Oak Ridge High School attempting to break world record for largest mum

CONROE, Texas (KTRK) -- This high school football season is not just about state championships. It's about world records as well.

At Oak Ridge High School, Agriculture Science teacher Ashley Wilson and English teacher Theresa Neman brainstormed the idea of a colossal chrysanthemum. The entire school and the Oak Ridge community jumped on board.

Wilson said, "At the beginning of the year, we started putting it together. We gave the kids some paper and said let's design this out. Let's figure out how big to make it. We wanted the ribbon to be 150 feet long. We didn't know how big to make the base."

This monster mum's base is 26 feet in diameter. The flowers are made of plastic tablecloths and connected to the base's chicken wire with pipe cleaners. It's all student-made and student-designed.

Oak Ridge Welding teacher Dennis Hon's students put the base together.

"We went outside and drew lines 26 feet around and started cutting pipe," he said.

The Guinness World Record is based on square feet, not on length. A land surveyor will measure Oak Ridge's gigantic game changer. The current world record is 120 square feet, but Lewisville High School recently unveiled a 290-square-foot flower.

Wilson said with a smile, "ours will be over 2,000 feet. Will it dwarf them? Yes."