But what exactly is horticulture? It’s the technical term that refers to the field and science of plant development, which includes everything from care and manufacture of trees and shrubs to genetic alterations to typical produce to keep it fresh and free from bruising, such as many tomatoes sold in the United States.

The industry has eight subcategories which deal with more specific aspects of horticulture. Arboriculture deals with vines, shrubbery, trees, and other woody plants. This includes areas of research, planting, and care of all these types of foliage. Floriculture similarly deals with flowers and floral crops.

Landscape horticulture deals with the production and maintenance of plants involved in landscaping in all areas and climates. Olericulture and Pomology deal with vegetables and fruits, respectively. Viticulture refers more specifically to the production and marketing of grapes (as to wineries).

Postharvest physiology also at times crosses into the field of food science, as it tries to develop means of preventing spoilage and damage to all of the horticultural crops–including fruits and vegetables.

Fortunately, horticulture is the name of an industry that requires varied talents from many types of people. Engineers, inspectors, business managers, scientists and researchers, geneticists, and teachers are just a few of the workers needed in most areas of horticulture.

The industry is not only a stable one–it is growing. As I mentioned, many who enjoy the study of food science may actually find a rewarding career in horticulture. So how does an individual go on to become a horticulturalist?

Well, while your education is still in process, you can start with basic jobs that may seem menial or unrelated. Check out local floral shops, greenhouses, or gardening departments in hardware stores. You can even get involved in landscape design! All of these will help you begin to build a fundamental, practical knowledge of plants.

Do your research on the education level required for entry-level positions in the field you are most interested. Would you like to be a teacher, or would you prefer getting into advertising and marketing? Contact local firms or institutions; you might even ask about future hiring plans.

Decide which area of horticulture you would like to go into, and begin gearing your own education toward that particular division of the industry. Many institutions offer undergraduate degrees in horticulture, so from there, you should try to take classes which are tailored toward your area of interest.

Whenever there are speakers in your area, go and listen to them so that you might hear any words of wisdom they have to impart. Other than that, good luck–it’s a booming field, and the work is both helpful and rewarding!

Holbee Productions http://www.frederickrice.com/ horticultural speaker and lecturer, garden Designer and consultant. Art Gib is a freelance writer.

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The career outlook for a horticulture career is favorable. They make on average $25-$30 thousand a year. They work to upgrade crop yield, quality, nutritional value, and plant’s resistance to diseases, insects, and environmental stresses.

What’s in Horticulture?

Horticulture differs from agriculture in a sense that it uses as smaller scale of cultivation and uses smaller plots of mixed crops rather than a large field of single crop and the cultivation of a wider variation of crops, which usually includes trees. The study of horticulture includes eight areas that are grouped into two broad sections – the ornamentals and the edibles.

How is it Green?

Arboriculture refers to the study and selection, planting care and removal of individual threes, shrubs and other perennial woody plants. Floriculture includes the production and marketing of floral crops. Landscape horticulture encompasses the production, marketing, and maintenance of landscaping plants. Olericulture is the production and marketing of vegetables, Pomology is the production and marketing of fruits and Viticulture is the production and marketing of grapes. Last is the Postharvest Physiology, which involves maintaining quality and preventing spoilage of horticultural crops.

Horticulture is being practiced in gardens, plant growth centers, and nurseries. Work in nurseries includes preparing seeds and cutting to growing fully mature plants. These are usually sold or transferred to ornamental gardens or market gardens.

People who are interested in horticulture can find work in industry, government or educational institutions as well as private collections. The can work as cropping systems engineer or be a wholesale or retail business manager, propagators and tissue culture specialist for fruits, vegetables, ornamentals and turf; crop inspectors, crop production advisers, extension specialist, plant breeders, researcher and also as teachers.

People with a green thumb and real concern for plants and the flora are the best candidate for this kind of career.

Educational and Training Requirements

A career in horticulture and gardening maybe complemented by a degree in botany, biology, entomology, genetics, garden design, physiology, and plant design. Plant sciences as well as horticulture courses includes study of plant materials, plant propagation, crop production, tissue culture, post-harvest handling, plant breeding, pollination management, crop nutrition, plant pathology, entomology and others. A masters or a doctoral degree many be required in some horticultural science.

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How To Become A Horticulturist?

Many universities and colleges offer certificates in horticulture. A certificate makes a business operation more credible. To be a horticulturist, you need to be knowledgeable in Chemistry, Botany, soil types, written and oral communication, plant pests and diseases and business management. The courses provide information on health benefits, food safety, gardening-techniques and ecologically sound lawns.

Job Opportunities

Professional Horticulturists can work in different areas such as:

Production – Managing a landscape service, greenhouse, vegetable farm, orchard, flower or plant shop, garden center, nursery or processing firm.

Landscape Design, installation and maintenance – Designing and planting plans with shrubs, trees, ground cover, turf grass and herbaceous ornaments.

Marketing – Wholesale or retail sale of gardening supplies, seeds, processed or fresh vegetables, floral arrangements and house plants. You can manage the marketing for a government, private companies, chain stores or wholesale distributors.

Research – You can work as a researcher to improve the yield and quality of vegetables, fruits, flowers and ornamental plants and develop methods for storing, handling and marketing them. You can specialize in plant nutrition, plant breeding, plant growth regulation with chemicals and similar interesting areas of plant research.

Pest Management – After training, you can work with central and state regulatory agencies, processing corporations, large farm organizations, agricultural agents and even agricultural suppliers.

Industry services and growing Horticultural Crops – Trained Horticulturists are employed in Seed Firms, pesticide material manufacturing, manufacturing of fertilizers, freezing and canning companies and landscape or farm equipment management.

Inspection – Trainedhorticulturists are usually employed in government or private agencies as inspectors and to manage uniformity in the production and quality.

Communication – Written collateral for agricultural or gardening magazines, television and radio and newspapers can be a rewarding field too.

Job Of A Horticulturist

· Plant preparation for retail and wholesale nurseries.

· Specialized plant production.

· Develop and manage outdoor spaces like resorts, hotels and sports complexes.

· Work for the park departments under the local authorities.

· Administer large department stores or businesses associated with the agriculture industry.

Horticulturists often work with town planners, landscape architects, engineers, and environmental conservationists. The horticulturist works towards building a better and beautiful environment and a higher quality of life through improvement, beautification and conservation.

Horticultural scientists or people with a university degree in Horticulture work for various agricultural research institutes, where they conduct research on vegetables, fruits, flowers and the grape and wine preparations in different rainfall regions. They are also involved in the marketing of horticultural products and agricultural extensions.

Job Market For The Horticulturist

With the emergence of a number of environmental issues, the job market has expanded for fruit, vegetable and environmental horticulturists, as extension specialists, research workers, teachers, scientists and professors. Horticulturists are employed as marketing managers, production superintendents, inventory controllers, landscape maintenance specialists, buyers, landscape supervisors, bedding plant producers, education coordinators and research assistants.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solutions – Six Sigma Online – http://www.sixsigmaonline.org, offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

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“Rare indeed are the fields that can claim such a dependence on all three broad areas of knowledge!” remarked Prof. Bailey L. H., the famous American Horticulture scholar. Horticulture involves the study of growing crops, plants, herbs, turfs, shrubs, trees, fruits, flowers, vegetables, grains, cereals, or anything that falls in this genre. It is a science of plant propagation and crop production. Involved are the topics of botany and agriculture that study physiology, biology and chemistry of plants and trees.

Subjects of genetic engineering and bio-technology falls into the same group as well. Crop reaping, storage, quality assurance, processing, maintenance and transportation too are included. The tricks and techniques of improving crop production, their quality, nutritional virtues, immunity to diseases is also covered in Horticulture. Not only this, horticulture also extends to the study of non-edible ornamental kind of plants.

Horticulture employs a wide range of tools and technologies. It is a scientific methodology of cultivation, so as to make the crops yield the desired quality. These scientific methods could be as simple as using tractors for farming to deriving fertilizers mixing complex chemicals.

An interesting point to note about horticulture is ones social environmental responsibility. Natural resources should be used sparingly, and should better be bred from their parent stock, whereever possible. Horticulture address these issues.

Types of Horticulture

- Amateur Horticulture: Amateur horticulture, as the name suggests, is an unprofessional sort of horticulture. It is just growing for ones own self, may be because of domestic cooking needs, or for the sake of ones interests and inclinations. It is a vocational horticulture.

- Commercial Horticulture: Commercial horticulture, is growing for others and earning living from that. It demands a due market knowledge, what consumers require, what are their tastes and preferences, what is available in market in abundance and what struggles scarcity. It is professional horticulture.

Areas of Study in Horticulture

1. Floriculture – dedicated to Flowers

A discipline of horticulture that is concerned with floral crops, is floriculture. It is about growing and selling flowers. Usually these flower-plants are herbacious and are planted in pots, trays, or hanging baskets. Flower-harvest is often seasonal, and the plants should properly be watered and prunned to bear the flowers. Some post-harvest treatments such as chemical treatments, storage, preservation and packaging, also be taken care of.

2. Olericulture – dedicated to Vegetables

It is a field of horticulture relevant to vegetables of all kinds. Some vegetables are eatable freshly cut, while others need to be cooked. Olericulture takes care of these all about vegetables.

3. Pomology – dedicated to Fruits

Latin word pomum, is an origin of the term pomology, which is branch of horticulture pertinent to all sorts of fruits.

4. Landscape horticulture – dedicated to Landscape Plants

Landscape plants, such as trees, plants, shrubs, turfs, herbaceous perennials etc. are studied under this category of horticulture.

5. Post-harvest physiology – dedicated to Post-harvest Jobs

Crops often ask for a special post-harvest attention, especially when not to be used immediately but to be preserved. The said field of horticulture is relevant to crops reaping, maintaining their quality, reducing spoilage etc.

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Floriculture deals with the production and marketing of floral crops. Some job opportunities that are available in this area of horticulture include a florist, pollination expert, and flower distribution manager. Landscape horticulture deals with the production, marketing, and maintenance of landscape plants. A few of the jobs available in this area include landscaper, landscape architect, and also landscape designer. Olericulture is the area of horticulture that includes the production and marketing of vegetables. A few of the job opportunities that are available in this area are field representatives, farm consultants, and food processors. Another area of horticulture is pomology, which deals with the production and marketing of fruits. The same careers that are available in olericulture are also available in pomology, but they are geared more towards the fruit spectrum of horticulture. The final area of horticulture is postharvest physiology, which involves maintaining quality and preventing spoilage of horticultural crops. Most of the jobs available in this field include the storage and preservation of fruits and vegetables. If you really like to do research or work with plants, then the horticultural field could be the correct career path for you.

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