Courses Available: Horticulture and Floristry

Horticulture Image

Horticultural learners have access to an excellent and wide range of practical resources in the Horticulture Unit and Grounds for practical work, assessment, and work skills development opportunities.

The unit Grounds and estate include: Ornamental and decorative areas, shrubberies, a rose garden, extensive range of decorative trees, lawn areas, a wide range of sports turf features, water features, glasshouse production unit with newly developed propagation facilities, nursery stock production area, organic orchard, soft fruit and vegetable growing areas, hard landscaping facilities, the BBC's Gardener’s Question Time garden and a wide range of hedges and other wildlife areas. These extensive facilities provide a real work environment and enable a wide range of learning opportunities to be developed by learners, particularly in the areas of landscape, turf and decorative skills.

The National Diploma learners are fully involved in the preparation and execution of Chelsea Flower Show garden each year, which develops both their technical and team working skills. The Learner’s Garden has consistently been awarded a Royal Horticultural Society medal ranging from bronze to gold. In 2007, a team from the National Diploma Year One programme took part in the UK Landscape Skills competition, in which they had to build a garden under commercial time constraints in front of an audience consisting of the public and within a given timescale. The learners won the Regional and then the National Final in 2007, competing against other colleges and teams. They are now in a very good position to qualify for the World Skills finals in Calgary this year, representing the UK. The quality and expertise of the skills demonstrated at this competition was highlighted by the British Association of Landscape Industries CEO and the judges, who praised the winning team for demonstrating a high level of skills.

This practical skills development is further enhanced by encouraging learners to develop the skills in their chosen options of landscaping, decorative horticulture or turf culture. An example of this is in the current landscaping of the Horticulture Unit, whereby the learners are building the hard landscaping, replanting and turfing the area around the new temporary classrooms. Learners from a range of programmes have been involved in this project, with commercial contractors also involved with parts of it which has given learners a useful insight into the industry. A present project is the renovation of the Tropical Glasshouse, following the replacement of the thermal screens. Various learner groups are involved in this renovation work ranging from designing, replanting and landscaping the area.

Various groups of learners are currently involved in the preparation of a range of plants in the newly developed propagation area, to be sold at the College Countryside Day in May and at the BBC's Gardener's Question Time Open Day in June. The grounds team is responsible for the extensive sports fields at the College which provide learners with valuable opportunities to work alongside the team and develop their skills in sports turf maintenance and management.

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