PERENNIALS BHT316

Perennial Flower Gardening Course

• Learn to identify, select and grow perennial plants for floral and foliage displays.
• A course for nurserymen, gardeners, garden designers, plant breeders, plant collectors -anyone with a passion for perennials.

COURSE STRUCTURE
There are 8 lessons as follows:

1. Introduction
   • Review of the system of plant identification
   • Physiology
   • Information sources
2. Culture
   • Planting
   • Staking
   • Mulching
   • Watering
   • Feeding
   • Pruning, etc.
3. Propagation and Hybridization
4. Review of Major Types of Perennials
5. Pests & Disease
6. Irrigation & Hydroponic Culture Techniques
7. Landscaping with Perennials
8. Further Uses

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Duration:  100 hours

Scope of the Course

This course is broad in scope, covering all types of perennials. It provides a pathway to learning about perennials that also allows each individual student to make choices about the types of perennials they wish to focus their attention on.

In many of the tasks you carry out, you will have an opportunity to focus on the genera that most interest you; and receive mentoring from horticultural experts, to help develop your knowledge with respect to those genera.

Perennials cover a wide range of plants including both ornamental and useful plants. There are perennial plants for all situations.

Botanists may call perennials any plants that live for several years (ie. anything that is not an annual or a biennial). Gardeners and horticulturists however, generally refer to perennials as plants which have softer tissue (ie. are not woody), as well as living for several years.

The term biennial is also sometimes used, referring to a plant that lives for and completes its life cycle in 2 years. A perennial may therefore be distinguished from annuals and biennials as having a longer lifespan than those two types of plants.

Horticulturists and gardeners commonly think of two types of perennials:

• herbaceous perennials
• evergreen perennials

Herbaceous perennials die back for during part of the year. Commonly, the whole of the top of the plant may die back, leaving a crown or swelling at ground level, and the roots below. Some however may only loose part of the top growth. Evergreen perennials maintain leaves (at least some) throughout all seasons.

Some Perennials to Grow