Agricultural science isn’t just cages and barns. There is an artistic side to Ag, and if you take a stroll down H Hall past the black box, choir and orchestra halls, you’ll find a set of double doors not actually leading to the outdoors. Push them open and you’ll discover yet another unique program Allen has to offer: floral design.

Camilla Howarth walks down the hallway with her radiant red hair in a soggy bun, a letterman jacket, and an essence of the chlorine that will show you she means business in swimming. Most wouldn’t guess she’d be involved with a class like floral design. Maybe she wouldn’t either if she hadn’t had to find a fine arts credit to take.

But butterflies in the pool weren’t the only things she found herself attracted to.

“I found an interest in flowers, to carry it on later in a job, a second job,” Howarth said.

She and her classmates learn five new flowers each week and get to use them in designs.

“My favorite thing is prepping the flowers because we get first-hand to see what we’ll be working with,” Howarth says.

And she was buzzing when she explained what she’d learned so far about horizontal, triangle, line and mound arrangements.

“Sometimes you’ll see candles in arrangements; that’s a horizontal arrangement,” Howarth says, “Line arrangements will make something look taller. You can put them in a corner of a room.”

The class has done several projects, including ones for holidays, and has learned how to craft their own designs.

“It depends on how long (the flowers) are and how long you have to cut them and how tall your arrangement is going to be,” Howarth says. “To prep them, you have to cut them and then water and wait a while.”

But waiting to sign up for this class isn’t something she’d recommend.

“It’s actually a lot of fun to work with other people,” Howarth says. “It’s your creative side.”