| I am doing this thing in school were we have to pick a career. What did you major in collage and what do you do for a living. I would like it if you could tell me some info. about career for a person that likes plants more then not I like house plants. THANK YOU |
| Hi Spencer! I majored in French and International Relations and also earned an MBA. I eventually decided I liked plants better. I have studied horticulture through the USDA certificate program in Washington DC and many CEU level courses, I qualified as a Penn State Master Gardener many years ago. I have taught many gardening classes and presented many gardening lectures, too. I have worked at plant nurseries in sales and of course helping out wherever needed in potting up, watering, you name it. I have worked in a market garden, and have done garden design and landscape design professionally... and gardened for myself, of course. I am a member of the Garden Writers Association and am a freelance writer on gardening topics; I also telecommute to answer gardening questions like this one for the National Gardening Association -- the Q&A is available for a number of clients and we have answered questions as a team for many years while also developing the searchable archive of Q&A. I have only taken one college level course for college credit and that was recently: I took Horticulture Science and I earned an A! Right now I am earning a certificate in Public Relations from UCLA extension.... learning is a life long process. If you want to work with house plants you could do something in the nursery business and raise them commercially, you could broker or wholesale or retail them, or you could do interiorscaping with plants. (Install and maintain and troubleshoot plants in offices and other public buildings and sometimes in private homes.) Most people I know who work in garden related areas did not study it in school necessarily, so much is learned on the job by doing and seeing how things are done -- so many different ways to do each different thing! But formal training can help you to understand the how's and why's of what is being done and maybe understand why some things work out better than others. I think more people are studying horticulture now than ever before so you need formal training along with practical experience to be competitive in the job market. I hope this gives you some ideas and best of luck to you! |
