Hello Heather. You might want to start by working with a professional gardening company in the Atlanta area. You'll learn more about horticulture, landscape design and work with flowers making seasonal planters. Try a google search for companies in your area. It's a great way to get experience and work with others who have a passion for gardening. Good luck!

I agree that the garden center experience can be a very interesting, challenging, and educational one. IF you find the right garden center. Early on in my career, I worked at such a place, and they would have latched on to someone like you! I would have appreciated the fresh outlook, too, being the sole person responsible for landscape design and design sales.

How are you in terms of plant identification, your knowledge of Latin binomials, and critter (and disease) recognition?

Rhizo -
I am best at flower ID; not so much with the Latin; and disease and bugs, I look up in a book or the net if they are not obvious (black spot, mold, rust etc) Can you explain a little more about what the "right garden center" would look like? Atlanta has the gamut for sure! I do have a few network connections, which I am following.
**My strengths are design, composition/arrangement/the creative side... themes, unusual/unique, ways to make "whatever" beautiful without spending a fortune - "poverty" begets good design! I like small spaces, vignettes. That's me. - Thanks a bunch. So much good learning HERE! Heather

I'd look for a garden center that might be the go-to place when someone is looking for inspiration for seasonal planting, decorating ideas, for the unusual. It would be filled with great pottery, garden art, and new plant introductions. Many such places also have their own landscape division with talented designers on board.

OK......been there and done that. I was in engineering for the first part of my career. There was an economic crises in the first half of the 70s and the booming techical fields went through a lot of downsizing when the war ended and I took that opportunity to make some career choices. The company I work for shut down and after several interviews for a new position decided I'd be better off taking that hiatus to go back to school.

Being older and in a better position to know where I wanted my work life to take me, I decided to switch over and study ornamental landscaping with an emphasis on plant protection. In my senior year, a divorce happened, and a relocation and that option was not available at any university within commuting distance, so I ended up with a degree in nursing instead. At 40 (your age) and my kids out of school, I took the same leap and did just what you are wanting to do. The only jobs here were at two larger independent grower/landscaping/retail garden center combos. If I hadn't dumbed down my resume I'd have never been hired because your first jobs at places like that are always entry level unless you have that degree in hort. I was close, and with six years of university, and coursework in plant path, taxonomy, design and ag engineering and economics.........but unlike horseshoes, close to the stake doesn't count. Most jobs in the green industry without that hort degree are entry level. I wanted to be on the growing end of the operation and frankly, a mature woman with a powerful resume is at a disadvantage in the hiring process for such jobs. I had sized up the situation accurately because after the fact, I found the owner got resumes from women like that routinely and just figured that most of them didn't have a clue how much hard grunt work was involved and also knew growing flowers in a home garden bears little resemblance to growing thousands of them commercially. I took a 75% pay cut just to get my toe in the door and dumbed down my application and interview to get that. I knew that once I got in, I could use my skills and did. Kept my mouth shut and took every opportunity to learn the ropes of the business and after a couple years, left and broke out on my own.

You need to know what branch of this trade you want to be in. I knew retail garden center wasn't my goal. You need to scope out the job opportunities in your immediate area. It's amazing how many different types of skills are needed in the green industry. Working with the public selling posies is a small segment. Know your strengths and know that home gardening at a large growing operation is like comparing a candy striper to a surgeon. Many employers would not be impressed with your credentials in the hort field and actually might be discriminatory of your credentials in other fields. It's their loss but it happens because of their mindsets. Get 'out there' and see what you want to do and with whom and what they have to offer and have some discourse with owners and employees before you write that resume. You'll answer your own question better than we can answer it for you. I just retired this year and closed my business down after nearly a quarter century in the trade. I am so glad I did it, but this is not an easy question to answer.

You are so right calliope- it's not an easy question to answer. Your comments and experience are very insightful. I do need to figure out 'what I want to do' -- I can not seem to answer that. I want to be "in the field" - the actual gardening, planting, sweat and dirt part appeals to me, but so does floral arrangement, creating vignettes, the very visual and experiential part of naturals - texture, smell, color. I think using the word "landscaping" is probably the catch-- I don't think I am suited to the technical(??) planning of large areas- grading, irrigation, lighting, hardscapes etc. Yes, I need to GET OUT THERE to figure it out! Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

One thought, for help figuring it out - check on APLD.org or another site to find a few nearby landscape designers who seem to do work that interests you and see if you can buy them a coffee and chat. Not everyone is willing, but the better designers are VERY networked (it's how we get stuff done). I had a mentor advise me to never turn down a meeting even if I couldn't see an immediate benefit, because you never know. I've chatted with several folks looking to dip a toe in the water. Hey, we're not building satellites; there really arent that many trade secrets!

Your portfolio doesn't show any landscaping skills. All it shows is close-ups of flowers. Looks like a well done nursery catalog.
Heed the advice above.
You have a long way to go.
Mike

Mike, how very good of you to provide a contrast to grace and tact.

Mike, how very good of you to provide a contrast to grace and tact.

More good advice... and umm, happy to hear my little portfolio at least looks like a "WELL DONE" nursery catalog! As I said above, I do not think I am suited for "landscaping" and that I am leaning toward floral design, or perhaps seasonal containers, maintenance side. My family does not depend on my income, but it could not handle the added expense or time of me enrolling in landscaping classes. I am blessed to be able to keep searching until I find a position and place where I can use the background and skill set I have in the here and now. Like I said- a place to bloom!
thx- Heather

There's nothing like a more or less completely disinterested marketplace to be the antithesis of grace and tact. Identify a niche and be prepared to exploit it. If you want to do custom container combos, put some examples together and put those on your web site, along with discussion that will convince your potential market they need to pay you to do it for them.