5 Career Options in Applied Horticulture

Applied Horticulture: 5 Great Career Options Therein

• Ornamental Horticulturist
• Horticultural Technician
• Nursery Manager
• Landscape Designer
• Horticultural Inspector

For anyone interested, there are many, great career options in applied horticulture today. This line of work involves the applied science of horticulture, or the study of garden cultivation and garden management strategy, and the professional roles found here are diverse. What kinds of opportunities can be found in the applied horticulture industry right now? Here are five great examples.

1. Ornamental Horticulturist

Ornamental horticulture is the specialized gardening and plant-tending of ornamental plants and arrangements. Most ornamental horticulturists work as or for florists, but some work for nurseries and landscaping companies, too. How do you make a low-maintenance, high-color, functional flower bed? How do you make the perfect bouquet or corsage for a specific, upcoming event? Ultimately, this line of work is all about plant artistry at its finest.

2. Horticultural Technician

Horticultural technicians are professionals who maintain plant life that is needed in some particular industry. Pharmaceutical companies, food makers, plant-based materials manufacturers – these are just a few of the many industries that need a continuous and carefully maintained crop of some kind and horticultural technicians are the pros who often manage those crop-growing operations for them. This technician also can be regularly involved in new plant-growing strategy and planning as well as harvest operations within their employing organization.

3. Nursery Manager

Nurseries are horticultural centers where any number of plants are grown and tended to in one, specially-equipped growing area. Nurseries typically employ numerous workers to tend to the many jobs needing to be done on-site, but over those workers and the whole operation is the nursery manager. Nursery managers ideally need to be highly proficient in horticultural knowledge as well as in managerial skills and multitasking. The American Nursery and Landscape Association is a great resource to followup with for more on nursery work and culture.

4. Landscape Designer

As the name of this profession may suggest, landscape designers’ primary job function is to design landscapes of different types. Some landscape designers work on their own, responding to the individual design needs from calling clients, while others are employed within an organization such as a landscaping company, construction companies, or even city planning groups. In any case, these professionals must make fully functional landscape designs that accommodate customer wishes, climate concerns, soil and plant science, water management, and more, all in one design.

5. Horticultural Inspector

Finally, horticultural inspectors represent yet another, great role in the applied horticulture industry today. In this role, one must facilitate critical inspection processes that assure a healthy and ethically-acceptable end-product. Some inspectors work for the government, while many others are privately employed by crop-growing and crop-utilizing organizations themselves to assure quality and integrity in their products. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is the primary authority in the U.S. on such inspection processes and represents a great resource with which to inquire further on the subject.

Related Resource: 25 Best Affordable Applied Horticulture Degree Programs

Plant science is ultimately what horticulture is all about. For those interested in this area of work, there are many, great job opportunities worth looking into. These five, above-mentioned roles represent just a small slice of the many career options in applied horticulture available right now.