Study gardening

Hello everyone!

I am absolutely new to gardening, but I love plants and flowers and most of all I do love the UK. So i got this partly insane idea to start a gardening career somewhere in Great Britain. But I have completely no clue of where to start. I am 23 now and I have business education, but i decided to abandon economics for gardening (which is so much more beautiful). I would like to ask you, where is the best place in the UK to come study gardening, in order to become a professional gardener afterwards? I consider different possibilities, like I can get some education here in Russia first, but wouldn't it be better, if I want to work in the UK, to start learning experience there?

 

If you want really serious garden training, then there is only one place to go, Kew gardens.:gnthb:

 

What about training at one of the RHS sites Dai - would that compare?

 

Hadlow College specialises in horticultural courses:-

http://www.hadlow.ac.uk/

 

Thank you everyone, I'll check everything you mentioned. As I understand so far there are lots of colleges, providing training or RHS certificates or diploma, and there are gardens, like the most famous Kew gardens, which coordinate some kind of apprenticeship in the garden with studies at some nearby college. So what I have to do now is to contact some college and ask for their programs for international students. I'll write back and let you know, how everything is going on I'll start with Hadlow College.

 

I'd appreciate, if you post here other names of horticultural colleges or gardens providing full-time education all over Great Britain, leaving aside colleges that I already know about: Kew Gardens, Capel Manor College, RHS gardening, Askham Bryan College, Northumberland College and Hadlow College. I wonder if you can tell me a thing about some of them.

 

Usk agricultural college in South Wales.:thumb:

 

I only wish I could help. But unfortunately I don't have any knowledge.

The only thing I can say is that Kew and the RHS are world renown, and have an excellent reputation around the world. However as a result of this they will probably be the most difficult to get into. It might be worth writing to them both and asking for advice on colleges and courses. At the very worst they might send you a list of colleges in the UK, and give some indication of what qualifications would be needed for entry.

 

As far as the horticultural training goes, probably yes.
At Kew though, you have to do it all in the public eye. A lot of pressure for a newbie. If I were 40 years younger and I had a choice between Wisley and Kew. It would definitely be Kew.