Iowa State’s Horticulture Club is celebrating this year’s Valentine’s Day by selling roses to students around campus.

Wednesday is the last day to preorder the flowers for a cheaper price. The preorder price is $4.50 per stem for the roses. They are also selling alstroemeria and carnations for $2 per stem. For the day of sales, prices will rise to $5 and $2.50 respectively.

Justin Wigdahl, an Iowa State senior and the chair of the Horticulture Club’s Rose Sale Committee, explained sales benefits and why they put on the sale.

“We do [rose sales] primarily to give club members an opportunity to arrange flowers and practice those skills,” Wigdahl said. “All of our proceeds also go directly to the club. We use those for club meetings. […] A lot of that money will go towards trips to competitions and to industry tour trips that we take.”

The trips give club members the opportunity to learn more about horticulture in nearby cities, and the competitions allow them to test their knowledge of horticulture. There are also plant identification competitions as well as plant and produce judging.

“Usually once a year, the club tries to do at least one trip to a nearby larger city such as Minneapolis or Chicago to tour some nurseries,” Wigdahl said. “Some greenhouse production areas and other horticultural-related businesses. On top of that, we do about one competition per semester. […] We will actually be hosting the fall semester competition in two years.”

Wigdahl explained that the price of each individual rose pays for more than the flower.

“I know that a lot of people are kind of taken back by the price of each rose,” Wigdahl said. “What is included in those $5 is complimentary greens, and then we actually package all of that up into tissue paper with a plastic sleeve so it is all put together and ready to give to whoever is the lucky person getting the flower. So the $5 goes towards all of that, not just the flower.”

The Horticulture Club was created in 1900, making it one of the oldest clubs at Iowa State. It was the first agricultural departmental club on campus, according to the Department of Horticulture’s website. The Valentine’s Day rose sale has been a part of the Horticulture Club’s fundraising for the last several years.

Students can preorder roses from the Horticulture Club through Feb. 5. All other orders can be made in person Feb. 12 through the 14 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the lobby of Carver Hall.