A Career in Horticulture: Make a Living Growing Plants

Ever wondered what kind career you can pursue growing plants? Horticulture includes a wide range of career choices, and not all of them are terrible! I know the nursery business (in particular) has a reputation for long hours, low pay and hard seasonal work. That isn't the whole story though... I've made the transition into growing plants for a living myself, and I can tell you there's plenty of opportunities. In this video, I'll give you an idea of how to get there:
1:52 What is horticulture?
4:02 What kinds of jobs in horticulture?
10:00 How to get a there, and what is the pay like?
If you find these videos useful, there are a few little things you can do to help me out:

[stella_blu]

I am switching from a career in the Law, I spent 25 years in the court system. I just quit my job and move to hawaii to study horticulture and got a job at a nursery store. My family things I’m nuts. For the sake of my health I needed to leave the system.

[audigutierrez]

I appreciate this so much. I'm 18 and a high school graduate and I don't really know what to do with my life. My parents want me to go into the medical field, but I really enjoy plants and growing them. Idk I just want to live life doing something I really like to do. Thank you for the video, maybe I can have a balance between the two!

[poppyevergreen]

Halfway through my degree and have been hearing nothing but discouragement from all sides. I was worried I had made a terrible mistake in following my passion. Thank you for this

[JenniferRosaie]

My family has run a ranch that alternated between cattle, corn and cotton since 1899 but it hasn't been cared for in years due to family members dying off, busy lives etc. 3 years ago we got cows, and I've discovered a passion in horticulture. I may not have been raised in a garden but hopefully I can bring the place back to its golden days ♡

[bryan]

Very well put.
I started a College course as a mature age student then was offered a permanent full time job watering in a very large production nursery. It was physically demanding but immensely satisfying watching seedlings grow: I swear I used to get high on the oxygen they were releasing!
The pay was terrible however and the owner destroyed the business putting 20 of us out of work.
I put that behind me and worked in other fields. Then one day I was just visiting another wholesale nursery and in chatting with the owner, was offered a position there and then! I worked for that guy for some years. Again hard conditions but very satisfying... If you're happy, that's what counts! 😎
P.S. I now volunteer as a gardener in the retirement village where I live and just love it!

[heritagehearthomestead]

Working toward a nursery myself. It's sad that young lady is getting discouragement from all sides. There is a good market in the industry and it depends on what she wants to do. I enjoy seeing young people who are interested in working with plants. So many don't want to do that sort of thing much anymore.

[hockeytalk]

God bless you good sir and thank you for making this video. I am a young Job seeker who has floated around in many different industries and had a hard time finding purpose. My first job out of college two years ago was at a nursery. I knew absolutely nothing about horticulture when I first joined. The people I worked for were honest hard-working loving people who gave me a chance and showed me the ropes and I am forever grateful for them. Every day I worked so hard and I learned so much. For the first time in my life I was healthy and fulfilled. After almost 2 years things got hard and I left that job due to some of the negative stereotypes that you mention at the beginning of the video, but not one day has gone by where I haven’t thought about the wonderful people at that place how fulfilled I was working that job, even if I was barely scraping by. It just felt that this is the way God wants us to live. I went back into the music industry and was immediately overcome with negativity and the harshness of the world. All the problems I struggled with came crashing back. And finally, I have decided that there is no other way. I don’t care about money I just want to do good labor and bring something new in to this world. I have decided to open up this book again and start this journey a new with an open mind and a different perspective. There are more options out there than I could’ve ever realized and it is very possible to make a living in this field. I can now see that the positives outweigh the negatives in every possible way and when one door closes another one opens. It’s amazing I’ve talked to so many people in my short time in this industry that have a similar story. Tomorrow I am going in for an interview at a local flower farm and I am anxious as always but I am excited because I know that this is what I was meant to do and I’m ready to work hard and find purpose again. Wish me luck thank. Thank and God bless you all

[tick]

At 35 years old I've just done my final exams for horticulture level 2 and about to start level 3 at college in the evenings.

I've just got a job on an organic farm because I think I'd like to start a box veg scheme.

After doing the course I thought I also might like to work in a plant nursery then start my own.

Or even garden design / landscaping, hard and soft.

[elijahdixon]

Thank you for that information. I'm from the US and I'm serving at a restaurant right now and I genuinely hate my job. I want a job doing what I love, which is working with plants (unfortunately lol) but I just didn't know how to make a good living doing it or where to start. After this video i definitely feel i have a good bearing on what i need to do and what direction i need to head in. Thanks man, I appreciate it!

[karrahcrain]

Thank you for this informative video!! I have been into gardening and plants for as long as I can remember. My mother is an avid hobbyist gardener, and I grew up watching her and helping her out in the yard. Im 23 and I’m applying to Texas Tech’s Plant and Soil Science Bachelor’s program, and this really helped make up my mind that it’s the right thing for me. I feared that it would be a bust, I would be super poverty ridden and nothing may come out of it. Thank you!!

[markwilliamsghostadventure]

I am going into this files also. I have been growing plants for 40 years now. It time to start moving on up.

[AndreaAubertin]

I'm really glad you talk about subjects like this! You are the only chanel that educates on this and I really appreciate it!!!

[dubs]

Thanks for the video Jason. I enjoy viewing all of yours. BTW, I’ve started using the Alfalfa pellets when planting shrubs by mixing them in the planting mix. Besides adding organic matter, they also aid in the water holding capacity.
As a Certified Landscape Designer, i too found out via trial and tribulations, that breaking into an industry as a newcomer can be quite difficult. One MUST have a solid business plan going into it, and have realistic expectations about earnings and expenses.
All is not lost though, as the satisfaction I get from designing and installing, as well as using plantings I’ve grown myself (albeit on a small scale) is second to none.
I don’t discourage anyone to try though.
Thanks again,
Warren

[jadecase-barnes]

Hey Jason, I am such a fan of your videos. I've started propagating, growing, and selling plants out of a small backyard nursery that I've been building up for the past year or so. Although I've had some formal education in horticulture (landscape architecture), there is so much more to learn about the technical aspects and the business side of the industry. Your content is always so interesting and relevant, you yourself are really sharp, articulate, and trustworthy, and I always learn something new each time I watch one of your videos. I believe your channel is one of only... maybe half a dozen(?) or so channels to which I am subscribed, yet I consider your latest uploads to be some of the highest priority videos I want to watch. This is because I know each time I'll get to walk away with at least one more gem of invaluable information, which feels like getting a concentrated dose of knowledge and experience that otherwise would've taken me a long time or cost me a lot to learn on my own. I just got my first greenhouse structure set up in my yard - it's about 10'x20' - and I'm somewhat stuck on what my next course of action should be in getting it from a shell-on-dirt to a fully operational greenhouse - or at least something that I wouldn't be afraid of boiling my plants in! I've done some research, but find that most of the information I come across is at the wrong scale - intended either for a much larger commercial operation or for a much smaller home hobby project. If you have videos that discuss any of the following subjects: greenhouse designs/structures/types/functions, nursery tables/benches, hooking up to water/electricity, misting/irrigation, shade cloth/lighting, heating/cooling, fans/ventilation, clocks/timers/digital automation, parameters for temperature/humidity, day-to-day operations, seasonal management, maintenance, etc. - or even just an in-depth tour of your greenhouses - please direct me to those videos; I will watch them all. If you ever need suggestions for the content of future videos, please consider any of the subjects I just listed. I would be very grateful. Thank you so much for what you're doing, and please keep it up!

[ignaciaforteza]

Passed on your interesting video - my son might take your advice. These are days to give a serious thought to work the land...he is a high school professor and owner of land. Thank you so much. Bless you.

[kurtiscalmsetccdwell]

I can grow vegetables and flowers. I recently stopped being an auto tech and am looking for part time work to fund my passion and that will enable me to build planter boxes and experiment with a greenhouse.

[clarabergeron]

Very intelligent, informative video for our pupils in our Scottish high school, thanks a lot! I especially loved your informative slides with names of chapters and timings for quick search. Very intelligently made, great enunciation, congratulations, you are a born teacher. ;-)

[olivertalks]

Hello from Scotland! Excellent video. Two of my friends said I seem like a nature inspired person, they could see me working with plants in some way since I have a small collection of indoor plants (which I started 4 years ago). Went to a garden centre on my birthday haha! I think working in a nursery or greenhouse in particular could be fun, I hope it's like you say and they're willing to take in a beginner :)

[paullynch]

Fantastic video. Very insightful and informative for anyone looking to enter into a career in Horticulture. Thanks for the excellent content.

[martea]

Once I’m done school I’m joining a farm lending company as an underwriter. My family also has greenhouses so I can work in underwriting for half of the year and grow plants for the other half of the year