It may be cold outside, but Bill Messina won’t let it stop him from wearing a Hawaiian shirt, sandals and a straw hat while he plays Hawaiian music in the middle of January. Messina, temporary instructor of horticulture, said he believes his outfits help the students get accustomed to the tropical plants and interiorscapes they are studying.”You have to think tropical,” he said. “Students will learn identification of tropical plants and techniques in care and uses of these plants.”The source of this tropical world, Horticulture 253, has not been offered at Iowa State for nearly 10 years, Messina said. Michael Chaplin, professor and chairman of horticulture, said before Messina arrived, no one had specialized training in the area of tropical plants, therefore nobody was qualified to teach the subject matter.”He is a great guy, wonderful with the students,” Chaplin said.Messina said he chooses more than 100 popular tropical plants to present to his class.”We can only do so much,” he said. “I try to have stories with each plant I bring in.”For hands-on experience, Messina said he is planning a field trip to Des Moines Botanical Gardens as well as other botanical gardens and nurseries. He is also hoping to line up guest speakers to present additional ideas in their area of expertise.The class, Messina said, has both a lecture and a lab in the Conservatory next to Horticulture Hall twice a week. In the Conservatory, students see first hand some of the plants they study in class. Some of the products grown within the building are coffee, lemons, bananas and vanilla beans, which come from the orchid plant. “Iowa State has the largest banana production in Iowa,” he said.During the course of the semester, Messina requires his students to do two projects, which begin with a service project. “Students visit and meet at a nursing home, school, or some non-profit organization and prepare a plan [or] diagram and a written report of a design for a selected area,” he said.The second is a business project. Students plan a design for an atrium at an office park, mall or an office on campus.Matthew Beaver, junior in horticulture, said he is pleased with the class and hopes to be able to recognize and identify tropical plants after the semester ends.”[Messina] really seems to enjoy talking about tropical plants,” he said. “He does a great job teaching. He tries to put a different spin on it.”