MONROE — The National Bonnie Plants Cabbage Program has announced their Wisconsin state winner, Skylar Kundert, a student at Parkside Elementary School in Monroe. 

Kundert grew a big cabbage and was randomly selected by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. Kundert will receive a $1,000 saving bond toward education from Bonnie Plants. 

This year, more than 1 million third-graders in the 48 contiguous states have gotten hands-on gardening experience, growing colossal cabbages with high hopes to win “best in state” and receive a $1,000 scholarship towards education from Bonnie Plants. More than 15,000 children from Wisconsin participated in the program. 

Coincidentally, cabbages were the first profitable plant sold by Bonnie Plants in 1918, and are known to be a hearty vegetable. The cabbages provided to the third grade program are “O.S. Cross” cabbages; this variety is known for producing giant, oversized heads, making the process even more exciting. 

Each year, Bonnie Plants —  the largest producer of vegetable and herb plants in North America with 80 greenhouse facilities across the country — trucks free O.S. Cross, or “oversized,” cabbage plants to third-grade classrooms whose teachers have signed up for the program online at bonnieplants.com. If nurtured and cared for, children can cultivate, nurture and grow giant cabbages, some much bigger than a basketball, tipping the scales, often over 40 pounds.

In 1996, Bonnie Plants initiated the 3rd Grade Cabbage Program in and around headquarters in Union Springs, Alabama, with a mission to inspire a love of vegetable gardening in young people and continue to “grow” our next generation of gardeners. 

By 2002, the program became a national endeavor. 

It awards a $1,000 scholarship to one student in each participating state. At the end of the season, teachers from each third-grade class select the student who has grown the “best” cabbage, based on size and appearance. A digital image of the cabbage and student is submitted online at www.bonnieplants.com, and the student’s name is then entered in a statewide drawing. State winners are randomly selected by the office of the director of the state’s agriculture department in each of the 48 participating states.

To see the winners and learn more about the 2018 contest, visit bonnieplants.com.