Horticulture

If you're obsessed with gardening and anything that even remotely involves plants, and their well being, then you’re probably a closet horticulturist. A horticulturist is defined as being someone who grows and cultivates plants. It's kind of like a gardener right? After all what’s in a name? A Rose by any other name is still a Rose. The only difference between a horticulturist and a gardener is the fancy title, (and the money of course!) They get paid in money, you get paid in blooms. So, you can now go around telling your friends that you’re deep into the study of horticulture!

What is horticulture? Horticulture by its very definition is the cultivation of a garden, or in other words, the science (or art) of cultivating vegetables, fruits, plants, and flowers. We emphasize the term cultivation. A horticultural plant is defined as one that has been produced by cultivation, and not one that has grown without a helping hand.

Born of the union of two Latin words, hortus, meaning ‘garden plant’, and cultura, meaning ‘culture’, horticulture in its truest form spans across many fields and involves many different types of careers. Horticulture as an idea of cultivation can be involved in many other fields,from industry, to government, from wholesale and retail businesses, propagators, plant breeders, and even educational institutions.

Horticulture enthusiasts(when dealing with plants) will be interested to learn that there are five main areas of horticulture to choose from. There is Landscape horticulture, which is involved in the production and maintenance of landscape plants. Floriculture primarily deals with the marketing, and production of floral crops. And olericulture deals with vegetable cultivation.

Pomology, and postharvest physiology are the last two of the five areas of horticulture. The study of pomology involves the cultivation, production, and marketing of fruits. The study of postharvest physiology deals the promotion of crop quality, and reduction of overall spoilage for all crops.

So now that you have a general view of horticulture, and everything associated with it, perhaps you would like to get yourself involved! If you are interested, there are always horticulture classes available. They are usually found in community colleges in your vicinity. You’ll never know unless you try. Don't pass up an opportunity to really learn and get deep into the world of horticulture.

Don't forget to check out how a hydroponics garden works in our next article.