Occupation
Horticulturist
Horticulturists grow and manage plants for food, ornament, or public landscapes, and advise on how to keep collections healthy. The work spans propagation, soil and pest management, plant selection, and seasonal planning, often in botanic gardens, nurseries, parks, or production settings. It combines plant knowledge with practical, physical outdoor work.
Also known as: Horticultural specialist · Plant specialist · Amenity horticulturist · Garden curator
Saving keeps the career family and this occupation as your private target role on this device.
Occupation content
Part of Agriculture, animals and environment
A visual day in the work
What the work involves
Propagate plants from seed, cuttings, or division and manage growing-on conditions.
Diagnose pest, disease, and nutrient problems and choose control measures suited to the site.
Plan planting schemes and seasonal rotations for a garden, collection, or production block.
Prune, mulch, irrigate, and carry out soil improvement across the site.
Keep plant records, accession labels, and treatment logs accurate.
Advise colleagues, volunteers, or the public on plant selection and aftercare.
Entry-route stepper
How people commonly enter
A college certificate or diploma in horticulture, plant science, or landscape horticulture.
An apprenticeship or trainee-gardener scheme at a botanic garden, estate, or nursery.
A bachelor's degree in horticulture, botany, or plant science for scientific and curatorial roles.
Progressing from a gardening or nursery assistant role with employer training and specialist short courses.
Typical training: Certificate or college diploma
Licensing: Certification common, not usually required
Work-context map
Typical work context
- Outdoors
- Varied work
- Physically active
- Works independently
- Lab or workshop
Outdoors · Varied work · Physically active · Works independently · Lab or workshop
Related interests
- Realistic (hands-on)
- Investigative (analytical)
- Artistic (creative)
Realistic (hands-on) · Investigative (analytical) · Artistic (creative)
Related aptitude preparation
These are preparation links only. They do not measure eligibility for this occupation and no score here qualifies or disqualifies anyone.
Skills to practise
Practice suites
Related learning
Family-level learning links for Agriculture, animals and environment.
Official sources
Labour-market facts such as pay and employment projections are not reproduced here. Open an official source below for figures, with its own geography and reference period.
Labour-market context (not part of exploration match)
This is broad family-level context for Agriculture, animals and environment in Canada, not a figure for Horticulturist. It does not affect matching scores and is not an eligibility determination.
This is a broad Agriculture, animals and environment family. Explore the official profile for the chosen occupation; entry education and training can differ within the family.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Agriculture, animals and environment: education pathways
Some roles in Agriculture, animals and environment may be regulated. Confirm whether the specific role requires registration, certification, or a jurisdiction-specific licence.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Agriculture, animals and environment: licensing
Find jobs
These are live, user-controlled searches on each source's own site for “ Horticulturist”. Novus Learn does not fetch, store, or rank these results, and job availability never changes your exploration match score.
Related occupations
Learn → Practise → Prepare → Apply
Continue from this occupation
Choose a learning action because it supports the work, not because a test score predicts career suitability.
When you get to the application
Novus Learn stops at preparation. These two Novus tools cover the paperwork, and like this site they run entirely in your browser. Nothing you upload to them leaves your device.
Novus Learn hands you real PDFs: study guides, practice packs, answer keys, career summaries. PDF Studio is where you merge several into one revision booklet, pull out the pages you actually need, or lock a file before you send it.
Career Discovery ends with a profile photo and an application. This is where you clean up a headshot without handing the file to a server.