During the spring and summer seasons, beautiful landscaping surrounds you when you look around. It’s something that needs to be more appreciated because of how beautiful and breathtaking the sights that plants a nature provide for us. They both need to be preserved for years to come so that their wonderful qualities can be observed for future generations. Jordan Desko is someone on that mission to make appreciation for plants grow with how much passion she has for plants.

Jordan Desko, a senior at Greater Latrobe Senior High School, loves plants so much that she enjoys learning fun facts about them to gain more knowledge in order to tell others about them. She likes to get the word out about how they should be properly taken care of. 

She has taken an interest in gardening ever since she was nine years old and her knowledge has grown even more as a 17 year old. “My aunt when I was in third grade started teaching me how to maintain flowers and how to plant them and what looks nice together,” said Desko. 

Jordan’s interest in plants has brought so much fulfillment to her world  that she has a job working at Laurel Nursery in Latrobe. She enjoys her time working there being surrounded by what she enjoys the most in her life.”My favorite memories working at Laurel Nursery come from getting to talk to customers to see what they like and why they want it for their homes. I am very outgoing and sociable, so I really enjoy customer service type things,” said Desko.

Jordan enjoys passing her plant knowledge and their benefits to others to inform them about how they should be taken care of and what makes them so wonderful to have in people’s houses so that more people will take more interest in having plants. “I think more people should become more interested in nature and plants for many reasons. For one, Pennsylvania is seeing the issue that not many people are planting native plants anymore. Native plants are amazing for Pennsylvania pollinators, but some of them can look bland and unattractive to people. Native plants that are very good for your local pollinators consist of New England Asters, Milkweed, Butterfly Weed, Turtlehead, plus many many more. They aren’t roses, but they’re still each beautiful in their own ways. Plus they help the local environment around you by giving pollinators a place. For this reason and many more, I think people should begin to engage more with plants and nature,” said Desko. 

Desko loves to learn new things about plants and looks forward to continuing her knowledge by having a career that involves her greatest interest. “I do want a career in plants. I take great interest in many aspects of agriculture and horticulture. Being a part of the Penn State Master Gardener Program, I learn new things all the time that pull me more and more into that side of study. I have learned a lot and I simply enjoy working with topics in Horticulture,” said Desko. Jordan would also like to further her education with agriculture and horticulture by attending Penn State University.

Jordan gets even more inspired by her passion whenever she sees others take enjoyment in taking care of plants and believes that there is the right kind of people who enjoys them as much as she does.”I think that nature is comparable to books. I think that there are some people who have an interest in books and who enjoy reading them, but there are also people who don’t have that specific appreciation for them. I think that nature requires the attention of those who truly do appreciate it. With that being said, it really isn’t something for everyone to enjoy knowing about learning about which is perfectly fine. Of course I want everyone to appreciate nature in their lives, but oftentimes, it’s difficult to try to teach someone to appreciate something in specific. Overall, I simply hope that people realize what beauty there is to love and appreciate it to the most they can,” said Desko.

Plants and nature are amazing things that should have more attention paid to because of how much better they make our world with their presence. Jordan Desko enjoys her passion and is looking forward to doing whatever she can to help plants or help more people care about them in the future.