PERENNIALS

Growing Perennials

• 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.

Perennials are versatile, beautiful and important to the landscaping industry as well as the nurseries that grow and supply them. 
Perennials come in all forms, from herbaceous plants that die down in the winter and re-emerge in spring (year after year), to plants that retain their soft-stemmed leafy growth year round. Although beautiful, many perennials are also tough and very much adapted to a variety of climates - ranging from very dry to wet. Some have colourful foliage as well as beautiful flowers, others add architectural interest - but all add excitement and diversity to the landscape or garden as they burst into flower each year. Discover what perennials are, which perennial plants are most popular today, their cultural requirements (i.e. feeding, watering, soil requirements, pruning, pest control), and learn how to use them to create beautiful landscapes. A course equally valuable to landscapers, nurserymen, cut flower growers and garden enthusiasts.

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.

Lesson Structure

There are 8 lessons in this course:

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
   • Seed
   • Pricking out seedlings
   • Cuttings
   • Factors affecting cutting strike
   • Propagating media
   • Types of cuttings
   • Hardening off young plants
   • Division
   • Separation
   • Layering
   • Potting mixes
   • Potting up
4. Review of Major Types of Perennials
   • Herbaceous perennials
   • Establishing herbaceous plants
   • Popular bulbs, corms and tubers
   • Supporting herbaceous plants
   • Herbs in a perennial border
   • Wildflower meadows
   • Maintaining herbaceous borders
   • Perennials for different purposes/uses
   • Artemisia
   • Lavandula
   • Scented Geraniums
   • Ornamental; grasses
   • Bamboos
5. Pests and Disease
   • Plant pathology
   • Parasitic and non parasitic problems
   • Conducting an inspection and identifying problems
   • Tell tale symptoms
   • Common terminology
   • Common pests on perennials and their management
   • Diseases
6. Water Management
   • Significance of water
   • Infiltration and water retention
   • Water needs for perennials
   • Watering methods
   • When to water
   • Testing water needs
   • Reducing water needs
   • Watering perennials in pots
   • Drip irrigation
   • Hydroponics Introduction
   • Types of hydroponic systems
7. Landscaping with Perennials
   • Designing the garden
   • Landscape principles and components
   • Landscape effects
   • Design styles
   • Flower bed design
   • Colour themes
   • Cottage gardens
   • What perennials to grow in cottage gardens
   • Scented plants
   • Landscaping with bulbs
8. Further Uses for Perennials
   • Cut Flowers
   • What flowers the longest
   • Harvest and storage
   • Growing Carnations
   • Chrysanthemums
   • Herbs
   • Herb crafts

Aims

• Describe the identification of Perennial Plants.
• Determine sources of further information for identifying and growing different varieties of perennials.
• Discuss a variety of cultural techniques used to improve success in growing of different perennial plants.
• Determine the propagation of different perennial plants.
• Discuss the horticulture of a range of commonly grown perennial genera.
• Discuss the management of pests and diseases occurring on a range of perennial plants.
• Manage irrigation and drainage to ensure optimum water levels are maintained for healthy growth in perennials.
• Determine appropriate use of perennials in a range of horticultural situations.
• Describe a variety of uses for perennials.

Some Perennials to Grow

WHY WE TEACH YOU ABOUT PLANT FAMILIES

The basis for understanding different plants is to first understand the families. When you do this you gave a framework to attach your knowledge to. Plants in a family share common characteristics: are propagated similarly, often require similar water and soil conditions, and are able to be pruned similarly - even if they don't necessarily look similar.  Consider just one family that contains a lot of perennial species:

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 feed-back 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.