r/Horticulture • • May 23 '21

So you want to switch to Horticulture?

724 Upvotes

Okay. So, I see a lot of people, every day, asking in this sub how they can switch from their current career to a horticulture career.

They usually have a degree already and they don’t want to go back to school to get another degree in horticulture.

They’re always willing to do an online course.

They never want to get into landscaping.

This is what these people need to understand: Horticulture is a branch of science; biology. It encompasses the physiology of plants, the binomial nomenclature, cultural techniques used to care for a plant, the anatomy of a plant, growth habits of a plant, pests of a plant, diseases of a plant, alkaloids of a plant, how to plant a plant, where to plant a plant, soil physics, greenhouses, shade houses, irrigation systems, nutrient calculations, chemistry, microbiology, entomology, plant pathology, hydroponics, turf grass, trees, shrubs, herbaceous ornamentals, floriculture, olericulture, grafting, breeding, transporting, manipulating, storing, soluble solid tests, soil tests, tissue analysis, nematodes, C4 pathways, CAM pathways, fungus, row cropping, fruit growing, fruit storing, fruit harvesting, vegetable harvesting, landscaping, vegetable storing, grass mowing, shrub trimming, etc... (Random list with repetition but that’s what horticulture is)

Horticulture isn’t just growing plants, it is a field of science that requires just as much qualification as any other field of science. If you want to make GOOD money, you need to either own your own business or you need to get a bachelors degree or masters degree. An online certificate is a load of garbage, unless you’re in Canada or Australia. You’re better off starting from the bottom without a certificate.

Getting an online certificate qualifies a person for a growers position and as a general laborer at a landscape company.

“Heck yeah, that’s what I want to be! A grower!”.

No you don’t. A position as a grower, entails nothing more than $15 an hour and HARD labor. You don’t need any knowledge to move plants from one area to the next.

Same with landscaping, unless you own it, have a horticulture degree, or have supervisory experience; pick up a blower, hop on a mower, and finish this job so we can go the next.

Is that what you want to switch your career to? You seriously think that you can jump into a field, uneducated, untrained, and just be able to make it happen?

Unless you can live on $15 an hour, keep your current job. Please don’t think that you can get into horticulture and support yourself. (Unless you know someone or can start your own business, good luck)

90% of all horticultural positions are filled with H2A workers that get paid much less than $15 an hour and can do it way faster than your pansy ass can. A certificate only qualifies you for these same positions and you probably won’t even get hired because you wouldn’t be able to survive on the wages and these big operations know that.

Sure, you could teach yourself the fundamentals of horticulture minus some intricacies. I’m not saying it’s too difficult for the layman to understand. I’m saying, that without proper accreditation, that knowledge won’t help you. Often times, accreditation won’t even help you. You see, horticulture is less like growing plants and more like a giant supply chain operation. The people who know about moving products around in a supply chain are the ones who are valuable in horticulture, not the schmucks that can rattle off scientific names and water an azalea.

The only people that get paid in horticulture are supervisors, managers, and anybody that DOESN’T actually go into the field/nursery/greenhouse. These people normally have degrees except under rare circumstances where they just moved up in a company due to their tenacity and charisma.

Side note: I’m sure there’s plenty of small nursery/greenhouse operations or maybe even some small farm operations that would pay around $15 and hire someone with a certificate so I’m not saying that it’s impossible to get into the industry. I’m just saying that it’s not an industry where you can be successful enough to retire on without a formal education or extensive experience. Period.

Horticulture is going to robots and supply chain managers.

That being said, the number one job for all horticultural applications is MANUAL LABOR or LANDSCAPE LABOR. The robots are still too expensive!

Okay, I’m done. I just had to put this out there. I’m really tired of seeing the career switching posts. I’m not trying to be negative, I’m trying to enlighten people that genuinely don’t have a clue. I’m sure I’m going to get hate from those people with certificates in Canada and Australia. Things are different over there.


r/Horticulture • • 10h ago

Just Sharing Old School Gardening

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21 Upvotes

Figured you all would appreciate these.

I love old books and these are the Audel's Gardeners and Growers Guides - a 4 book set circa 1928.

Audel makes informational books on all kinds of subjects and have been doing so from a very long time.

I have the Carpentry set and a few of their one off books on home improvement and I just got these.

You can find these books on Etsy and Ebay.


r/Horticulture • • 23h ago

Career Help Need feedback on my resume - changing carreer

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6 Upvotes

Hey everyone! I’m looking to switch careers into horticulture (in UK) and want to know if my CV is suitable for an apprenticeship application. I’ve removed my personal details. Ideally, I’d love to get some feedback from a professional.


r/Horticulture • • 1d ago

English yew vs Thuja plicata ‘Martin’ — which would pair best with my Lawson cypress for privacy?

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1 Upvotes

r/Horticulture • • 1d ago

Sambuca Nigra Toast?

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3 Upvotes

My Sambuca Nigra, around 2 yrs old, grew like crazy this spring and summer. A week or so ago, it started looking dead. I have drip irrigation for it and the surrounding area, so no real change in water. I'm in Zone 7b and we haven't had a frost yet. Most trees still have green leaves. Any idea what the problem might be?


r/Horticulture • • 2d ago

Delonix regia bloom, 2 1/2 yrs old !

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6 Upvotes

r/Horticulture • • 2d ago

Help Needed Advice for overgrown cactus

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9 Upvotes

Hello, I recently moved in to my future mother in law's house to assist her after she had a heart attack is taking a break from work. Her backyard is severely overgrown with weeds, shrubs, and a cactus. I have spent some time every weekend hand pulling weeds and plan on trimming the grass next, but this cactus...

I am not too familiar with cactus management, since I grew up in the Midwest, but MIL wants to prune this down, potentially even get rid of it.

Does anyone have advice to get this down to a manageable size or extra advice on how to get rid of it? It would


r/Horticulture • • 2d ago

Pencil bush did great for the last 4-5 months its been planted. Now its dying

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1 Upvotes

r/Horticulture • • 2d ago

East coast vendor for houseplants?

2 Upvotes

I work for a small garden shop in the New England area of the US. Our previous vendor stopped selling houseplants and local options are the usual plants everyone has been buying since the 1970s.

Can anyone recommend an East Coast vendor who is near(ish) to New England or charge freight that is unlikely to exceed $1k.

Types of plants? Wide range of hoyas, calathea, philodendron, alocasia, ferns, succulents and cactus, etc.

I appreciate any ideas.


r/Horticulture • • 2d ago

Ponchatoula Louisiana 70454

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2 Upvotes

10.11.2026 ♡


r/Horticulture • • 3d ago

Gardening beginners (and experts!) needed: 3–5 min student survey 🌱

0 Upvotes

Hi everyone! 👋 I'm Manasvi, a student doing my dissertation on why gardening feels so hard for beginners, even with so much info online.

I'd love to hear from anyone: complete beginners, people who tried and struggled, balcony/indoor gardeners, or experienced gardeners.

⏱️ 3–5 minutes, anonymous, purely academic
🔗 https://forms.gle/72bZyCbTG2t3WR7y5

If you'd rather just comment on what you find most frustrating about gardening, I'd love to read that too. Thank you so much! 🌿


r/Horticulture • • 4d ago

Question Can someone please explain this?

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8 Upvotes

(Forgive my messy window.) My lilac bush hasn’t bloomed all year yet suddenly this week boom two bloom clusters out of nowhere. The bush is completely barren save for new growth and these two blooms. Is this normal and what is happening?


r/Horticulture • • 4d ago

Question Putting these newly delivered Bonnie’s Strawberries under Blue light

0 Upvotes

Do you think this will help to get extend growth and vegetative state as appose to ever bearing like Bonnie’s claims?


r/Horticulture • • 4d ago

Discussion Growers supplying multiple buyers: how much compliance paperwork gets repeated?

0 Upvotes

For any growers out there selling fruit or vegetables to more than one packhouse, wholesaler, or supermarket program: are you constantly re-sending the same certs and test reports, or do they all accept the same documentation?

I’m curious how this feels day-to-day for Australian growers, especially with things like Freshcare or HARPS. Are you dealing with a mess of different buyer portals and email chains?Even if you're not in Australia, I'd love to know how you usually handle this on your end.


r/Horticulture • • 5d ago

A Budget-Friendly Way to Keep Basil Alive Indoors Through Winter

8 Upvotes

I run a warehouse. Twelve hour shifts some days. Come home wanting fresh basil for the grill and the stuff's gone to flower again. Tried growing it inside last winter under a cheap shop light. It lived. Barely. Leggy and pale. Now I'm wondering if I should even bother moving my outdoor pots indoors for fall. My kitchen window gets maybe four hours of direct light. The rest is that weak filtered stuff through old glass. I see these fancy grow light setups online. Hundreds of dollars. Not happening. Tried one of those thirty dollar purple bulbs before. Burned the leaves on one side and the other side still stretched for the window. Classic. My fiancée wants herbs for the wedding menu. Wants me growing them. I want to not fail publicly. Anyone got a middle ground? A bulb or setup that actually works for basil through a North Carolina winter without costing like a warehouse overtime shift. Or am I better off just buying starts every spring and accepting the cycle.


r/Horticulture • • 5d ago

Help Needed Is this salvageable? I feel like a murderer.

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5 Upvotes

I don’t know crap about plants, taking a horticulture class and this tragedy happened as I was walking to my car. What do I do?


r/Horticulture • • 6d ago

Over winter in pots

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9 Upvotes

I have these plants in pots, anyone know what they are and how to care for them over winter in hardiness zone 5a. Thank you


r/Horticulture • • 6d ago

Help Needed Gardening Survey for Beginners

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1 Upvotes

r/Horticulture • • 7d ago

Career Help I Want to Drop Out So Bad

49 Upvotes

I'm a student at University of Vermont in the landscape design/horticulture program and I hate all of my classes that aren't directly tied to horticulture. I took greenhouse management last year working directly with staff at the greenhouse on campus and literally all of them had either dropped out of college or not majored in the subject - and now they're working high-paying jobs at a prestigious institution.

I keep looking at Indeed and seeing all these jobs that I know I could do that pay fine (sometimes very well) and are in nice towns and it's so tempting to just apply to a ton of them and drop out of college to start working. I feel like in greenhouse management especially it's a career with a lot of upward mobility where real experience matters more than a degree.

Am I stupid?


r/Horticulture • • 7d ago

Career Help 22, thinking of leaving University to pursue horticulture in the UK. Would appreciate some honest advice.

5 Upvotes

I'm 22 and currently in my first year of a Philosophy BA at a Russell Group university. I do have an interest in philosophy, but naively applied because it was the only degree I had the subject-specific grades for. I'm now seriously considering leaving to pursue horticulture, which has also been a lifelong interest of mine.

I've always struggled with academic environments. I dropped science at GCSE (which I now regret), left sixth form for two years and only finished my qualifications at 20. I'm only a couple of weeks into university, but I'm already struggling. The course isn't what I expected, and I'm questioning whether a degree costing tens of thousands of pounds is worth it when I'm not enjoying it, don't particularly want the careers it leads to (law, finance, marketing, journalism etc.) and have no guaranteed job at the end.

By contrast, I've worked in horticulture for a year, across all the seasons, and genuinely miss it. I've also come close to getting apprenticeships at Kew Gardens (8th on the reserve list for 7 places) and the Royal Parks (2nd for one position), so I sometimes wonder whether I should have kept trying.

The main complication is that I don't have science A-levels, which seem to be required for many horticulture degrees. I'd therefore be looking at apprenticeships, vocational qualifications or working my way up through employment.

I'm under no illusions about the financial realities: I know the work can be physically demanding, wages can be low and progression isn't always easy. But I'd rather develop a practical skill I genuinely care about than spend years on a degree and career that are making me miserable.

I'd particularly appreciate advice on:

Can you build a lifelong career in horticulture without a degree?

What are the best routes into the profession without science A-levels?

Can specialising lead to decent wages, or should I expect to struggle financially long-term?

Which areas offer the best opportunities for developing skills and progressing?

Would you recommend reapplying for apprenticeships, and how concerned should I be about AI and automation?

I'm trying to work out whether leaving university would be a mistake or whether I'm recognising that this path isn't right for me. I'd appreciate honest advice, especially from people with experience in the industry. Thanks!


r/Horticulture • • 8d ago

Question "Cutting Kit" for cloning plants

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68 Upvotes

Does anyone do anything like this?

This is my "cutting kit".

Basically I have this in my bag in case I come across a plant that I want to clip and clone at home.

I use the water to moisten a compressed towel to put in the Ziploc bag to been the stem moist till I can get the plant home in the Ziploc bag.

  • Small plastic container
  • Small bottle of water
  • Small clipping scissors.
  • Compressed towels
  • 1-2 Ziploc bags

r/Horticulture • • 7d ago

liquid vs powder garden products

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1 Upvotes

r/Horticulture • • 10d ago

Product advice - Hardy trailing plants for rooftop planters in Lithuania?

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3 Upvotes

r/Horticulture • • 9d ago

Are you a plant lover in Canada? Help a University of Waterloo study (short anonymous survey)

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1 Upvotes

r/Horticulture • • 10d ago

Discussion First peach harvest from our 3 year old orchard

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9 Upvotes