"Paul Whitmore" wrote in message ...
Dear all,

My wife is extremely interested in gardening and is considering starting her
own garden design / consultancy service.

However, before she starts, she would like to gain a gardening qualification
to prove her knowledge, the thing is there seems to be quite a few different
courses available.

So my question is :- What would be the most "recognised" or respected
gardeining qualification that someone could acquire ?

Many thanks,

Paul.

I have looked into this a little, and I have to agree that experience
is the best thing she could have. Unfortunately there are no courses
that will give you this.

So, alternatives include City & Guilds. They have a Certificate in
Gardening, this is theoretical. They also hace a Practical
Certificate in Gardening, basically the same stuff but you get to wash
mud out from under your fingernails.

Also you have the RHS exams. RHS General would be the starting point,
I guess. As your request asked for the most respected of
qualifications this would be the one I would respect.

The gulf / differenece between the C&G and RHS is vast. For example
C&G suggest it would be neat if you knew Betula=Birch, Taxus=Yew etc,
while the RHS set their requirements a little higher than that.

Hope that helps

Phil