the branch of plant agriculture dealing with garden crops, generally fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plants. The word is derived from the Latin hortus, “garden,” and colere, “to cultivate.” As a general term, it covers all forms of garden management, but in ordinary use it refers to intensive commercial production. In terms of scale, horticulture falls between domestic gardening and field agriculture, though all forms of cultivation naturally have close links.

Horticulture is divided into the cultivation of plants for food (pomology and olericulture) and plants for ornament (floriculture and landscape horticulture). Pomology deals with fruit and nut crops. Olericulture deals with herbaceous plants for the kitchen, including, for example, carrots (edible root), asparagus (edible stem), lettuce (edible leaf), cauliflower (edible flower), tomatoes (edible fruit), and peas (edible seed). Floriculture deals with the production of flowers and ornamental plants; generally, cut flowers, pot plants, and greenery. Landscape horticulture is a broad category that includes plants for the landscape, including lawn turf, but particularly nursery crops such as shrubs, trees, and climbers.

The specialization of the horticulturist and the success of the crop are influenced by many factors. Among these are climate, terrain, and other regional variations.

Temperate zones for horticulture cannot be defined exactly by lines of latitude or longitude but are usually regarded as including those areas where frost in winter occurs, even though rarely. Thus most parts of Europe, North America, and northern Asia are included, though some parts of the United States, such as southern California and Florida, are considered subtropical. A few parts of the north coast of the Mediterranean and the Mediterranean islands are also subtropical. In the Southern Hemisphere, practically all of New Zealand, a few parts of Australia, and the southern part of South America have temperate climates. For horticultural purposes altitude is also a factor; the lower slopes of great mountain ranges, such as the Himalayas and the Andes, are included. Thus the temperate zones are very wide and the range of plants that can be grown in them is enormous, probably greater than in either the subtropical or tropical zones. In the temperate zones are the great coniferous and deciduous forests: pine, spruce, fir, most of the cypresses, the deciduous oaks (but excluding many of the evergreen ones), ash, birch, and linden (lime).

The temperate zones are also the areas of the grasses—the finest lawns particularly are in the regions of moderate or high rainfall—and of the great cereal crops. Rice is excluded as being tropical, but wheat, barley, corn (maize), and rye grow well in the temperate zones.

Plants in the temperate zones benefit from a winter resting season, which clearly differentiates them from tropical plants, which tend to grow continuously. Bulbs, annuals, herbaceous perennials, and deciduous trees become more frost-resistant with the fall of sap and therefore have a better chance of passing the resting season undamaged. Another influence is the varying length of darkness and light throughout the year, so that many plants, such as chrysanthemums, have a strong photoperiodism. The chrysanthemum flowers only in short daylight periods, although artificial lighting in nurseries can produce flowers the year round.

Most of the great gardens of the world have been developed in temperate zones. Particular features such as rose gardens, herbaceous borders, annual borders, woodland gardens, and rock gardens are also those of temperate-zone gardens. Nearly all depend for their success on the winter resting period.

There is no sharp line of demarcation between the tropics and the subtropics. Just as many tropical plants can be cultivated in the subtropics, so also many subtropical and even temperate plants can be grown satisfactorily in the tropics. Elevation is a determining factor. For example, the scarlet runner bean, a common plant in temperate regions, grows, flowers, and develops pods normally on the high slopes of Mt. Meru in Africa near the Equator; it will not, however, set pods in Hong Kong, a subtropical situation a little south of the Tropic of Cancer but at a low elevation.

In addition to elevation, another determinant is the annual distribution of rainfall. Plants that grow and flower in the monsoon areas, as in India, will not succeed where the climate is uniformly wet, as in Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. Another factor is the length of day, the number of hours the Sun is above the horizon; some plants flower only if the day is long, but others make their growth during the long days and flower when the day is short. Certain strains of the cosmos plant are so sensitive to light that, where the day is always about 12 hours, as near the Equator, they flower when only a few inches high; if grown near the Tropics of Cancer or Capricorn, they attain a height of several feet, if the seeds are sown in the spring, before flowering in the short days of autumn and winter. poinsettia is a short-day plant that may be seen in flower in Singapore on any day of the year, while in Trinidad it is a blaze of glory only in late December.

In the tropics of Asia and parts of Central and South America the dominant features of the gardens are flowering trees, shrubs, and climbers. Herbaceous plants are relatively few, but many kinds of orchids can be grown.

Vegetable crops vary in kind and quality with the presence or absence of periodic dry seasons. In the uniformly wet tropics, the choice is limited to a few root crops and still fewer greens. Sweet potatoes (sweet potato) grow and bear good crops where the average monthly rainfall, throughout the year, exceeds 10 inches (25 centimetres); they grow even better where there is a dry season. The same can be said of taro, yams, and cassava. Tropical greens from the Malay Peninsula are not as good as those grown in South China, the Hawaiian Islands, and Puerto Rico. They include several spinaches, of which Chinese spinach or amaranth is the best; several cabbages; Chinese onions and chives; and several gourds, cucumbers, and, where there is a dry season, watermelons. Brinjals, or eggplants, peppers, and okra are widely cultivated. Many kinds of beans (bean) can be grown successfully, including the French bean from the American subtropics, the many varieties of the African cowpea, and yard-long bean. The yam bean, a native of tropical America, is grown for its edible tuber. In the drier areas the pigeon pea, the soybean, the peanut (groundnut), and the Tientsin green bean are important crops. Miscellaneous crops include watercress, ginger, lotus, and bamboo.

Propagation, the controlled perpetuation of plants, is the most basic of horticultural practices. Its two objectives are to achieve an increase in numbers and to preserve the essential characteristics of the plant. Propagation can be achieved sexually by seed or asexually by utilizing specialized vegetative structures of the plant (tubers and corms) or by employing such techniques as cutting, layering, grafting, and tissue culture. (A detailed discussion of the methods of controlling sexual propagation can be found in the article plant breeding.)

The most common method of propagation for self-pollinated plants is by seed. In self-pollinated plants, the sperm nuclei in pollen produced by a flower fertilize egg cells of a flower on the same plant. Propagation by seed is also used widely for many cross-pollinated plants (those whose pollen is carried from one plant to another). Seed is usually the least expensive and often the only means of propagation and offers a convenient way to store plants over long periods of time. Seed kept dry and cool normally maintains its viability from harvest to the next planting season. Some can be stored for years under suitable conditions. Seed propagation also makes it possible to start plants free of most diseases. This is especially true with respect to virus diseases, because it is almost impossible to free plants of virus infections and because most virus diseases are not transmitted by seed. There are two disadvantages to seed propagation. First, genetic variation occurs in seed from cross-pollinated plants because they are heterozygous. This means that the plant grown from seed may not exactly duplicate the characteristics of its parents and may possess undesirable characteristics. Second, some plants take a long time to grow from seed to maturity. Potatoes, for example, do not breed true from seed and do not produce large tubers the first year. These disadvantages are overcome by vegetative propagation.

The practice of saving seed to plant the following year has developed into a specialized part of horticulture. Seed technology involves all of the steps necessary to ensure production of seed with high viability, freedom from disease, purity, and trueness to type. These processes may include specialized growing and harvesting techniques, cleaning, and distribution.

Relatively little tree and shrub seed is grown commercially; it is generally harvested from natural stands. Rootstock seed for fruit trees is often obtained as a by-product in fruit-processing industries. Seed growing and plant improvement are related activities. Thus many seed-producing firms actively engage in plant-breeding programs to accomplish genetic improvement of their material.

Harvesting of dry seed is accomplished by threshing. Seed from fleshy fruits is recovered through fermentation of the macerated (softened by soaking) pulp or directly from screening. Machines have been developed to separate and clean seed, based on size, specific gravity, and surface characteristics. Extended storage of seed requires low humidity and cool temperature.

Trade in seed requires quality control. For example, U.S. government seed laws require detailed labeling showing germination percentage, mechanical purity, amount of seed, origin, and moisture content. Seed testing is thus an important part of the seed industry.

While most vegetable seed germinates readily upon exposure to normally favourable environmental conditions, many seed plants that are vegetatively (asexually) propagated fail to germinate readily because of physical or physiologically imposed dormancy. Physical dormancy is due to structural limitations to germination such as hard impervious seed coats. Under natural conditions weathering for a number of years weakens the seed coat. Certain seeds, such as the sweet pea, have a tough husk that can be artificially worn or weakened to render the seed coat permeable to gases and water by a process known as scarification. This is accomplished by a number of methods including abrasive action, soaking in hot water, or acid treatment. Physiologically imposed dormancy involves the presence of germination inhibitors. Germination in such seed may be accomplished by treatment to remove these inhibitors. This may involve cold stratification, storing seed at high relative humidity and low temperatures, usually slightly above freezing. Cold stratification is a prerequisite to the uniform germination of many temperate-zone species such as apple, pear, and redbud.

Asexual or vegetative reproduction is based on the ability of plants to regenerate tissues and parts. In many plants vegetative propagation is a completely natural process; in others it is an artificial one. Vegetative propagation has many advantages. These include the unchanged perpetuation of naturally cross-pollinated or heterozygous plants and the possibility of propagating seedless progeny. This means that a superior plant may be reproduced endlessly without variation. In addition, vegetative propagation may be easier and faster than seed propagation, because seed dormancy problems are eliminated and the juvenile nonflowering stage of some seed-propagated plants is eliminated or reduced.

Vegetative propagation is accomplished by use of (1) apomictic seed; (2) specialized vegetative structures such as runners, bulbs, corms, rhizomes, offshoots, tubers, stems, and roots; (3) layers and cuttings; (4) grafting and budding; and (5) tissue culture.

Apomixis, the development of asexual seed (seed not formed via the normal sexual process), is a form of vegetative propagation for some horticultural plants including Kentucky bluegrass, mango, and citrus. Virus-free progeny can be produced in oranges from a seed that is formed from the nucellus, a maternal tissue.

Many plants produce specialized vegetative structures that can be used in propagation. These may be storage organs such as tubers that enable the plant to survive adverse conditions or organs adapted for natural propagation—runners or rhizomes—so that the plant may rapidly spread.

Bulbs (bulb) consist of a short stem base with one or more buds protected by fleshy leaves. They are found in such plants as the onion, daffodil, and hyacinth. Bulbs commonly grow at ground level, though bulblike structures (bulbils) may form on aerial stems in some lilies or in association with flower parts, as in the onion. Buds (bud) in the axils (angle between leaf and stem) of the fleshy leaves may form miniature bulbs (bulblets) that when grown to full size are known as offsets. Corms (corm) are short, fleshy, underground stems without fleshy leaves. The gladiolus and crocus are propagated by corms. They may produce new cormels from fleshy buds. Rhizomes (rhizome) are horizontal, underground stems that are compressed, as in the iris, or slender, as in turf grasses. Runners are specialized aerial stems, a natural agent of increase and spread for such plants as the strawberry, strawberry geranium, and bugleweed (Ajuga). Tubers (tuber) are fleshy enlarged portions of underground stem. The edible portion of the potato, the tuber, is also used as a means of propagation.

A number of plants form lateral shoots from the stem, which when rooted serve to propagate the plant. These are known collectively as offshoots but are often called offsets, crown divisions, ratoons, or slips.

Roots may also be structurally modified as propagative and food-storage organs. These tuberous roots, fleshy swollen structures, readily form shoots (called adventitious, because they do not form from nodes). The sweet potato and dahlia are propagated by tuberous roots. Shoots that rise adventitiously from roots are called suckers. The red raspberry is propagated by suckers.

Propagation can be accomplished by methods in which plants are induced to regenerate missing parts, usually adventitious roots or shoots. When the regenerated part is still attached to the plant the process is called layerage, or layering; when the regenerating portion is detached from the plant the process is called cuttage, or cutting.

Layering often occurs naturally. Drooping black raspberry stems tend to root in contact with the soil. The croton, a tropical plant, is commonly propagated by wrapping moist sphagnum enclosed in plastic around a stem cut to induce rooting. After rooting, the stem is detached and planted. Though simple and effective, layering is not normally adapted to large-scale nursery practices.

Cutting is one of the most important methods of propagation. Many plant parts can be used; thus cuttings are classified as root, stem, or leaf. Stem cuttings are the most common.

The ability of stems to regenerate missing parts is variable; consequently plants may be easy or difficult to root. The physiological ability of cuttings to form roots is due to an interaction of many factors. These include transportable substances in the plant itself: plant hormones (such as auxin), carbohydrates, nitrogenous substances, vitamins, and substances not yet identified. Environmental factors such as light, temperature, humidity, and oxygen are important, as are age, position, and type of stem.

Although easy-to-root plants such as willow or coleus can be propagated merely by plunging a stem in water or moist sand, the propagation of difficult-to-root species is a highly technical process. To achieve success with difficult-to-root plants special care is taken to control the environment and encourage rooting. A number of growth regulators stimulate rooting. A high degree of success has been achieved with indolebutyric acid, a synthetic auxin that is applied to the cut surface. A number of materials known as rooting cofactors have been found that interact with auxin to further stimulate rooting, and these are sold as a hormone rooting compound.

Grafting involves the joining together of plant parts by means of tissue regeneration. The part of the combination that provides the root is called the stock; the added piece is called the scion. When more than two parts are involved, the middle piece is called the interstock. When the scion consists of a single bud, the process is called budding. Grafting and budding are the most widely used of the vegetative propagation methods.

Stock cambium and scion cambium respond to being cut by forming masses of cells (callus tissues) that grow over the injured surfaces of the wounds. The union resulting from interlocking of the callus tissues is the basis of graftage. In dicots (dicotyledon) (e.g., most trees) cambium—a layer of actively dividing cells between xylem (wood) and phloem (bast) tissues—is usually arranged in a continuous ring; in woody members, new layers of tissue are produced annually. Monocot stems (e.g., lilacs, orchids) do not possess a continuous cambium layer or increase in thickness; grafting is seldom possible.

The basic technique in grafting consists of placing cambial tissues of stock and scion in intimate association, so that the resulting callus tissue produced from stock and scion interlocks to form a living continuous connection. A snug fit can be obtained through the tension of the split stock and scion or both. Tape, rubber, and nails can be used to achieve close contact. In general, grafts are only compatible between the same or closely related species. Success in grafting depends on skill in achieving a snug fit. Warm temperatures (80°–85° F 【27°–30° C】) increase callus formation and improve “take” in grafting. Thus grafts using dormant material are often stored in a warm, moist place to stimulate callus formation.

In grafting and budding, the rootstock can be grown from seed or propagated asexually. Within a year a small amount of scion material from one plant can produce hundreds of plants.

Grafting has uses in addition to propagation. The interaction of rootstocks may affect the performance of the stock through dwarfing or invigoration and in some cases may affect quality. Further, the use of more than one component can affect the disease resistance and hardiness of the combination.

Grafting as a means of growth control is used extensively with fruit trees and ornamentals such as roses and junipers. Fruit trees are normally composed of a scion grafted onto a rootstock. Sometimes an interstock is included between the scion and stock. The rootstock may be grown from seed (seedling rootstock) or asexually propagated (clonal rootstock). In the apple, a great many clonal rootstocks are available to give a complete range of dwarfing; rootstocks are also available to invigorate growth of the scion cultivar.

Tissue-culture (tissue culture) techniques utilizing embryos, shoot tips, and callus can be used as a method of propagation. The procedure requires aseptic techniques and special media to supply inorganic elements; sugar; vitamins; and, depending on the tissue, growth regulators and organic complexes such as coconut milk, yeast, and amino-acid extract.

Embryo culture has been used to produce plants from embryos that would not normally develop within the fruit. This occurs in early-ripening peaches and in some hybridization between species. Embryo culture can also be used to circumvent seed dormancy.

A shoot tip, when excised and cultured, may produce roots at the base. This technique is employed for the purpose of producing plants free of disease. Certain orchids are rapidly multiplied by this method. Cultured shoot tips form an embryo-like stage that can be sectioned indefinitely to build up large stocks rapidly. These bulblike bodies left unsectioned develop into small plantlets. A similar procedure is used with the carnation, in which the shoot tip forms a cell mass that can be subdivided.

Callus-tissue culture—a very specialized technique that involves growth of the callus, followed by procedures to induce organ differentiation—has been successful with a number of plants including carrot, asparagus, and tobacco. Used extensively in research, callus culture has not been considered a practical method of propagation. Callus culture produces genetic variability because in some cases cells double their chromosome number. In rice and tobacco, mature plants have been obtained from callus formed from pollen. These plants have half the normal number of chromosomes.

The isolation and production of superior types known as cultivars are the very keystones of horticulture. plant breeding, the systematic improvement of plants through the application of genetic principles, has placed improvement of horticultural plants on a scientific basis. The raw material of improvement is found in the great variation that exists between cultivated plants and related wild species. The incorporation of these changes into cultivars adapted to specific geographical areas requires a knowledge of the theoretical basis of heredity and art and the skill to discover, perpetuate, and combine these small but fundamental differences in plant material.

The goal of the plant breeder is to create superior crop varieties. The cultivated variety, or cultivar, can be defined as a group of crop plants having similar but distinguishable characteristics. The term cultivar has various meanings, however, depending on the mode of reproduction of the crop. With reference to asexually propagated crops, the term cultivar means any particular clone considered of sufficient value to be graced with a name. With reference to sexually propagated crops, the concept of cultivar depends on the method of pollination. The cultivar in self-pollinated crops is basically a particular homozygous genotype, a pure line. In cross-pollinated crops the cultivar is not necessarily typified by any one plant but sometimes by a particular plant population, which at any one time is composed of genetically distinguishable individuals.

Control of the natural environment is a major part of all forms of cultivation, whatever its scale. The basic processes involved in this task have already been described in a preceding section on the principles of gardening, and these also apply to horticulture. The scale, intensiveness, and economic risk in commercial gardening and nurseries, however, often require approaches markedly different from those of the small home garden; and some of these are described here.

The intensive cultivation practiced in horticulture relies on extensive control of the environment for all phases of plant life. The most basic environmental control is achieved by location and site: sunny or shady sites, proximity to bodies of water, altitude, and latitude.

Various structures are used for temperature control. Cold frames, used to start plants before the normal growing season, are low enclosed beds covered with a removable sash of glass or plastic. Radiant energy passes through the transparent top and warms the soil directly. Heat, however, as long-wave radiation, is prevented from leaving the glass or plastic cover at night. Thus heat that builds up in the cold frame during the day aids in warming the soil, which releases its heat gradually at night to warm the plants. When supplemental heat is provided, the structures are called hotbeds. At first, supplemental heat was supplied by respiration through the decomposition of manure or other organic matter. Today, heat is provided by electric cables, steam, or hot-water pipes buried in the soil.

Greenhouses (greenhouse) are large hotbeds, and in most cases the source of heat is steam. While they were formerly made of glass, plastic films are now extensively used. Modern greenhouse ranges usually have automatic temperature control. Summer temperatures can be regulated by shading or evaporative “fan-and-pad” cooling devices. Air-conditioning units are usually too expensive except for scientific work. Greenhouses with precise environmental controls are known as phytotrons. Other environmental factors are controlled through automatic watering, regulation of light and shade, addition of carbon dioxide, and the regulation of fertility.

Shade houses are usually walk-in structures with shading provided by lath or screening. Summer propagation is often located in shade houses to reduce excessive water loss by transpiration.

A number of temperature-control techniques are used in the field, including application of hot caps, cloches, plastic tunnels, and mulches of various types. Hot caps are cones of translucent paper or plastic that are placed over the tops of plants in the spring. These act as miniature greenhouses. In the past small glass sash called cloches were placed over rows to help keep them warm. Polyethylene tunnels supported by wire hoops that span the plants are now used for the same purpose. As spring advances the tunnels are slashed to prevent excessive heat buildup. In some cases the plastic tunnels are constructed so that they can be opened and closed when necessary. This technique is widely used in Israel for early production of vegetables.

Mulching (already described in its application to domestic gardens) is important in horticulture. Whether in the form of a topdressing of manure or compost or plastic sheeting, mulches offer the grower the various benefits of economical plant feeding, conservation of moisture, and control of weeds and erosion. Winter mulches are commonly used to protect such sensitive and valuable plants as strawberries and roses.

The storage of perishable plant products is accomplished largely through the regulation of their temperature to retard respiration and microbial activity. Excess water loss can be prevented by controlling humidity. Facilities that utilize the temperature of the atmosphere are called common storage. The most primitive types take advantage of the reduced temperature fluctuations of the soil by using caves or unheated cellars. Aboveground structures must be insulated and ventilated. Complete temperature-regulated storages utilizing refrigeration and heating are now common for storage of horticultural products. The regulation of oxygen and carbon dioxide levels along with the regulation of temperature is known as controlled-atmosphere storage. Rooms are sealed so that gaseous exchange can be effectively controlled. Many horticultural products, such as fruit, can be kept fresh for as long as a year under these controlled conditions.

Frost is one of the high-risk elements for commercial growers, and the problem is accentuated by the fact that growers are striving to produce early-season crops. The precautions are consequently far more elaborate and costly than those of the domestic garden. Frost is especially damaging to perennial fruit crops in the spring—because flower parts are sensitive to freezing injury—and to tender transplants. The two weather conditions that produce freezing temperatures are rapid radiational cooling at night and introduction of a cold air mass with temperatures below freezing. Radiation frost occurs when the weather is clear and calm; air-mass freezes occur when it is overcast and windy.

Frost-control methods involve either reduction of radiational heat loss or conservation or addition of heat. Radiational heat loss may be reduced by hot caps, cold frames, or mulches. Heat may also be added from the air. Wind machines that stir up the air, for example, provide heat when temperature inversions trap cold air under a layer of warm air. These have been used extensively in citrus groves. Heat may be added directly by using heaters, usually fueled with oil. Sprinkler irrigation can also be used for frost control. The formation of ice is accompanied by the release of large amounts of heat, which maintains plants at the freezing temperature as long as the water is being frozen. Thus continuous sprinkling during frosty nights has been used to protect strawberries from frost injury.

Frost injury to transplants can be prevented through processes that increase the plant's ability to survive the impact of unfavourable environmental stress. This is known as hardening off. Hardening off of plants prior to transplanting can be accomplished by withholding water and fertilizer, especially nitrogen. This prevents formation of succulent tissue that is very frost-tender. Gradual exposure to cold is also effective for hardening. Induced cold resistance in crops such as cabbage, for example, can have a considerable effect; unhardened cabbages begin to show injury at 28° F (−2.2° C), while hardened plants withstand temperatures as low as 22° F (−5.6° C).

Light has a tremendous effect on plant growth. It provides energy for photosynthesis, the process by which plants, with the aid of the pigment chlorophyll, synthesize carbon compounds from water and carbon dioxide. Light also influences a great number of physiological reactions in plants. At energy values lower than those required for photosynthesis, light affects such processes as dormancy, flowering, tuberization, and seed-stalk development. In many cases these processes are affected by the length of day; the recurrent cycle of light is known as the photoperiod.

The control of light in horticultural practices involves increasing energy values for photosynthesis and controlling day length. Light is controlled in part by site and location. In the tropics day length approaches 12 hours throughout the year, whereas in polar regions it varies from zero to 24 hours. Light is also partly controlled by plant distribution and density.

Supplemental illumination in greenhouses increases photosynthesis. The cost of power to supply the artificial light, however, makes this impractical for all but crops of the highest value. Fluorescent lights are the most efficient for photosynthesis; special lights, rich in the wavelengths required, are now available.

Extension of day length through supplemental illumination and shading is common practice in the production of greenhouse flower crops, which are often induced to flower out of season. Artificial lengthening of short days, or interruption of the dark period, promotes flowering in long-day plants such as lettuce and spinach and prevents flowering of short-day plants such as chrysanthemums. Similarly, during naturally long days, shading to reduce day length prevents flowering of long-day plants and promotes flowering of short-day plants. The manipulation of day length is standard practice to control flowering of greenhouse chrysanthemums throughout the year. Tungsten lights have proved very effective for extending day length because they are rich in the red end of the spectrum that affects the photoperiodic reaction. Extending the day length is a relatively affordable practice because only a low light intensity is required. The same effects can be obtained through interruption of the dark period, even with light flashes. Decreasing day length is usually accomplished by simply covering the plants with black shade cloth.

The principles involved here are again similar to those of home gardening. But the financial considerations of horticulture naturally require a more scientific approach to soil care. To be successful, the grower must ensure the economic use of every square yard of ground, especially because the cost of sound horticultural land is among the highest of any in agriculture. Crop rotation is planned to ensure that the soil is not depleted of essential chemicals by repeated use of one type of plant in the same plot. Soil analysis is employed so that any such depletion can be rectified promptly. Fertilizers are applied in a precise routine and, of course, in a variety beyond the reach or needs of the ordinary gardener. They are frequently applied through leaves or stems in the form of chemical sprays.

Depending on the terrain, water management may involve extensive works for irrigation and drainage. While the home gardener may well be content with a rough-and-ready appraisal of the wetness or dryness of the soil, horticulture is more exacting. Production of the high-quality fruits and vegetables demanded by the modern market requires a precise all-year balance of soil moisture, adjusted to the needs of the particular crop. These considerations apply whether the grower is situated in a high-rainfall area of Europe or in the parched land of the southwestern United States or Israel.

There are a number of general methods of land irrigation (irrigation and drainage). In surface irrigation water is distributed over the surface of soil. Sprinkler irrigation is application of water under pressure as simulated rain. Subirrigation is the distribution of water to soil below the surface; it provides moisture to crops by upward capillary action. Trickle irrigation involves the slow release of water to each plant through small plastic tubes. This technique is adapted both to field and to greenhouse conditions.

Removal of excess water from soils can be achieved by surface or subsurface drainage. Surface drainage refers to the removal of surface water by development of the slope of the land utilizing systems of drains to carry away the surplus water. In subsurface drainage open ditches and tile fields intercept groundwater and carry it off. The water enters the tiling through the joints, and drainage is achieved by gravity feed through the tiles.

Horticultural plants are subject to a wide variety of injuries caused by other organisms. Plant pests include viruses, bacteria, fungi, higher plants, nematodes, insects, mites, birds, and rodents. Various methods are used to control them. The most successful treatments are preventive rather than curative.

Control of pests is achieved through practices that prevent harm to the plant and methods that affect the plant's ability to resist or tolerate intrusion by the pathogen. These can be classified as cultural, physical, chemical, or biological.

Traditional practices that reduce effective pest population include the elimination of diseased or infected plants or seeds (roguing), cutting out of infected plant parts (surgery), removal of plant debris that may harbour pests (sanitation), and alternating crops unacceptable to pests (rotation). Any of a number of techniques can be employed to render the environment unfavourable to the pest, such as draining or flooding and changing the soil's level of acidity or alkalinity.

Physical methods can be used to protect the plant against intrusion or to eliminate the pest entirely. Physical barriers range from the traditional garden fence to bags that protect each fruit, a common practice in Japan. Heat treatment is used to destroy some seed-borne pathogens and is a standard soil treatment in greenhouses to eliminate soil pests such as fungi, nematodes, and weed seed. Cultivation and tillage are standard practices for weed control.

The horticultural industry is now dependent upon chemical control of pests through pesticides (pesticide), materials toxic to the pest in some stage of its life cycle. Commercial growers of practically all horticultural crops rely on complete schedules utilizing many different compounds. Pesticides are usually classed according to the organism they control: for example, bactericide, fungicide, nematicide, miticide, insecticide, rodenticide, and herbicide.

Selectivity of pesticides, the ability to discriminate between pests, is a relative concept. Some nonselective pesticides kill indiscriminately; most are selective to some degree. Most fungicides, for example, are not bactericidal. The development of highly selective herbicides makes it possible to destroy weeds from crops selectively. Selectivity can be achieved through control of dosage, timing, and method of application.

Plant pests can also be controlled through the manipulation of biological factors. This may be achieved through directing the natural competition between organisms or by incorporating natural resistance to the whole plant. The introduction of natural parasites or predators has been a successful method for the control of certain insects and weeds. Incorporation of genetic resistance is an ideal method of control. Thus breeding for disease and insect resistance is one of the chief goals of plant breeding programs. A major obstacle to this method of control is the ability of pathogens (disease-producing organisms) to mutate easily and attack previously resistant plants.

Control of plant growth through growth-regulating materials is a modern development in horticulture. These materials have resulted from basic investigations into growth and development, as well as systematic screening of materials to find those that affect differentiation and growth. This field was given great impetus by the discovery of a class of plant hormones known as auxins (auxin), which affect cell elongation.

Auxins have been correlated with inhibition and stimulation of growth as well as differentiation of organs and tissues. Such processes as cell enlargement, leaf and organ separation, budding, flowering, and fruit set (the formation of the fruit after pollination) and growth are influenced by auxins. In addition, auxins have been associated with the movement of plants in response to light and gravity. Auxin materials are used in horticulture for the promotion of rooting, fruit setting, fruit thinning, and fruit-drop control.

Gibberellins (gibberellin) are a group of related, naturally occurring compounds of which only one, gibberellic acid, is commercially available. Gibberellins have many effects on plant development. The most startling is the stimulation of growth in many compact or dwarf plants. Minute applications transform bush to pole beans or dwarf to normal corn. Perhaps the most widespread horticultural use has been in grape production. The application of gibberellin is now a regular practice for the culture of the ‘Thompson seedless' cultivar (“Sultanina”) of grapes to increase berry size. In Japan applications of gibberellic acid are used to induce seedlessness in certain grapes.

Cytokinins (cytokinin) are a group of chemical substances that have a decisive influence on the stimulation of cell division. In tissue culture high auxin and low cytokinin give rise to root development; low auxin and high cytokinin encourage shoot development.

Many compounds that inhibit growth hormones have application in horticulture. For example, a number of materials that inhibit formation of gibberellins by the plant cause dwarfing. These include chlorinated derivatives of quaternary ammonium and phosphonium compounds. Many of these have applications in floriculture. Growth retardants such as succinic acid–2,2-dimethylhydrazide, a gibberellin suppressor, have applications in horticulture from a wide array of effects that include dwarfing and fruit maturity. The growth inhibitor maleic hydrazide has been effective in preventing the sprouting of onions and potatoes.

Ornamental horticulture consists of floriculture and landscape horticulture. Each is concerned with growing and marketing plants and with the associated activities of flower arrangement and landscape design. The turf industry is also considered a part of ornamental horticulture. Although flowering bulbs and flower seed represent an important component of agricultural production for the Low Countries of Europe, ornamentals are relatively insignificant in world trade.

Floriculture has long been an important part of horticulture, especially in Europe and Japan, and accounts for about half of the nonfood horticultural industry in the United States. Because flowers and pot plants are largely produced in plant-growing structures in temperate climates, floriculture is largely thought of as a greenhouse industry; there is, however, considerable outdoor culture of many flowers.

The industry is usually very specialized with respect to its crop; the grower must provide precise environmental control. Exact scheduling is imperative since most floral crops are seasonal in demand. Because the product is perishable, transportation to market must function smoothly to avoid losses.

The floriculture industry involves the grower, who mass-produces flowers for the wholesale market, and the retail florist, who markets to the public. The grower is often a family farm, but, as in all modern agriculture, the size of the growing unit is increasing. There is a movement away from urban areas, with their high taxes and labour costs, to locations with lower tax rates and a rural labour pool and also toward more favourable climatic regions (milder temperature and more sunlight). The development of airfreight has emphasized interregional and international competition. Flowers can be shipped long distances by air and arrive in fresh condition to compete with locally grown products.

The industry of landscape horticulture is divided into growing, maintenance, and design. Growing of plants for landscape is called the nursery business, although a nursery refers broadly to the growing and establishment of any young plant before permanent planting. The nursery industry involves production and distribution of woody and herbaceous plants and is often expanded to include ornamental bulb crops—corms, tubers, rhizomes, and swollen roots as well as true bulbs. Production of cuttings to be grown in greenhouses or for indoor use (foliage plants), as well as the production of bedding plants, is usually considered part of floriculture, but this distinction is fading. While most nursery crops are ornamental, the nursery business also includes fruit plants and certain perennial vegetables used in home gardens, for example, asparagus and rhubarb.

Next to ornamental trees and shrubs, the most important nursery crops are fruit plants, followed by bulb crops. The most important single plant grown for outdoor cultivation is the rose. The type of nursery plants grown depends on location; in general (in the Northern Hemisphere) the northern areas provide deciduous and coniferous evergreens, whereas the southern nurseries provide tender broad-leaved evergreens.

The nursery industry includes wholesale, retail, and mail-order operations. The typical wholesale nursery specializes in relatively few crops and supplies only retail nurseries or florists. The wholesale nursery deals largely in plant propagation, selling young seedlings and rooted cuttings, known as “lining out” stock, of woody material to the retail nursery. The retail nursery then cares for the plants until growth is complete. Many nurseries also execute the design of the planting in addition to furnishing the plants.

The bulb crops include plants such as the tulip, hyacinth, narcissus, iris, daylily, and dahlia. Included also are nonhardy bulbs used as potted plants indoors and summer outdoor plantings such as amaryllises, anemones, various tuberous begonias, caladiums, cannas, dahlias, freesias, gladioli, tigerflowers, and others. Hardy bulbs, those that will survive when left in the soil over winter, include various crocuses, snowdrops, lilies, daffodils, and tulips.

Many bulb crops are of ancient Old World origin, introduced into horticulture long ago and subjected to selection and crossing through the years to yield many modern cultivars. One of the most popular is the tulip. Tulips are widely grown in gardens as botanical species but are especially prized in select forms of the garden tulip (which arose from crosses between thousands of cultivars representing several species). Garden tulips are roughly grouped as early tulips, breeder's tulips, cottage tulips, Darwin tulips, lily-flowered tulips, triumph tulips, Mendel tulips, parrot tulips, and others. The garden tulips seem to have been developed first in Turkey but were spread throughout Europe and were adopted enthusiastically by the Dutch. The Netherlands has been the centre of tulip breeding ever since the 18th century, when interest in the tulip was so intense that single bulbs of a select type were sometimes valued at thousands of dollars. The collapse of the “tulipmania” left economic scars for decades. The Netherlands remains today the chief source of tulip bulbs planted in Europe and in North America. The Netherlands has also specialized in the production of related bulbs in the lily family and provides hyacinth, narcissus, crocus, and others. The Dutch finance extensive promotion of their bulbs to support their market. Years of meticulous growing are required to yield a commercial tulip bulb from seed. Thorough soil preparation, high fertility, constant weeding, and careful record keeping are part of the intensive production, which requires much hand labour. Bulbs sent to market meet specifications as to size and quality, which assure at least one year's bloom even if the bulb is supplied nothing more than warmth and moisture. The inflorescence (flowering) is already initiated and the necessary food stored in the bulb. Under less favourable maintenance than prevails in The Netherlands, a subsequent year's bloom may be smaller and less reliable; it is not surprising therefore that tulip-bulb merchants suggest discarding bulbs after one year and replanting with new bulbs to achieve maximum yield.

Garden perennials include a number of herbaceous species grown for their flowers or occasionally used as vegetative ground covers. Under favourable growing conditions the plants persist and increase year after year. The biggest drawback to perennials as compared with annuals is that they must be maintained throughout the growing season but have only a limited flowering period. Typical perennials are hollyhocks, columbines, bellflowers, chrysanthemums, delphiniums, pinks, coralbells, phlox, poppies, primroses, and speedwells.

Perennials are often produced and sold as a sideline to other nursery activities; some are sold through seed houses. Perennial production could be undertaken on a massive scale, with attendant economies, but the market is neither large enough nor predictable enough (except for the greenhouse growing of such cut flowers as chrysanthemums and carnations) to interest most growers.

Production of ornamental shrubs is the backbone of the nursery trade in Europe and the United States. The nursery business is about equally divided between the production of (1) coniferous evergreens such as yew, juniper, spruce, and pine; (2) broad-leaved evergreens such as rhododendron, camellia, holly, and boxwood; (3) deciduous plants such as forsythia, viburnum, berberis, privet, lilac, and clematis; and (4) roses.

Fields of specialization have evolved within the ornamental shrub industry. Some firms confine activity mostly to production of “lining out” stock, which must be tended several years before reaching salable size.

The field grower may, in turn, specialize in mass growing for the wholesale trade only. The field plantings are tended until they attain marketable size. Because of the time required to produce a marketable crop and because of rising labour costs, this phase of the nursery industry involves economic hazards. But wholesale growing escapes the high overhead of retail marketing in urban areas, and, although many growers do sell stock at the nursery, they generally avoid the expensive merchandising required of the typical urban-area garden centre. Growers are especially interested in laboursaving technology and are turning to herbicidal control of weeds and shortcut methods for transplanting.

There is a well-established trade in container-grown stock—that is, nursery stock grown in the container in which it is sold. This practice avoids transplanting and allows year-round sales of plant material.

The production of roses is probably the most specialized of all shrub growing; the grower often deals solely in rose plants. Most are bud-grafted onto rootstocks (typically Rosa multiflora). This is the only way to achieve rapid and economical increase of a new selection to meet market demands. Large-scale production of roses has tended to centre in areas where long growing seasons make rapid production possible.

Because the budding operation calls for skilled hand labour and because field maintenance is expensive, few economies can be practiced in the production of roses. But distribution techniques that do offer certain economies have been developed. These include covering the roses with coated paper or plastic bags instead of damp moss to retain humidity and applying a wax coating to stems of dormant stock to inhibit desiccation.

Ornamental shade trees are usually grown and marketed in conjunction with shrubs. The 20th-century migration of people in many countries to suburban areas, coupled with the construction of houses on cleared land, has made shade trees an increasingly important part of the nursery trade. As interest in shade and ornamental trees increased, creation of improved cultivars followed. There is still some activity in transplanting native trees from the woodlot, and some are still grown from genetically unselected seed or cuttings; but more and more, like roses and shrubs before them, trees are vegetatively propagated as named cultivars, and many are patented.

The design and planning of landscapes has become a distinct profession that in many cases is only incidentally horticultural. Landscape architecture in its broadest sense is concerned with all aspects of land use. As a horticulturist, the landscape architect uses plants along with other landscape materials—stone, mortar, wood—as elements of landscape design. Unlike the materials of the painter or sculptor, plants are not static but change seasonally and with time. The colour, form, texture, and line of plants are used as design elements in the landscape. Plant materials are also manipulated as functional materials to control erosion, as surface materials, and for enclosures to provide protection from sunlight and wind.

Landscape architecture originated in the design of great estates, and home landscape is still an integral part of landscape architecture. More recently, however, landscape architecture has begun to include larger developments such as urban and town planning, parks both formal and “wild,” public buildings, industrial landscaping, and highway and roadside development. (See garden and landscape design.)

Scholarly works in horticulture appear continuously in scientific literature. Specific institutions devoted to horticultural research, however, go back to the beginning of the experiment-station system, the first being a private laboratory of John Bennet Lawes, with the later collaboration of Joseph Henry Gilbert, in Rothamsted, Eng. (1843). Horticultural education and research in the United States was given great impetus by Justin S. Morrill, a supporter of the Morrill Act (1862), which provided educational institutions in agricultural and mechanical arts for each state. State experimental stations and the federal experimental stations of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with its centre at Beltsville, Md., carry out systematic research efforts in horticulture. Although much research is carried out on horticultural food crops, there has been an increasing emphasis on ornamentals. Horticultural research is also conducted by private companies among the seed industry, canning and processing firms, and private foundations and botanical gardens.

Horticultural education is an established part of professional agricultural education worldwide. Training in horticulture up to the Ph.D. degree is offered in universities. There are relatively few schools devoted to the training of gardeners and horticultural technicians in the United States, although a number of state universities have two-year programs in horticulture. Vocational horticultural training is more highly developed in Europe.

There are a great number of national and international societies devoted to horticulture. These include community organizations such as garden clubs, specialty organizations devoted to a particular plant or group of plants (e.g., rose and orchid societies), scientific societies, and trade organizations. The first society devoted to horticulture originated in 1804 with the establishment in England of the Royal Horticultural Society. There are similar organizations in other European countries. The American Pomological Society, dedicated to the science and practice of fruit growing, was formed in 1848. The American Horticultural Society, established in 1945, is devoted largely to ornamentals. The American Society for Horticultural Science was established in 1903 and became perhaps the most widely known scientific society devoted to horticulture. The International Society for Horticultural Science, formed in 1959 with permanent headquarters in The Hague, sponsors international congresses every four years. Most societies and horticultural organizations publish periodicals.

There are thousands of publications in the world devoted to some aspect of horticulture. The scientific and technical horticultural literature since 1930 is abstracted in Horticultural Abstracts, prepared by the Commonwealth Bureau of Horticulture and Plantation Crops, East Malling, Kent, Eng.