Under the Glass: News from the Greenhouse

Leah DiehlLast week our therapeutic horticulture sessions came to an end for the summer. Although we miss our weekly sessions with each group, the greenhouse is too hot in the summer for participants to spend a lot of time in so we take a break and look forward to starting again in September.

I’ll spend the summer building some courses for the University of Florida – specifically three new courses in horticultural therapy; I am putting together a new undergraduate certificate program in horticultural therapy that will be available through the Environmental Horticulture Department in IFAS. This program will be available for both UF students and non-degree seeking students, and because the first three courses are available online, we expect students from other parts of the world. Students from as far as Singapore and Taiwan have requested information on the courses.

The three core courses will include Introduction to Horticultural Therapy, Techniques in Horticultural Therapy, and Program Management in Horticultural Therapy. Students wanting to obtain the full certificate must also complete either a 480 internship or an independent study project. The first course will be offered this fall and UF students are already registering for the class.

This is an exciting step for UF, Environmental Horticulture, and Wilmot Botanical Gardens and underscores the importance of exploring and sharing knowledge in this growing arena of people-plant interactions.

Let us know if you’d like more information on the certificate program!

Elizabeth “Leah” Diehl, RLA, HTM
Lecturer, Dept. of Environmental Horticulture, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
Director of Therapeutic Horticulture, Wilmot Botanical Gardens, College of Medicine