Nursery Courses

Use the link below ('read more') to view more comprehensive details of this course.

Use the link below ('read more') to view more comprehensive details of this course.

This course offers in-depth professional training for people wishing to work in nurseries at a technician or management level - in positions such as nursery managers, technical representatives or consultants.

• Accredited by IARC
• Articulates into higher qualifications with our UK college or affiliate (Warnborough College)
• Team of internationally renowned tutors

  Study Biochemistry (Plants), Instructional Skills, Business Studies, and Workplace Health and Safety in the core units then advance to 800 hours of study in compulsory modules (normally 8 x 100 hour modules) which include:
  

  Horticultural Management, Horticultural Marketing, Botany I, Advanced Propagation, Horticulture I, Soil Management, Plant Protection, plus either Wholesale Nursery Management or Garden Centre Management.

  A further 6 Stream Elective Subjects selected from the following:

  Wholesale Nursery Management or Garden Centre Management (whichever was not previously chosen), Horticulture II, Irrigation, Landscaping I, Fruit Production, Commercial Vegetable Production, Advanced Hydroponics, Australian Native Plants I, Herb Culture, Orchid Culture, Roses.

  PLUS two Optional Electives

  200 hours of study in modules (normally 2 X 100 hour modules), which can be chosen from any advanced diploma accredited modules, from a wide range of disciplines, excluding Recreation Administration & Management I, II & IV, Agricultural Marketing, Farm Management.

  Making this an extremely comprehensive learning experience!

  Use the link below ('read more') to view more comprehensive details of this course.
  

  
  

  
  

Designed to train skilled plant propagators with a sound background in horticulture - this course provides a broad foundation in plant identification, soils, fertilisers, pest and disease management and general horticulture, and more specific knowledge of propagation techniques and concepts.

Topics covered include seed, softwood cuttings, semi hard and hardwood cuttings, budding, grafting, layering, division, separation, seed, tissue culture and more.

This course is similar to other VHT002 horticulture certificates in its introductory (core) units, but devotes 50% of the course to topics specifically related to plant propagation, dealing with hundreds of different types of plants, and methods used to propagate more commercially significant varieties.

Use the link below ('read more') to view more comprehensive details of this course.

Learn to manage a retail plant nursery or garden centre! Originally designed in conjunction with the State Garden Department Manager of a major retail chain store; this course has been very successful in training both staff and managers of retail nurseries and garden centres across different countries. It was thoroughly updated recently by horticultural professionals in both Australia and the U.K. to be relevant to countries around the world.

If you are working your way up to the top, or have just landed a position there, then this course is for you!

Work in a Plant Nursery

This is a course designed in collaboration with nursery hands at the Greening Australia Hamel Nursery, south of Perth. It teaches the skills for day to day work in a production nursery. There are eleven lessons involving: The Nursery Industry - operational flow charts, nursery standards, plant variety rights, transport regulations;plant identification, nursery structures, buildings, heating & cooling systems; potting mixes, seed propagation, cutting propagation, other propagation techniques, plant nutrition, pest & disease control, other nursery tasks and marketing and sales

Work in a Garden Centre or Plant Nursery

This course was developed in response to a request from a retail nurseryman who was finding it difficult to find staff with appropriate skills. As he put it, job applicants were either over qualified or lacked the basic skills needed: to be able to identify plants, advise customers on their use and to understand some basic sales techniques and procedures.

Combine a passion for gardening with the thrill of exploring and creating plants that have never been seen before. 

Plant breeding is a bigger industry than most people realize. In some places, earnings from plant breeding rights can equal or exceed earnings from actually producing plants. Today's nurseryman needs to understand plant breeding and selection; and to this end, this course is a very valuable and unique course for anyone working in the modern industry.

Seed can be used to produce lots of plants, fast and with few resourses; provided you know how.

Some plants may germinate and grow with ease, but for others, the seed and seedlings must be handled in a very particular way to ensure not only germination, but also survival of the seedling. This is a course for:

• Nursery staff
• Seed merchants, seed collectors, plant breeders, etc
• Environmental or revegetation officers
• Anyone else interested in developing a deeper understanding of seed propagation.

Tissue culture involves growing plants from very small sections (sometimes microscopic) in a laboratory. It is a propagation method which is being increasingly used. Tissue culture is not appropriate for many plants, but for others such as orchids, some indoor plants and in particular, many new plant varieties, it is a very popular propagation method.

Quote from Principal, Horticulturist and garden author John Mason: 

"Since developing this course in the late 1980's, I've encountered graduates on many occasions who have gone on to start their own tissue culture facility, and others who have successfully found employment working in a larger tissue culture enterprise. The course continues regular reviews and updates, and today reflects the input of more than a dozen tissue culture experts, biotechnologists and horticulture professionals."

Managing a production nursery involves more than just propagating and potting up plants. Even the small nursery must be able to not only producer plants, but do it at a pre determined cost, then sustain those plants before and during marketing.

The nursery industry currently has a real need for people with skills and knowledge in managing production plant nurseries! This course provides a solid grounding for developing those skills.

Course developed by a team headed by John Mason, author of "Nursery Management", published by Landlinks Press