What is Horticulture? A Quick Guide on Modern Plant Science

Hassaan Mahmood — Sat, 09 Jan 2021 14:21:52 +0000

A lot of us are familiar with the word horticulture in Pakistan, but people don’t seem to know exactly what is horticulture. Horticulture is something that we humans have been practicing for a very long time now. Simply put, horticulture is the science of cultivating plant life. Research has shown that humans started cultivating plant life for food purposes around 23,000 years ago.

Ever since then, we have made leaps of progress in the field of horticulture. What started out as a means of survival has grown into a complex field of science. There are multiple branches of horticulture nowadays, focusing on cultivating plants for food, environmental benefits, and decoration as well. Let’s take a look at what is horticulture in-depth, we’ll be exploring all the major branches of this practice. By the end of this article, you’ll know what is horticulture and why is it so important.

Whether you’re an experienced horticulturist looking for information or you’re a plant lover wanting to learn more about plant science, you’ve come to the right place. We’re going to help you understand what is horticulture, what does horticulture mean, and why you should appreciate it more.

What Does Horticulture Mean?

Horticulture is one of those words that are annoying to use more than once in a sentence. It’s a mouthful, but its meaning is pretty simple. Just like most scientific terms, the word horticulture has its roots in Latin; it’s a combination of two Latin words: Hortus and Colere. Hortus means “garden” and colere means “cultivate”. When put together, we get the word horticulture, which describes all forms of practices that involve planting, growing, and managing plant life.

Horticulture Meaning in Urdu

Horticulture isn’t something that is only practiced in the West. You will find people growing plants wherever you go in the world. In fact, research has shown that the first traces of plant cultivation by humans were found in the Middle East. There are different words for describing plant science in different languages. For those of you who are wondering what is the meaning of horticulture in Urdu, it can be translated to:

باغبانی

Horticulture in Urdu has pretty much the exact same meaning as its name in English. Also, it’s a lot easier to pronounce.

Horticulture Vs Agriculture

A lot of people get confused when it comes to telling what is horticulture’s relation with agriculture. You shouldn’t feel bad about it since it really can be confusing at first. In simple terms, horticulture is a branch of agriculture.

Agriculture is a term used to define traditional aspects of plant cultivation. People use agriculture to describe practices such as growing fruits and vegetables for harvesting.

Agriculture can also refer to farming practices that involve livestock. Meaning that it isn’t just limited to plant farming.

Horticulture is used to describe the more scientific side of plant cultivation. You can actually find universities and colleges offering entire degrees related to horticulture. it’s an entire discipline that involves learning the finer details of plant cultivation.

The scope of horticulture in Pakistan is currently limited. However, you can find full-fledged horticulturist jobs being offered in other parts of the world.

So, what is horticulture and what is agriculture? The difference between the two terms is not that big, but that does not make it insignificant. Horticulture is a scientific field that relies on research and experimentation. Our findings in this field help us improve the way we grow and cultivate plants. Let’s discuss what is horticulture’s role in developing society.

Advancements in horticulture have helped us find ways of meeting the ever growing demands of our food chains. It can also play a significant role in helping us tackle the environmental issues that we have started facing due to our environmentally destructive actions. Through horticulture, we can find ways to deal with excessive air pollution that has become a long-standing problem in our country.

Basically, the next time someone asks “what is horticulture?”, you can tell them that horticulture is the study of plant life that helps us improve the way we can cultivate our plants. Agriculture is the practice of growing crops and rearing animals on a large-scale in order to maintain our food chain.

Types of Horticulture

Like we mentioned before, horticulture has a number of sub-branches. If we start talking about every branch of horticulture, we’re going to be here for a long time. For now, let’s focus on the 4 major branches of horticulture:

Pomology
Olericulture
Floriculture
Ornamental Horticulture

Each branch has its own sub-branches as well. It’s no wonder why the answer to “what is horticulture?” is so complicated.

What is Pomology?

Pomology is a field of horticulture that is dedicated to studying fruit cultivation. Pomology is also known as fruticulture. It involves studying how to improve fruit growth in order to increase crop yields and yield quality. Pakistan has a very healthy fruit farming industry which can be further improved by applying the concepts of pomology.

Fruit crops are hard to grow since they need very specific environmental conditions in order to actually bear fruit.

What is Olericulture?

Just like fruits, vegetables have their own sub-branch in horticulture. Olericulture involves studying the growth of vegetables. This is the most common form of horticulture since vegetables are grown all around the world.

This branch of horticulture focuses on improving vegetable crop sustainability and harvest yields. Countries invest a lot of resources into olericulture since it helps develop a robust food chain.

What is Floriculture?

You can guess from its name that floriculture has something to do with flowers. This branch of horticulture involves cultivating flowering plants of all kinds. It also involves arranging flowering plants and using them to beautify outdoor and indoor spaces.

Landscaping and gardening companies such as ourselves benefit greatly by studying floriculture. It helps them cultivate flowers and use them in various landscaping projects.

What is Ornamental Horticulture?

Ornamental horticulture involves cultivating and using plants for decorating indoor and outdoor spaces. This form of horticulture has been gaining popularity all across the world for quite some time now. This is thanks to the fact that plants can be used to beautify all kinds of spaces.

Ornamental horticulture can be described as a technical aspect of landscaping. It involves more than just placing plants in an area and leaving them on their own.

People who practice ornamental horticulture consider various factors when using plants for landscaping. They consider what kinds of plants can be used to improve soil and air quality, what type of plants can benefit the environment, and what type may have adverse effects on their surroundings.

You’d be surprised by just how much of a difference plants can make to their environment.

So, what is horticulture’s relation with all these different branches of plant science? They all focus on studying the cultivation and growth of different kinds of plants.

There aren’t a lot of companies in Pakistan that practice ornamental horticulture. The Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) is the only governmental body active in this field. There are a handful of private companies out there as well, but not all of them have in-depth knowledge regarding horticulture.

Fins Ferns N Feathers has been operating as a horticulture company in Lahore for more than 20 years now. Our knowledge and experience in the field of horticulture enable us to provide our clients with stellar landscaping and gardening solutions. We offer a wide range of services that help people enhance and beautify their premises with plant life.

Conclusion

After having gone through our article, you will now have a better idea about what is horticulture and what does horticulture mean. You will also be able to appreciate this wonderful branch of science better. Horticulture has been around for a very long time, and throughout this time, it has helped us better understand how plant life works. Our advancements in horticulture have helped us improve farming practices and make our food chains more sustainable. It certainly is a wonderful scientific field.