Distance Education Course -Learn to Identify Plants

• Learn about the system of plant identification -once you know the "system" remembering names becomes easier.
• Learn shortcuts to identifying plants, and how to pronounce plant names
• Discover a pattern to cultural requirements, pest susceptibility, propagation methods and other plant characteristics\
• Expand the number of plants you can identify, and set yourself on track to keep expanding that ability after completing this course.

A good horticulturist or gardener needs to be able to identify hundreds of plants early in their career; and after 5 years in the industry, that number should be well over 1,000.  This course sets you on the path to achieving this level of plant knowledge; or better.

This is a course for anyone working in landscaping or gardening. It will extend your knowledge, improve your ability to find solutions to problems you confront, and improve your opportunities for advancing your career (or growing your business).

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. The Groups of Plants ‑ setting a framework for the whole subject.
   • Plant Names
   • Common Names
   • Scierntific Names
   • Hybrid, Variety, Cultivar
   • Botanical Keys
   • History of Organised Nomenclature
   • International Code, Ranks of Taxa
   • Principle of Priority
   • Choice, Construction and Spelling Names
   • Name Changes
   • Abbreviations
   • Colour Charts
   • Plant Breeders Rights
   • Review of Selected Families
   • Different ways of grouping or classifying plants
2. Use of Plants
   • Plants in the Landscape
   • Choosing Plants
   • Pre purchase Considerations
   • Planting Techniques
   • Conservation Planting
   • Vandalism and Planting
   • Recycling spent wood
   • Soil restrictions on Plant Selection
3. Australian Native Plants
   • Conditions needed by a particular species
   • General characteristics of Indigenous Plants
   • Selected Native Trees of Australia
   • Selected Native Trees of Great Britain
   • Selected European Native Trees
   • Selected American Native Trees
   • Selected Asian Natives
   • Selected North African Natives
   • Selected Middle East Natives
   • Street Trees - Review of a Survey/Report
   • Quick Reference Review of both Australian and UK Amenity Plant Genera
4. Exotic Ornamental Plants
   • Rhododendrons
   • Azaleas
   • Roses
   • Conifers
   • Trees in the Landscape -Why plant trees, tree problems, Popular ornamental trees
   • Guide to Shrubs in the Landscape
   • Environmental Influences on Plant Selection
   • What Plant Where
   • Review of many Genera
5. Indoor & Tropical Plants
   • Indoor Plants
   • Potting Indoor Plants
   • Ferns
   • Landscaping with Ferns
   • Recommended Ferns
6. Bedding Plants
   • Bulbs
   • Chrysanthemums
   • Cut Flowers
7. Vegetables
   • What Can be Grown
   • Crop Rotation
   • Varieties and Seed to grow
   • Mushrooms
8. Fruits, Nuts & Berries
   • Apples
   • Apricots
   • Avocado
   • Banana Cherry
   • Citrus
   • Fig
   • Grape
   • Mango
   • Olive
   • Passionfruit
   • Paw Paw
   • Pear
   • Peach
   • Plum
   • Berry Fruit
   • Walnut
   • Chestnut
   • Almond
   • Macadamia
   • Other Fruits and Nuts
9. Herbs
   • Easier to Grow Herbs
   • Quick Reference Herb Chart
   • Companion Planting and Insect Deterrants
   • Herbal Teas
   • Herb Cultivation
   • Harvesting Herbs
   • Making Pot Pourri
   • The Mints
   • Propagating Herbs
   • Landscaping with Herbs
   • Poisonous Plants
10. Alternative Growing Techniques
    • Containers & Comparing types
    • Container Aesthetics
    • Preventing Moss and Algae
    • Potting Up Plants
    • Potting Mixes
    • Hydroponics
    • Bonsaiu
    • Greenhouse and Shadehouse Growing
    • Heating
    • Growing Epiphytes
    • Terrariums.
    • Water Gardens

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.

Aims

• Identify plants from a wide range of taxonomic and cultural groups, using a range of different techniques.
• Determine techniques for the growing of native shrubs and trees, including the selection, culture and use of different species.
• Determine techniques for the growing of exotic ornamental shrubs and trees, including the selection, culture and use of different species.
• Determine techniques for the growing of indoor plants, including selection, culture and use of different varieties.
• Determine techniques for the growing of bedding plants, including selection, culture and use of different varieties.
• Develop techniques for the growing of edible crop plants, including selection, culture and use of vegetables, fruit, berries and nuts.
• Determine appropriate applications for a range of alternative growing methods.

Plant Collections

Part of this course involves doing plant reviews in each lesson; submitting those reviews, and getting feedback on them from an expert professional horticulturist. Along with other techniques (used in this course) this is a tried and proven method of learning plant names. It can be tedious, but if you are serious about horticulture; doing this and everything else in this course can give you a very real edge on the competition in today's horticulture industry.

How we do Plant Reviews:

With each of the 10 assignments (not the special assignment) submitted, you submit 12 plant specimens representing the following groups as outlined:

• Natives 2 specimens per lesson
• Exotic 2 specimens per lesson
• Indoor plants 1 specimen per lesson
• Flowers (annuals, bulbs or perennials) 2 specimens per lesson
• Groundcover plants 1 specimen per lesson
• Food plants or herbs 2 specimens per lesson
• Plants of your choice 2 specimens per lesson

With each specimen you include the following information:

1. Find your plants. You might find these plants growing in your own garden, or you might visit a nursery to find them.

2. Send in an illustration of the plant (see below) attached to a Plant Identification Worksheet (see next page).

3. Fill in details of the plant’s name, including the family it belongs to, its genus, species and, if you can, a common name.

4. Fill in remaining information about the plants in the spaces provided:

• Propagation...state how to propagate it.
• Height...how high it can grow in your locality?
• Width...how wide can it grow in your locality?
• Uses...what uses does the plant have with respect to amenity landscaping, crop production, etc.?
• Hardiness...is it frost tender? Will it survive full sun or does it need shade? How does the wind affect it? Will it tolerate all types of soils? etc.
• Culture...are there any special things the plant requires? How hard should it be pruned & how often? Does it need good drainage? How often should it be fertilised? etc.
• Pest & Diseases...List any pests or diseases which are particularly significant for this plant.

Illustrating the Plant

This may be done any of the following ways:

a) Submit a photograph or drawing of parts of the plant.

b) Send a scan of a photograph or drawing. (Do not send large graphics files over the Internet. Consult your student manual for details.)

c) Refer to a web site page location where you have found the plant illustrated on the Internet. D) Submit a photograph of a pressed specimen. Note: Do not send pressed specimens across state or national boarders. To do so may be illegal and breach Quarantine law.

FREQUENT QUESTIONS

Why Choose This Course

• Unique course materials (developed by our staff) and more current than some colleges (many reviewed annually); as a result, ACS graduates can be more up to date.
• We work hard to help you understand and remember it, develop an ability to apply it in the real world, and build networks with others who work in this field (It’s more than just serving up a collection of information –if all you want is information, buy a book; but if you want an education, that takes learning to a whole new level).
• Start whenever you want, study at your own pace, study anywhere
• Don’t waste time and money traveling classes
• We provide more choices–courses are written to allow you more options to focus on parts of the subject that are of more interest to you; a huge range of elective subjects are offered that don’t exist elsewhere.
• Tutors are accessible (more than elsewhere) – academics work in both the UK and Australia, 5 days a week, 16 hours a day. Answering emails and phone calls from students are top priority.
• We treat students as individuals –don’t get lost in a crowd. Our tutors communicate with you one to one.
• Extra help at no extra cost if needed. When you find something you cannot do, we help you through it or will provide another option.
• Support after you finish a course –We can advise about getting work, starting  business, writing a CV, etc. We can promote students and their businesses through our extensive profile on the internet. Graduates who ask will be helped.
• Support from a team of a dozen professional horticulturists, living in different parts of the UK, and in both temperate and tropical climate zones of Australia.

About ACS

ACS was started in 1979 by John Mason, who at the time was a gardening author, horticultural consultant and lecturer in horticulture at several colleges across Melbourne (in Australia).  Over the summer that year John discovered that there were thousands of applicants going to be turned away from horticulture courses at Burnley Horticultural College (now Melbourne University). There were simply too few courses being offered for the number of people wanting to study horticulture in Australia. This situation prompted a move to establish a correspondence course at Burnley; but after months of unsuccessful lobbying for support from government; John wrote a course, and with help from a colleague at Council of Adult Education, marketed it.

Standards were originally set in line with what were seen to be the standards of Australia's top horticultural college; and over the years, those standards have never been reduced. This makes our courses longer and more demanding than some other colleges; but it has also led to us building a credibility that stands tall in the horticulture industry across the world. 

In the early 1990's John started visiting the UK and becoming involved with the horticulture industry there. Around the mid 1990's ACS began offering RHS courses, and in 2003, John was formally recognised for his contribution to British Horticulture by being made a fellow of the Institute of Horticulture. ACS, as a school, established an office and staff in the UK in 2001, and has expanded considerably since then. Today it is formally affiliated with five other colleges in the UK (including Warwickshire College); all of who license and deliver ACS courses. 

A team of leading horticulturists work for the school's horticulture department, including 12 faculty members in both the UK and Australia

How You Study

• As soon as you enroll, we send an email to explain it all.
• We direct you to a short orientation video (downloadable over the internet) to watch, where our principal introduces you to how the course works, and how you can access all sorts of support services
• You are either given a code to access your course online, or sent out a CD or course materials through the mail (or by courier).
• Work through lessons one by one, each lesson typically having four parts:
  • An aim -which tells you what you should be achieving in the lesson
  • Reading -notes written and regularly revised by our academic staff
  • Set Task(s) -These are practicals, research or other experiential learning tasks that strengthen and add to what you have been reading
  • Assignment -By answering questions, submitting them to a tutor, then getting feedback from the tutor, you confirm that you are on the right track, but more than that, you are guided to consider what you have been studying in different ways, broadening your perspective and reinforcing what you are learning about
  • Other - Your work in a course rarely stops at just the above four parts. Different courses and different students will need further learning experiences. Your set task or assignment may lead to other things, interacting with tutors or people in industry, reviewing additional reference materials or something else. We treat every student as an individual and supplement their learning needs as the occasion requires.
• We provide access to and encourage you to use a range of supplementary services including an online student room, including online library; student bookshop, newsletters, social media etc.
• We provide a "student manual", that is a quick solution to most problems that might occur

Recognition

• ACS has a highly respected international profile: by employers and academics alike. People are more aware of us than many other distance education schools –just do a search for “horticulture distance education courses” and see what comes up on the internet; or search for ACS Distance education on Facebook or Linked in, and see how many connections we have compared to other colleges.
• Recognised by International Accreditation and Recognition Council
• ACS has been educating people around the world since 1979
• Over 100,000 have now studied ACS courses, across more than 150 countries
• Formal affiliations with colleges in five countries
• A faculty of over 40 internationally renowned academics –books written by our staff used by universities and colleges around the world.

Extra Books or Reference Materials

• The course provides you with everything that you need to complete it successfully.
• Assignments may ask you to look for extra information (eg. by contacting nurseries, visiting gardens or searching the internet), but our school's resources and tutors are always available as a back up. If you hit a "roadblock", we can quickly send you additional information or provide expert advice over the phone or email; to keep you moving in your studies.
• Some students choose to buy additional references, to take their learning beyond what is essential for the course. If a student wants to buy books, we operate an online bookshop offering ebooks written by staff at the school. Student discounts are available if you are studying with us. The range of e books available is being expanded rapidly, with at least one new ebook being written and published by our staff every month. See www.acsebook.com