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<\/p>\nOne Southeast Texas shop prepares for hundreds of orders while students at Silsbee High School take the tradition to a whole new level.<\/p>\n
Signs of homecoming spirit are hard to miss across Southeast Texas.<\/p>\n
From school signs hanging over bridges to businesses decorated in school colors, communities across the region are embracing a tradition that has become synonymous with Texas homecoming: the mum.<\/p>\n
At Silsbee High School, that tradition is taking up an especially large amount of space.<\/p>\n
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Student council members built a two-story homecoming mum that has become an annual tradition at the school. The project takes hours to assemble, with students spending about 10 hours working on it this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery homecoming week we get together and set up a humongous mum,\u201d student council member Collin Weathington said.<\/p>\n
The main part of the display has been reused for three years, with students adding new ribbons and other details each homecoming season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of the biggest things we do here at Silsbee,\u201d student council member Braden Seal said.<\/p>\n
The display has also become a way for students and staff to share in the tradition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they see it, their faces just light up,\u201d student council sponsor Angela Camden said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what makes it all worthwhile.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the tradition is also creating a seasonal business boom for local florists and mum makers.<\/p>\n
At Wildflower Floral Designs in Groves, owner Katie Zghaib said the shop makes about 500 mums during a typical homecoming season.<\/p>\n
With an average mum costing about $100, that would amount to roughly $50,000 in potential gross sales based on that average price.<\/p>\n
Zghaib said homecoming is one of the shop\u2019s busiest times of the year. Preparation begins months in advance as employees sort ribbon, build mums and prepare for a rush of orders.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working around the clock,\u201d Zghaib said. \u201cPeople are calling, racks are emptying, last-minute orders.\u201d<\/p>\n
The economic impact extends far beyond one Southeast Texas business. A researcher estimates the homecoming mum industry has an annual economic impact of about $500 million across Texas.<\/p>\n
But for Wildflower, homecoming is about more than sales.<\/p>\n
Through its Gary\u2019s Project, the shop makes sensory-friendly mums for children with special needs. The project was named after Zghaib\u2019s youngest nephew.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s named after my youngest nephew, who is special needs,\u201d Zghaib said. \u201cWe wanted to make sure every kid could be part of the tradition, so we created sensory-friendly mums just for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year, the shop donated 125 sensory-friendly mums to Nederland ISD.<\/p>\n
For students like Weathington, the tradition is ultimately about bringing people together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt brings the community together and creates new memories and friendships,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That spirit is keeping a decades-old Texas homecoming tradition alive, while also turning mums into big business across the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One Southeast Texas shop prepares for hundreds of orders while students at Silsbee High School take the tradition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-459749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}