Please look at our posting under French Country Garden and tell us what you think.. We hope that you will get a good response to your request. Landart

You might try the National Trust which has a large number of properties all over the U. S. and I think accepts volunteer "interns." And Brookgreen Gardens here in South Carolina (a state park) might work with you. I know of no paid programs. Best wishes.

I live in Ontario and am a Horticulturist for a municipality. I know the Horticulture Technician program which you refer to-it is offered at our local college. I think you will find that the jobs open to you after finishing will be ones at local nurseries, greenhouses, HD, etc. These for the most part are low paying, no health benefits, only 6 months of work a year. Have I talked you into the hort field yet? :) That's just the reality of working in horticulture in Ontario. You have to love what you're doing, not just for the money. If you're lucky and persistant, you can do better by getting on with a city parks dept. It's still seasonal work but pays more-it took me a few years to get one of these jobs. If you are returning to the job force and will be a mature student perhaps you could consider the Ontario Horticulture Apprenticeship Program instead. This program allows you to work in the hort field during the "season" and go to school during the winter-for 2 months the first winter and 3 months the second. It is quite an intensive course, covering all the same subjects as the Technician program. You go to school for 8 hours a day, Monday to Friday. It costs $200.00 per month of schooling and you can collect unemployment insurance while you're going to school and/or laid off and a paycheck while you're working. It's offered at selected colleges across Ontario and you can find out about it through your local Human Resources office or a college. You need 4000 hours work experience and passing grades to write the Provincial Certification test. This is what I did after getting laid off from the petrochemical industry and deciding to follow my passion (and not my bank account). I found businesses are very open and even prefer to hire grads of the OHAP because they were often more mature and they had lots of practical experience in addition to the "book learning", something the 20 year olds coming out of the 2 year Hort Technician Program didn't often have. Hope this info is of some use to you. I'm in my 40's and found this was the most ideal way to get the education while still being able to work and pay the bills. Please feel free to Email me for more info. Anne-Marie

Oh boy, this really is a tough subject area... First thing I wanted to state is that I never wanted to be a plumber or whatever, if that's what I wanted to be, I would have went to school for that. Second, I feel the working at McDonalds reference was a bit extreme, I know for sure I can find better than that. I did have the ability to go to college for whatever I wanted, but the two things I wanted to do is horticulture and cabinet making, which are both considered dead end career paths. Anything else I would be going to school just for money, and not every money making career will necessarily make you money either; my cousin went to college for eight years to be a lawyer, and he's 30 making minimum money as a magazine writer because he can't find a job. The issue with the way I go in the career path is that it may be heavily influenced by future lifestyle changes. Right now, I don't even have a wife and kids in mind (don't even have a girlfriend), and all I need is four wheels, clothes on back, a place to live, and food to keep me happy, I don't need a lot of fancy toys. However though, later on I may care more about supporting a family than I do my job. I may also decide later in a few years that there's a better paying industry I'm into. Right now I'm going to college completely free so it's not a huge loss if I chose to go to college for something else. However, if I stay in the field, I do have some stuff in mind. Right now, it's still early, but I've been the best in my class, and I will make deans list easily at this pace. The ideal realistic careers I want to get into are campus groundskeeper and possibly landscape/garden design. Campus groundskeeper usually doesn't pay well, but it offers great benefits like housing, healthcare, steady employment, and money towards degrees. Landscape design is similar to the cabinet industry; if you are determined to do what you do and make a name for yourself, you will be alright, otherwise though, no. I may actually have an advantage there because I am into that and do it as a hobby currently.