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What Can You Do With a Degree in Horticulture?

  
Piedmont Technical College can help you get started on a path to one of many horticulture careers...

Let’s say that you have just built a new house. The subdivision regulations require shrubbery and trees and well manicured lawns to blend into the neighborhood. You call a Landscape Designer to draw master plan for the residence. The plan is given to a Landscape Contractor to install the design which includes retaining walls, pavers and plant material. The plants are purchased at a local Garden Center. The Garden Center got the plants from a Wholesale Plant Nursery. A Plant Propagator started the plants from cuttings, while a Chemical Technician treated them for pest, and an Irrigation Specialist designed an automatic watering system to nurse them along. All of the perennial and annual flowers are purchased from a Greenhouse Grower who got their seeds, plug plants and supplies from a Wholesale Horticulture Distributor.

At the same time, the Wholesale Plant Nursery owner was entertaining clients at a local golf course, managed by a Golf Course Superintendent. Then they went to the local Botanical Garden and Park, cared for by the Grounds Superintendent. That evening they went to a local football game in a sports complex cared for by the Athletic Field Superintendent. Meanwhile the owner’s secretary had a Florist deliver flowers to the client’s motel. The florist’s delivery truck noticed an Arborist pruning the limbs out of a large tree.

Finally, the Landscape Contractor arrives with the plants and installs the landscaping. He subcontracts the irrigation to an Irrigation Contractor and the grassing to a Sod Installer. A Landscape Maintenance company cares for your landscape.

All of the bold areas have allied sales, marketing, research and development specialist that have also attained horticulture degrees. Each specialty listed above requires a well-rounded understanding of horticulture to be successful.

Contact Program Coordinator Marion Bledsoe at (864) 941-8671 or bledsoe.m@ptc.edu today to find out how you can get started!

 

 Last Updated June 28, 2005