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Plant Identification Training and Commercial Ornamental and Turfgrass Short Course (COTS)
| Name | Paul Thompson | | Situation | Many individuals become involved in the landscaping industry with very little horticultural training. This is reflected in the quality of their work and customer satisfaction. Unless the individual has the financial backing to deal with setbacks and landscape failures, it may take a company several years to recover from a bad start, or they may fold completely. | | Response | The South Carolina Nursery and Landscape Association has a voluntary certification program for the commercial horticulture industry called Certified Nursery Professional (CNP), which started in 1985. The certification is obtained through making a passing score on a two-part exam. The first part is a written examination dealing with soils, fertilizers, landscape installation and maintenance, plant anatomy and physiology, marketing, greenhouse and nursery production, etc. The second part is a plant identification exam where they have to identify 120 landscape plant specimens by their botanical name. These 120 plants come from a list of approximately 350 possible plants that could be on the
exam. During the spring and summer of 2005, I organized and taught a
plant identification class at Bartlett Tree Laboratories arboretum. It
was a 12 week class meeting one night per week and covered around 30 plants each week. It was advertised through direct mail. In January and February of 2006, I organized and taught a short course which covered the written exam material. This consisted of six, three and a half hour classes which covered the majority of the subject matter. This too was advertised through direct mail. | | Impact | The plant identification class had an initial enrollment of 18 individuals. Out of these, 12 individuals completed the class. Nine of these individuals took the plant identification exam and all passed. The COTS program had an enrollment of 16, and all completed the training. Of these, five individuals took the written exam and four passed, with these four receiving their CNP designation for passing both parts of the exam. The average passing rate for walk-ins on the plant identification exam is
approximately 45%. The average passing rate for walk-ins on the written part of the exam is approximately 55%. The certification process is a proof of a certain level of competency and certification can be used by companies to promote their professionalism over their competition. There are currently 290 CNP's in the state. |
Last update7/9/2008
This website is maintained by Cheryl Clary.
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