CPI students win Best of Show at Farm Show for second year

A lot can happen in 100 years.

And students at the Central Pennsylvania Institute of Science and Technology found a way to create a landscape display that featured 100 years of landscape designs.

Ten CPI students brought back three of four Best of Show awards for a landscape exhibit showcased during the weekend at the 100th annual Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg.

It included the Best of Show for its design, nonliving material selection and landscape blueprints. The fourth Best of Show category was best plant material selection, which a high school from Dover won.

The class, under the direction of horticulture and landscape instructor Joe Luther, studied how landscapes would have looked 100 years ago, and integrated that style into its display.

Luther described it as a vintage, yet modern, look that included 100-year-old refurbished wooden beams from a local barn.

“Realistically speaking, no one did landscaping 100 years ago,” Luther said.

The trend started after World War II, Luther said.

“But what we looked at to give it the century-old theme was plant materials used 100 years ago,” Luther said.

That included lilacs and boxwood plants mixed in with plants people now use like Japanese painted ferns and more — in a space that was 10 feet by 15 feet wide.

“We wanted to create something that was an old tradition style with a new look,” Luther said.

It’s something the class has been working on since the beginning of the school year, Luther said.

But Luther said the project included more than just creating blueprints and piecing it together.

He said students also had to figure out how to harvest plants during the winter months that would normally blossom in the spring, and come up with a marketing scheme to help advertise the display, before submitting the work to Farm Show officials in December.

“The lilacs were all in bloom,” Luther said. “It was amazing. You never see these kind of plants in blossom in January, but they did what they had to in order to get the plants to pop.”

EP Henry Corp., of New Jersey, also donated bricks and stones for the class to place around a water feature with a retaining wall, Luther said.

“Landscape is always changing and that’s what these kids are learning,” Luther said. “I think it was a good display that showed how landscape work evolves over the years.”

This was the second consecutive year Luther’s class won at the Farm Show among 10 exhibitors. Last year, the class showcased a hardscape fixture.

But he said it’s hard to stay at the top. The secret to his students’ success, Luther said, is motivation.

“I guess the only way to go is down, but we’re successful because the students keep motivated,” Luther said. “They’ll tell you that this can be frustrating, and when they reached their limit, we stop, walk away, clear our heads, regroup, and then get back to it.”

He said pushing the students to their limit will only make them shut down.

“You can’t just push, and push, and push — they’ll break,” he said. “So we know how to work well, take a break when necessary and refind the motivation. And at the end you see the smiles on their faces.”

The landscape display will be showcased April 1-3 in Centre Park at the annual Central Pennsylvania Home and Garden Show at the Bryce Jordan Center.

The design will then be on display at The Big E, eastern states agriculture expo in September and October in Massachusetts.

“This is huge for us, and well worth it,” Luther said.

This is the first year CPI will have a student-designed landscape project compete in The Big E.

“It was a lot of hard work, but they deserve all the credit,” Luther said.

Once the landscape is done with competitions, the display will be torn down, but materials will be reused.

Luther said plants will likely be planted around the CPI campus, and hardscape materials will be used in other projects.

This story was originally published January 14, 2016 at 6:35 PM with the headline "CPI students win Best of Show at Farm Show for second year."