year. All of the money raised through the plant sale goes back into the school’s agriculture program, helping to run the greenhouses and fund other student activities associated with the program.
This year’s plant sale will be Sat.-Sun., May 2-3, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., in the greenhouses on the Main Street side of the campus, 300 W. Main St., Battle Ground. Among the two greenhouses, customers can choose from about 20,000 plants, including about 500 fuchsia baskets, a couple thousand geraniums, pansies, vegetable plants and more. Including the 500 fuchsia baskets, Yorke said they will have a total of about 1,200 hanging baskets for sale.
Vegetables plants available at this year’s sale will include tomatoes, peppers, squash, broccoli, cucumbers, cauliflower and others. Yorke said they have a good crop of geraniums this year as well. Plant prices start at 50 cents for pansies and go up from there. Yorke said they like to keep the plant sale pretty simple with a variety of bedding plants, hanging baskets and vegetables.
Yorke has a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture, a Bachelor of Science degree in economics and a master’s degree in education, all from Washington State University in Pullman. He also has principal/administrative certification, which he obtained later in his education career. He first began teaching in 1982 as an agriculture/horticulture teacher at Mountain View High School in Vancouver, coming to Battle Ground High School in 1990.
Prior to taking over the horticulture program, Yorke held the role of FFA (Future Farmers of America) adviser, which he did for about 10 years. As the FFA adviser, he helped students show animals at the Clark County Fair, helped them learn different leadership skills and more. He left the position of FFA adviser after taking over the horticulture program.
Yorke said one of the things he enjoyed most about running the greenhouses and the horticulture program was seeing the students develop skills and be able to eventually manage the greenhouses basically on their own. He chose to pursue a career in teaching subjects like agriculture and horticulture because he said he had been involved with all of those kinds of activities as a high school student himself and he just enjoyed being involved in more hands-on teaching.
“I will really miss working with the students,” Yorke said.
Yorke plans to spend his newfound free time helping his wife, Sandi, market her art, managing his family’s small farm in La Center and spending time on the golf course. Yorke and his wife also have two grown children – Joanna, 27, and Jason, 19.
