Thanks for that, we are starting to think that the RHS General would be the
best starting point. There appear to be a lot of people offering courses
that study towards the RHS general.

At the moment we are favouring the Institute of Gardening's Diploma in
Horticulture, which is a certificate in it's own right, but the course
material prepares you for the RHS General, which you take at the end if you
wish. Has anyone had an experience of this qualification ?

Many thanks for the info so far,

Paul.

"Philip" wrote in message
m...
"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