MOUNT VERNON — Tulip heads sprawled across the Mount Vernon High School lawn fluttered and shifted in the wind and rain Tuesday afternoon.

More than 80 teens corralled the topped tulips into various designs for the annual Tulipalooza design contest. The designs were built by and represented the Key Club, AVID, the school’s choir and nine other student organizations. The students placed red, pink, purple and yellow tulips with one hand, while holding a jacket closed with the other.

But the weather didn’t keep a record 12 student clubs from participating in the annual event.

“It’s been difficult,” said Manuel García, 17, president of Latino Education Achievement Program (LEAP). “But it doesn’t outweigh the fun.”

Other groups used tulips for groan-worthy puns.

The Latin Club depicted a banana Brutus stabbing an apple Caesar with the phrase “Et tu fruité?”

Vaani Ganeson, a member of the science club, even found a pun within the equation “p = mv,” which she said relates to momentum.

The club displayed the equation in tulips, along with a car with an arrow showing its motion and the phrase, “That’s how we roll.”

But sometimes the simplest design is the best, and leave it to the marketing club to find that.

DECA members arranged their tulips into a diamond-shaped logo in pink, red and yellow. On either side, they arranged the letters DECA and numbers 2009 in large, bold clumps of tulips.

The students picked up Roozengaarde petals Monday and brought the blossoms to the high school lawn on Ninth Street to create the large, rectangular works of art.

Community members judged the temporary artwork, awarding $300, $200 and $100 to the top three designs. Each club received $25 for participating.

Lucy Lopez, president of the high school’s student chapter of MEChA, said her club’s design honored the farmworkers in the tulip fields.

The club’s design showed a man in a hat bending over a field of yellow tulips, with a yellow sun beaming down on his back.

Lopez said she has worked in the tulip fields and knows how challenging it can be. She said she wore herself out Monday bending over in the fields to get the blossoms.

“I was there just half an hour, and my back hurt,” Lopez said. “It’s hard work.”

Lopez said the whole club agreed to the farmworker design, especially after Sunday marches advocating for migrant farm workers.