October 2007 was the warmest and driest in the Southeast than anyone can remember, with many cities counting their remaining water reserves in days, not months. Increasing restrictions on outdoor watering have hit the landscape and nursery industry hard, and lower harvests are expected in most commodities, including many horticultural crops. And we’re also still reeling from a disastrous Easter freeze, and record highs in August!

As we think about ways that we can adapt to climate change in Raleigh and elsewhere, there’s a group in ASHS that’s working hard on the problem of keeping ASHS relevant in the current climate of decreasing funding and university support for horticulture and increasing competition,consolidation, and globalization in all segments of the horticultural industry. An article about this group appeared in the April 2007 ASHS Newsletter, but for those of you who missed it, the group is an ad hoc committee charged with developing a certification program for horticultural practitioners. Although the program was originally known as the ASHS Certified Horticultural Advisor Program, it is now officially the ASHS Certified Horticulturist Program (ASHS-CH).

This is breaking new ground for ASHS because the purpose is to provide certification to working horticulturists with 3 years of practical experience who may lack a 4-year or even an Associate’s degree in horticulture or a related field. Individuals with 2- or 4-year degrees will have reduced requirements for experience, however.

Our current certification, the Certified Professional Horticulturist Program - is for individuals with recognized credentials in the horticultural field. Applicants are expected,among other things, to have scholarly publications, meet high educational standards, and have been recognized for excellence in their field. The application process is rigorous, using similar criteria to those in academic decision-making on hiring and promotion, and there are also continuing education unit requirements to maintain certification. Currently, registered CPH members are listed at: ashs.org/careers/current_cph.html and deserve our heartiest congratulations on this recognition!

Reaching Outside ASHS Core Constituencies

Certifying practitioners in the ASHS Certified Horticulturist Program, with primarily (or only) practical experience, will be entirely different, and more difficult but it will also reach industries and individuals outside ASHS core constituencies. This outreach poses further challenges in marketing and administering the program, but also has the potential to grow ASHS and make it more relevant to the industry.

These are daunting tasks, but ad hoc committee members Fred T. Davies (chair), Mary Lamberts, George Fitzpatrick,Terry Ferriss, Susan Steinberg, Janet Cole, Karen Panter, Steve Newman, Larry Knerr, Barclay Poling, and Bert Swanson, have taken a methodical approach, as described in their April newsletter article, and have made great progress. The process started with a business plan presented to the ASHS Board of Directors at the July meeting in New Orleans. Only a month later, ASHS hired a professional certification program development service, Minds in Action Inc., which recommended a Job Task Analysis Workshop to start the process. We all think we know what horticulturists do, but describing it is another matter! Workshop participants identified 57 discrete tasks that might be performed by individuals seeking certification! Who knew? But are all these tasks equally important? That was the next question the Committee asked, after already putting in hundreds of hours in developing the Job Task Analysis. To answer it, starting last May they conducted a survey of individuals with at least 3 years of practical experience, asking how frequently and how critical each task was. The goal was to get 500 industry participants, representing all regions of the United States and from the 26 types of organizations employing potential applicants for certification. That survey was completed in August of this year and the list whittled down to the 35 most important tasks.

The next challenge for the group, as detailed in their 128-page Certification Test Blueprint, was to create a certification exam and professional educational offerings in the areas identified. While those of us in teaching write tests all the time, few among us would be so bold as to say we test core competency as opposed to “What was covered since the last exam!” So the certification group is breaking new ground in horticultural testing, as well as in certifying non-degree practitioners! Their next step is a Test Item-Writing Workshop to be held Dec. 3-7, 2007, in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. After training on writing multiple-choice questions, participants will develop and compose multiple choice test exam items, followed by question critique from the workshop facilitator. The committee has gotten a great response from the horticultural industry practitioners and the group is ready to go.

Following the question writing workshops, technical review workshops will take place the weeks of Jan. 6 and Feb. 11, 2008, followed by several weeks of organizing in order to have study materials available to participants by the end of February, for a potential launch date of the ASHS-CH Program in Mar. 2008. The first certification exam will be administered at the 2008 ASHS meeting in Orlando in July,so marketing, fee structures, and administrative details all need to be worked out this spring.

Join me in congratulating the Committee for their dedication, hard work, and tenacity in getting this groundbreaking project well underway! Contact any of the Committee members or Executive Director Mike Neff if you can help with marketing and promotion, working on the exams, or would like to serve on the committee. Help them change the climate and help ASHS expand its membership base and improve ties with industry!

Mary Peet
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Originally published in ASHS Newsletter October 2007.