ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Sinnettra Mao, a second-grade student at Drewicz Elementary, gets ready to start a workshop on gardening.
BY THOR JOURGENSEN
LYNN — Drewicz Elementary School students were green thumbs and wide smiles after a local florist taught them how to plant and care for flowers.
Rocco Migliaccio, who manages Salvy the Florist with his family, arrived at the school on Friday with pallets of pansies, tinted blue water containing plant food and plenty of dirt.
Principal Patricia Hebert’s second graders flocked around the flowers, grabbing a small green planter containing a pansy or two.
“This is so fun and they can do it at home,” she said. “All they need is a patch of dirt.”
Migliaccio grew up with dirt under his fingernails. For nearly five year, he’s been passing the basics of planting on to school children.
He showed Sinnettra Mao and other Drewicz students how to gently split pansy roots in preparation for transplanting the flowers or reinvigorating them with water and fresh dirt.
Mao paid attention to the lesson, but showed more interest in naming her pansy.
“It’s so cute,” she said. “It’s name is going to be rosy.”
Stephanie Soto took a suggestion from Migliaccio to heart and promised to give her plant to her mother on Sunday. She plant peas in her family garden.
Hebert and School Superintendent Catherine Latham said Migliaccio’s plant care lesson energizes students to enjoy science and provides something to share with their families.
“This is the kind of lesson kids will remember,” Latham said.
Migliacchio said pansies are hardy plants that thrive with a little dirt, water, sunlight and “a little bit of luck.” He drew close comparisons during the school visit between the little flowers and the 8-year-olds absorbing his instructions.
“As you grow, you need bigger clothes,” he said. “As plants grow, the need more dirt for their roots.”
Migliaccio said a conversation several years ago with a friend who works at the Hathaway School in Swampscott inspired him to offer hands-on planting lessons. He branched out to Lynn’s Harrington Elementary School, Drewicz and others.
“It’s just a fun thing,” he said. “The kids really engage in it.”
Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected]
