PirateQ 
Joanna Hrycuna arranges ornamental metal garden flowers while her husband Gary Hrycuna rakes up their spot at the UF/IFAS and PSC Milton Campus Spring Festival of Flowers. The Mobile, Ala., couple travel selling their wares across the south. Their two-person company is called the Lazy Scroll. The Spring Festival of Flowers takes place Friday through Sunday on the PSC Milton campus.
We don’t want to start a squabble, but Pensacola State’s Milton campus may be the College’s most beautiful one.
The campus will be even more beautiful and picturesque this weekend.
The University of Florida/IFAS and the PSC Milton campus will host the annual Spring Festival of Flowers today-Sunday, March 31 through April 2.
The Milton campus is at 5888 Highway 90. Admission to the festival is free.
There will be 76 vendors selling everything from annual, biennial and perennial flowers, fruit trees, house plants, shrubs, vegetables, herbs, yard ornaments, garden accessories and arts and crafts.
The University of Florida/IFAS West Florida Research and Education Center on the Milton campus has organized the event for 10 years. Previously, a local garden club hosted the festival.
UF/IFAS event coordinator Robin Vickers said the event has grown from about 17 vendors to its current number.
“We have 15 on a waiting list for this weekend,’’ Vickers said on Thursday. “They’re waiting to see if anyone backs out. Next year we’ll have to expand even more. It’s become that popular.”
The event raises scholarship funds for Pensacola State and the University of Florida students.
On Thursday, the day before the festival opened, vendors were hurrying to ready their spots. A handful of workers from Greenhouse Nursery were unloading various fruit trees from a large truck.
Not far away, Joanna Hrycuna arranged colorful metal ornamental garden flowers in black tubs while her husband Gary Hrycuna raked oak leaves as he tidied up their vendor spot. The Mobile, Alabama, couple operates under the name The Lazy Scroll. Gary Hrycuna does all the metalwork.
“I’m the lowly welder,’’ he said.
“I’m the paperwork queen,’’ she added.
“We do this for a living, and we like this show a lot,” Joanna Hrycuna said. “We’ve come before, and the people who visit appreciate garden and yard art, so it’s always good for us. Plus, it’s a nice campus, and the people who run it are nice.”
The UF/IFAS and Pensacola State College Milton Campus Spring Festival of Flowers
- When: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. today and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
- Where: PSC Milton campus, 5988 Highway 90, Milton
The festival is free and open to the public.