To become a UConn Advanced Master Gardener, you must already be a Certified Master Gardener AND take 20 classroom hours of Garden Master Classes. (The Hot Topics class, which is required annually and free, counts toward UConn Advanced Master Gardener class hours.)
Garden Master Classes
For those who choose to pursue Advanced status or who enjoy taking classes in horticulture and natural resources, we offer the Garden Master Classes. The Master Classes help maintain and grow the program as well as offer educational opportunities. The Advanced Master Gardener program, like the Master Gardener program, is not free and has never been promoted as such. The revenue from class fees helps pay for coordinators and instructors, materials and rental fees and all the other costs associated with running a program. The UConn Master Garden Program is a self-funded program, relying on tuition revenues for the majority of its income.
We have long-standing arrangements with very few other groups to provide some Advanced Master Gardener credit for their activities (e.g., the annual Connecticut Master Gardener Association symposium and the biennial Connecticut Invasive Plant Workgroup Symposium) but cannot afford to accept for Advanced Master Gardener credit other classes, seminars, or workshops that are not vetted and do not generate revenue for the UConn Master Gardener and Advanced Master Gardener programs.
Spring and Fall Garden Master Class catalogs are published in January and September of each year. Classes vary. Most Garden Master Classes are two hours in length and cost $40 for UConn Master Gardeners.
Garden Master Classes are open to the public for a slightly higher fee.
Level Up
If you continue to take advanced classes, you can earn bronze, silver, and gold levels and attain additional levels of Advanced Master Gardener status.
Level |
Sub-level |
Classroom Hours (cumulative) |
| Advanced Master Gardener | 20 | |
| Advanced Master Gardener | Bronze | 40 |
| Advanced Master Gardener | Silver | 60 |
| Advanced Master Gardener | Gold | 80 |
| Ruby | 100 | |
| Ruby | Bronze | 120 |
| Ruby | Silver | 140 |
| Ruby | Gold | 160 |
| Sapphire | 180 | |
| Sapphire | Bronze | 200 |
| Sapphire | Silver | 220 |
| Sapphire | Gold | 240 |
| Emerald | 260 | |
| Emerald | Bronze | 280 |
| Emerald | Silver | 300 |
| Emerald | Gold | 320 |
| Topaz | 340 | |
| Topaz | Bronze | 360 |
| Topaz | Silver | 380 |
| Topaz | Gold | 400 |
| Cobalt | 420 | |
| Cobalt | Bronze | 440 |
| Cobalt | Silver | 460 |
| Cobalt | Gold | 480 |
| Citrine | 500 | |
| Citrine | Bronze | 520 |
| Citrine | Silver | 540 |
| Citrine | Gold | 560 |