NEW Ebook - Growing Palms and Palm-Like Plants

This image-rich book will show you ways of using palms that you might not have thought about, help you identify differences between the most commonly cultivated palms and cycad genera and provide a valuable reference for choosing and using palms and palm-like plants across a wide range of climatic conditions.

Palms and palm-like plants are mostly grown as structural plants. They add stunning shapes into a garden that are different to other plants and for that reason alone, stand out and capture our attention, making a garden more interesting. Palms can be more than just architectural forms though; providing shade, colour and texture to a garden. If you choose an appropriate species, they are great indoor plants.

This book explores the diversity of species, the differences in appearance, and the way in which different species might be cultivated. To download a free sample or to purchase, please click here.

A Wildlife Adventurer - Meet ACS Student Frances Bell
A serial account by Fran Bell, ACS Certificate in Wildlife Management student living her dream working with the furred, feathered and scaled in South Africa. Over the next few weeks we will be sharing extracts from Fran's personal newsletter - stay tuned!
"Hi All,
After a rough, cramped flight and a 7 hour wait for a bus at Jo'burg airport - dog tired but not game to fall asleep - I got to the Big Cat Farm in time to hear the lions roaring, and at that point in time I decided I was home again.

Within a couple of weeks of getting here, I had my first "baby" – little Polar, a white lion cub who came from a breeder friend of the owner.
I've had Polar since he was a week old so yes, we do have a very special relationship and for a long time I was the only one who he would let feed him. Polar was an only cub so lived in my chalet….for 3 months! When he got so big that my laptop was in danger of being swiped off the benchtop I decided it was time for him to go outside. Until that point the main problem was that all the other cubs were too big for him and would have hurt him had he been paired with any of them. I could hear him screaming in the enclosure the first night he was out there – he screamed himself hoarse and I couldn't stand it so in he came… back to mummy's double bed and a nice comfy pillow. The second night one of the volunteers offered to sleep with him outside. Neither of them got any sleep…. He spent one night on his own where he eventually went off to sleep, and the next day he had a companion in the form of a very gentle female tawny lion called Princess. It took them a day or so to get used to each other but it wasn't long before they became best buddies. I bawled my eyes out the first couple of nights he was outside, felt like I was a terrible mother! I'm not sure who had the greater separation anxiety – him or me.
Polar still likes to leap up on my lap for a cuddle when he has his lunchtime bottle – all 30-odd kilos of him! – though he doesn't exactly fit on my lap anymore. He was recently moved to another enclosure with another, slightly older male tawny lion called Baba. He wasn't sure what to make of Baba at first and every time Baba came near him, he high-tailed it towards me, head rubbing and hiding behind my legs, talking all the while. Who says he's not mummy's boy??"

To find out more about the Certificate in Wildlife Management, please see the featured course section below.

Featured Course: Work with Wildlife! Certificate in Wildlife Management

This course is a wonderful foundation that will help you to get started in your wildlife career!

Over 600 hours, you will study vertebrate zoology, wildlife management, ecology, ornithology, marine studies I and environmental assessment. These modules have been specifically combined to provide you with a working knowledge of wildlife and their environments.

Get started today! To read the full course outline, and to enrol, please click here. If you would like to use our FREE Course Counselling service, please click here - we would love to help you find the perfect course for you.