New York Botanical Garden brings horticulture courses online for anyone to access anywhere for the first time

After more than 100 years of providing horticulture education, online courses from the New York Botanical Garden are available to gardeners from anywhere in the world to learn from its experts and develop essential skills in subjects such as container gardening, landscape design and pruning.

The courses will be available via the Plant Studio, an online learning platform, which is part of the NYBG's Continuing Education program, offering flexible bite-sized online gardening courses for adult learners. 

The education program at NYBG started providing online courses during the Covid-19 pandemic after previously providing in-person courses. Now, the Plant Studio will offer access to expert-led online courses to anyone wanting to widen their gardening skillset, wherever and whenever they like.

'The New York Botanical Garden’s Continuing Education program is the largest of any botanical garden in the world with over 700 classes, workshops, and lectures annually that reach approximately 16,000 students,' says Dr. Kay Chubbuck, Vice President for Education at NYBG. 

'Plant Studio represents a new era for NYBG’s education department, which has been providing green industry training for over 100 years,' she says. 

'Taught by professionals, with hands-on projects and virtual tours of exclusive garden spaces, Plant Studio courses are designed for the busy learner who loves nature and has maybe always wanted to learn a little bit about plants, landscape design, floral design, pruning, or gardening in general - but just didn’t have the time,' she adds.

Kay Chubbuck

Dr. Kay Chubbuck is The New York Botanical Garden’s Vice President for Education. Dr. Chubbuck has over two decades of experience in educational management, university teaching, and art historical scholarship.

A course for everyone

There are currently five courses on offer at the Plant Studio for learners around the world: Plant Science, Landscape Design History for Beginners, Orchid Design, Container Gardening and Pruning Basics. 

'We chose topics that could reach as many people as possible with elements that could reach across different planting and time zones, so they are perfect for any project, and for any student’s home,' says Dr. Chubbuck.

Each course involves weekly lectures, assignments and feedback from the course instructors, enabling gardeners to finesse their skills whether it's in orchid care or container gardening.

'The courses are flexible, but have the structure to keep people motivated,' says Dr. Chubbuck.

'Ultimately, Plant Studio is for the plant curious: the courses have easy step-by-step assignments that let you learn at the pace that is right for you, at a time that is convenient for you, and still get the benefits of real-time interaction,' she adds.

The courses range from two to six weeks' long and registration is now open for classes commencing in April 2024.