Horticulture 800 Hours Advanced Diploma

Core Modules:

1. Propagation I BHT108
2. Soil Management BAG103
3. Botany I BSC104
4. Horticulture III (Plant Health) BHT103
5. Practical Horticulture I BHT238

Elective Modules: Choose any 3 modules from the list below:

1. Outdoor Plant Production (Crops I) BHT112 or;
2. Protected Plant Production BHT223
3. Planning Layout and Construction of Ornamental Gardens BHT242 or;
4. Restoring Established Ornamental Gardens BHT243
5. Turf Care BHT104 or Plant Selection and Establishment BHT107
6. Wholesale Nursery Management BHT212

Note: each module in this Advanced Diploma is a certificate in its own right, and may be studied separately. Click on links above to see what each module will teach you in more detail.e Modules: Lesson Structure

Core Modules: Lesson Structures

Below are the lesson topics you will cover in the core modules.
Click on the above links for more details and to view the course content, lessons and what you will do in the courses.

1. Propagation I BHT108

There are 10 lessons:

1. Introduction to Propagation
2. Seed Propagation
3. Potting Media
4. Vegetative Propagation I
5. Vegetative Propagation II
6. Vegetative Propagation III
7. Propagation Structures and Materials
8. Risk Management
9. Nursery Management I
10. Nursery Management II

2. Soil Management BAG103

There are 8 lessons:

1. Introduction: Soils And Soil Classification
2. Properties of Soils and Plant Nutrition
3. Soil Testing Methods
4. Land Degradation and Other Soil Problems
5. Soil Management on Farms
6. Crops: Soil and Nutrient Requirements (Part A)
7. Crops: Soil and Nutrient Requirements (Part B)
8. PBL Soil project - Soil Investigation and Report

3. Botany I - Plant Physiology and Taxonomy BSC104

There are 10 lessons:

1. Taxonomic Classification of Plants
2. Cells and Tissues
3. Specific Vegetative Parts of a Plant
4. Flowers and Fruit
5. Seed and the Developing Embryo
6. Photosynthesis and Growing Plants
7. Respiration
8. The Role of Water
9. Movement of Water and Assimilates through a Plant
10. The Effects of Tropisms and Other Growth Movements

4. Horticulture III - Plant Health BHT103

There are 10 lessons:

1. Introduction
2. Overview of Preventative Controls
3. Insecticides
4. Other Pesticides
5. Spray Equipment
6. Insect Biology
7. Fungal Biology
8. Environmental Problems
9. Viruses
10. Nematodes, Molluscs and Crustaceans
    

5. Practical Horticulture I BHT238

There are 10 lessons:

1. Soil Analysis
2. Seed Propagation (including seed identification)
3. Vegetative Propagation
4. Potting up and After Care of young plants
5. Planting
6. Maintenance of Established Plants
7. Practical Plant Identification
8. Pest and Disease Identification
9. Weed Identification
10. Risk Assessment

Then Choose any 3 of the elective modules listed above

See what our students have been saying about us?:

The quality of this course is second to none, from the in-depth learning you will get to the expert individual mentoring you will receive throughout your studies. The mentors for this course are:

Susan Stephenson

BSc in Applied Plant Biology (Botany) Univ. London 1983.

City and guilds: Garden Centre Management, Management and Interior Decor (1984)

Management qualifications in training with retail store. Diploma in Hort level 2 (RHS General) Distinction.

Susan Stephenson is a passionate and experienced horticulturist and garden designer. She has authored three books, lectures at 2 Further and Higher Education Colleges, teaching people of all ages and backgrounds about the wonders of plants and garden design, and tutors many students by correspondence from all over the world.

Susan studied botany at Royal Holloway College (Univ of London) and worked in the trading industry before returning to her first love plants and garden design. She is therefore, well placed to combine business knowledge with horticulture and design skills. Her experience is wide and varied and she has designed gardens for families and individuals. Susan is a mentor for garden designers who are just starting out, offering her support and advice and she also writes, delivers and assesses courses for colleges, introducing and encouraging people into horticulture and garden design.

In 2010, Susan authored a complete module for a Foundation degree (FDSC) in Arboriculture.

Susan holds the RHS General with Distinction. She continues to actively learn about horticulture and plants and (as her students will tell you) remains passionate and interested in design and horticulture.

Steven Whitaker

Diploma in Garden Design (Distinction) – The Blackford Centre, Gold Certificate of Achievement in Horticulture, Level 2 NVQ in Amenity Horticulture, Level 1 NOCN Introduction to Gardening, – Joseph Priestly College, BTEC Diploma in Hotel, Catering and Institutional Operations (Merit), Trainer Skills 1, & 2, Group trainer, Interview and Selection Skills – Kirby College of Further Education

Steven has a wealth of Horticultural knowledge, having ran his own Design and Build service, Landscaping company, and been a Head Gardener. His awards include five Gold awards at Leeds in Bloom, two Gold awards at Yorkshire in Bloom and The Yorkshire Rose Award for Permanent Landscaping. Steven has worked with TV’s Phil Spencer as his garden advisor on the Channel 4 TV Programme, “Secret Agent”.

He is qualified to Level 2 NVQ in Amenity Horticulture and has a Diploma in Garden Design which he passed with Distinction. Steven’s Tutor and Mentor was the Chelsea Flower Show Gold Award-winning Garden Designer, Tracy Foster. He also works for a major Horticultural Commercial Grower in the field of Propagation and Craft Gardening. Steven lives in Leeds where he is a Freelance Garden Designer and Garden Advice Consultant.

Extract from Propagation 1 BHT108

LIFE CYCLES IN PLANTS

There are basically two different types of developmental life cycles in plants: sexual and asexual. These phases have a significant influence on the techniques used by propagators.

Phases of the Sexual Cycle
There are three phases in this cycle:

1. The embryo phase – the union of male and female gametes in the flower forms a single-celled zygote. The resulting embryo develops within the fruit and seed.

2. The juvenile phase – the seed germinates and the embryo grows into a juvenile plant. At this stage, many plants respond well to vegetative propagation techniques but will not respond to flower-inducing stimuli.
3. The adult phase – the plant reaches its ultimate size and develops flowers in response to environmental signals (e.g. change in day-length or temperature) or internal hormonal stimuli. The plant may change in its morphological appearance including leaf shape and growth habit. It may be more difficult to propagate by vegetative means but has better response to flowerinducing stimuli. In some plants both the juvenile and adult phases can be found in the same plant at one time.

Phases of the asexual cycle

There are two phases in the asexual cycle:
1. Vegetative phase – this phase involves the growth of the plant: roots, leaves and stems increase in length, and the plant increases in volume.

2. Flowering phase – the stems stop growing, and the growing points differentiate into flower buds that eventually produce flowers, fruits and seeds.

Sage at flowering phase
Types of Life Cycles Life cycles of plants can be classified as annual, biennial and perennial, depending on how long it takes for the plant to grow through the sexual cycle from zygote to seed production.

Annuals – plants go through the entire life cycle in one season, i.e. seeds germinate, grow and produce flowers and seeds, then die in the same growing season.
Biennials – plants have a two-year life cycle, i.e. seeds germinate and remain in a vegetative or juvenile state for one season. They remain dormant over winter then produce flowers and seeds in the second season then die.
Biennial – Carum carvi
Perennials – plants live more than two years; each year they go through the vegetativereproductive cycle.
• Herbaceous perennials are plants that have shoots that die back each winter or in dry periods, then re-grow and flower the following season. They have specialised underground storage organs such as bulbs, rhizomes or crowns that enable them to survive the dormant period.
• Woody perennials continue to increase in size every year.

Herbaceous perennial - Nepeta faasenii Woody perennial – Lavandula sp.

TERMINOLOGY
Sexual propagation: A method of propagation that requires the union (fertilization) between the male and female gametes to from a single cell (the zygote) within the ovary of a flower. New plants show variability to that of the parents as it has both features.

Asexual propagation: A method of propagation that involves no fusion between the male and female gametes. These methods result in a plant that is identical to the parent plant. Techniques include cuttings, division, separation, layering, tissue culture, etc.

Stool bed layering: Sometimes called mound layering or stooling. Healthy plants are planted in loose friable soil one year before propagation is to start. Before mother plants start shooting in spring, they are cut back to 2.5cm above the ground level. When they are 7-12 cm long, loose soil or sawdust is heaped up around each shoot to about half its height. When shoots have grown to a total height of about 20-25cm, a second hilling operation takes place. A third and final hilling usually takes place in mid-summer when shoots have reached about 45cm. At this stage the base of the shoots will have a covering of about 15-20cm. By the end of the growing period, stool shoots should have rooted sufficiently to be removed form the parent plant. Hilling may restart the following year. This technique has been used for plants such as apple and pear rootstocks, quince, currants and gooseberries.

Separation: A method of asexual propagation which involves the pulling apart of immature plants from one-another. Bulbous plans such as daffodils can be separated for one-another.

Division: A method of asexual propagation involving the cutting away of plants from the parent plant. Clump forming plants are the most commonly divided plants. Use of two garden forks backto-back pushed into the plant then teased apart is a common technique of division. Plant parts that are cut should be severed with a sharp clean instrument such as a knife or secateurs.

Root cuttings: A method of asexual propagation utilizing root pieces taken from young stock plants in late winter or early spring. It is important to maintain the correct polarity when planting (to avoid confusion many propagators cut the upper end flat and the lower end at a slight angle). When planting, insert cutting vertical so that top of cutting is at soil level. With many species, laying the cutting horizontally 2.5 - 5 cm deep works quite well and avoids the confusion of planting upside down.

Leaf bud cuttings: A method of asexual propagation consisting of a leaf blade (lamina), petiole, and a short piece of the stem with the attached axillary bud.

Top grafting: Also called top working. To change the cultivar of a tree by grafting the main scaffold branches.

Budding: A form of grafting; a single vegetative bud is taken from one plant and inserted into stem tissue of another plant so that the two grow together as one plant. The inserted bud develops into a new shoot.

Aerial layering: Also called marcott; an unattached aerial portion of a plant on which roots are caused to develop commonly as the result of wounding or other stimulation.

Offsets: Term given to full sized bulblets (miniature meristematic bulbs in the axils of bulb scales).
Approach grafting: Two independent, self-sustaining plants are grafted together. After the union has occurred, the top of the stock plant is removed above the graft and the base of the scion plant is removed below the graft. It is normally performed with one or both of the plants in containers. It is commonly used for plants where grafting is not so successful. It is best done when growth is active and rapid healing of graft union should occur. There are three methods of approach grafting: spliced, tongued and inlay.