How is the course assessed?

The course is assessed by the completion of assignments and exams.

There is an assignment at the end of each lesson,  that is submitted to your tutor for marking and feedback. For example, Azaleas and Rhododendrons has eight lessons, so there are eight assignments.

There is also an exam at the end of each module, so ten in total. Exams can be taken at a time and location to suit you.

Start Date

You can start the course at any time to suit you and work through the course at your own pace.

Working with Hardy Ornamentals

One thing that separates professional horticulturalists from home gardeners is the breadth of their plant knowledge.  This is not to say that amateurs are not knowledgeable because there are many genuine experts growing and learning about their plants in their back gardens and becoming world-class experts in a genus or part of a genus.  In fact many professionals are also part-time geeks in their own personal obsession. 

However, when you are earning your living from gardening you have to know about any plant that you may come across in either your employer’s garden or in the gardens of your clients.  This means that you need a broad education and you need a structured course to cover the diversity of plants that you are most likely to come across.  The great advantage of a well thought out study programme is that it makes you look at the plants properly.

I recently received an email from an old friend asking me to explain the flowers of the English sycamore (Acer pseudoplantanus).  She was painting them and she did not like the fact that they are asymmetrical with five sepals and petals but eight stamens and two immature fruits.  I realised that I had never looked at the flowers of a sycamore, despite having pulled up literally 100s of seedlings this spring.  My friend was absolutely right about the number of parts in the flowers but was wrong to think that all flowers are symmetrical.  Without this prompting I would not have found the time to look at the flowers and one of the great benefits of taking distance learning courses is that they prompt you to look and learn.

Gardens in the UK contain more than 70,000 different plants.  Becoming familiar with them all is an impossible task.  The best plantsperson I know could recognise about half of them to family and genus but certainly not species.  To be a plants specialist is the goal of many professional gardeners.  By dividing the plant kingdom into manageable groups the task of learning about the plants we grow in our gardens becomes a very productive because plants in botanical groups have many things in common.  While you may not be able to identify every rhododendron and azalea you can learn how to cultivate them all successfully.

This foundation diploma is a wonderfully comprehensive course that will equip any professional gardener with the knowledge necessary to become a plants specialist and along the way you will become well acquainted with some of the most beautiful products of evolution!

If you would like to become an expert in hardy ornamentals, then this could will provide you with the knowledge and skills you need.

WHAT SETS ACS APART?

Service – We put the student first.  Tutors and administration can be contacted 5 days a week, 50 weeks of the year, by phone or email.

We provide Better Learning – We’ve been delivering distance education for over 3 decades, and we understand how people learn by home study.

Our methods are unique, developed through experience with a focus squarely on helping you learn.

Up to Date – We are continually revising and updating courses. We listen to our students feedback and we always improve the course if a change is identified that will help significantly improve your learning.

More Choice – Graduates need a set of skills that will set them apart and give them an advantage over competition in the world after study. We have a wide variety of study choices, and give you lots of options to choose different paths throughout a course. Doing this has meant our graduates very successful.

No Short Cuts –You can’t take short cuts in learning, and that is why our courses are often longer than you will find elsewhere. You could choose to study a short course, quickly sit an exam (while the information is fresh) and pass, but if you want to really understand something and retain it, that takes time.

More than just Learning Facts – We understand that success in the workplace or business requires you to not only learn things, but also build networks, understand the commercial world, be able to solve problems, communicate with people, and have an attitude that will function in your chosen industry.

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