The Kentucky Nursery and Landscape Association (KNLA) Kentucky Certified Nurseryman  (KCN) Program was a Certification program for individuals of the Kentucky Nursery, Landscape design/build, garden center employees, and landscape maintenance industries. The exam was discontinued in 2019. 

            In order to earn the KCN certification, a person must have been employed 6 months full-time or 500 hours part-time in a nursery, garden center or other landscape industry firm.

            The KCN was designed to provide an education opportunity and test an individual’s skills and knowledge as a nurseryman. Combining experience and the study of a fifteen chapter manual which includes: Basic Principals of Plant Growth; Woody Landscape Plants; Perennials, Bulbs and Annuals; Roses and Their Care;   Indoor Plants:  Selection, Problems & Care; Growing Fruits;  Home Vegetable Gardening;  Turfgrass Management; Landscape Design; Maintaining Nursery Stock in the Retail Outlet;   Planting and Maintaining Nursery Stock Following the Sale; Keeping Plants Healthy and Pest Free; Selling in the Garden Center; Personnel Relations; Nurserymen’s Basic Terms.

            The KCN examination  included:
1.) multiple choice and true/false exam from the manual information
2.) a plant/pest identification exam and
3.) preparation of a landscape design with customer requests, spatial essentials, plant selection, proper siting, and an appropriately scaled/drawn plan.

            Upon satisfactory completion of the exam (70% minimum in each of the three test sections) the person was given a Kentucky Certified Nurseryman certificate. 

Click here for a full list of Kentucky Certified Nurseryman