General Horticulture Courses

Learn about the history of landscaped Gardens and Cultivated plants, in the UK, Europe and elsewhere.

See how gardens have evolved over the centuries, and broaden your perspective on what is possible and appropriate in garden design today. Garden history will enlighten you, and vastly expand the scope of possibilities you have before you as a modern garden designer. Lessons cover garden designers, great gardens and gardeners of the world, private and public gardens, globilisation of gardens, scope and nature of modern garden conservation, the roles of organisations in garden conservation and much more.

This is a comprehensive well-rounded course that offers the horticultural marketing manager or small business owner what they need to be successful in this essential component of business management.

This subject covers the theoretical and practical importance of marketing in the horticultural industry, including topics such as advertizing, promotions, signs, customer relations, pricing strategy, labelling, transport, product presentation, and more.

Do you have a passion for helping others? And you are also Passionate about Horticulture?

Combine the two for a rewarding career in horticultural therapy.

Horticultural therapy is a powerful way for working therapeutically with people.

An exciting, emerging industry - step outside of the norm, follow your passions, and develop an interesting and highly rewarding career - become a Horticultural Therapist.

Horticultural therapy (also known as‘social and therapeutic horticulture’) uses the activities associated with horticulture such as gardening, plant propagation, plant care, visits to natural environments and gardens and parks etc. in personal development; to engender a feeling of well-being, improve physical health and encourage social interaction.

The ideal course for the beginner, this is a basic, yet thoroughly practical course which gives you a sound broad technical grounding in horticultural principles and practices. A section of each lesson involves plant identification.

• To identify, propagate and care for 80 different types of plants.
• The systematic way plants are classified.
• Structure and parts of a flower.
• To identify different leaf shapes.
• Different ways to control weeds.
• Simple soil tests.
• Making propagating and potting mixes.
• Identifying pest and disease problems.
• How and why to prune different plants.
• Drawing a simple garden sketch plan.
• To plant or repair a lawn; and lots more.

Start your training to work in zoos, national parks or wilderness area management here.

Learn Parks Management

Learn to be a Horticulturalist with the best practical skills!

A practical approach to horticultural education.. How do you learn the practical side of horticulture by distance education? Although all ACS courses are practically and well as theoretically focussed - this course was developed for those people who feel that they will gain more from a course that places MOST of the learning experience on learning theory - through practice. There are lots of practical horticultural tasks to develop your skills and knowledge covered in this course. So if you are a student that prefers practical learning, then this course is the ANSWER, and it really does work! Best taken online, or on CD, where you can make full use of interactive learning tasks and coloured photography on the computer. This course has been written to satisfy curriculum developed by the Royal Horticultural Society in the UK (Advanced Certificate and Diploma level).

Take the next step in your career: develop practical skills in the management of a variety of horticultural situations required of the horticultural manager or the management of your own business that you would normally learn working under the supervision of a horticultural expert. A step on from Practical Horticulture 1 but a course that can be taken in its own right by those with fundamental horticultural knowledge.

Following is an excerpt from lesson 1.

Work planning and project management is an important aspect of the type of work that would be generally carried out by the professional horticulturist. It may be in diverse areas within the horticulture industry i.e. a planting program, plant sales program, landscape project, re-vegetation project, sports or turf management, irrigation and drainage systems implementation, production planning (crops and nursery), conservation of natural resource areas, conserve a heritage area and so on. Project management may be under the broad direction of superiors in certain situations however self directed application of knowledge that has substantial depth is expected at this level.

Some supervision is required for this course by an independent horticultural expert such as your work manager or other expert. The course contains all the tips to develop excellent practical skills in the management of a variety of horticultural situations. It covers subject areas such as: horticultural calculations, propagation management, hard and soft landscape management, planning - identifying needs for management of horticultural sites, identifying plant tissue and much more.

This course will help you to stay ahead of the competition and fulfill your managerial or business aspirations.

Learn about effective weed control

In horticultural practice, if weeds are to be controlled, it is critical that they are accurately identified when young. However, weeds are notorious for their diversity and resilience. These two characteristics have made weeds attractive as garden plants in countries to which they are not native.

Young weeds are far easier to control than older and more established weeds. There are many different ways of controlling weed growth, and the effectiveness of each technique is related to the varieties of weeds being controlled. Some chemicals, for instance will effectively kill certain weeds when they are in the early stages of growth, but will not control other types of weeds. You may need to be able to distinguish between types of weeds to determine whether the chemical will or will not work.