Writing About Horticulture

  1. General Purpose and Audience

Horticulturalists mainly write for trade journal websites, providing information to master gardeners, fruit and vegetable growers, nurserymen/women, greenhouse producers, landscapers, and for sales to buyers, sellers, and consumers of goods. They often write to increase production or to impart knowledge for best management practices, or information for the layperson interested in horticulture and growing. Audiences include places of employment, businesses which purchase supplies or equipment, places to sell to (farmers’ markets, nurseries, landscapers), agencies to help with funding, and trade magazines.

  1. Types of Writing
  • Field reports pertain to a new plant being introduced to the trade and might describe plant attributes such as cultural requirements (how to take care of the soil, pH requirements, light requirements), the size of the plant, growth rate, type of plant (evergreen or deciduous), ground cover, shrub, or tree. Field reports can outline pest diagnostics or varietal information such as bloom time or harvest yields.
  • Bookkeepingthat relates to businesses debits, credits, sales, and purchases
  • Business letters and emails
  • Articles,grants and applications for business needs:
  • license renewals and certifications
  • note-taking for growers to record important plant growing and climatic information
  • academic journals, such as International Plant Propagators’ Society (IPPS), land grant college academic research (such as NC State, Cornell, UC Davis, and A&T, and Native American tribally-controlled institutionssuch as Little Big Horn College,Oglala Lakota College, Sitting Bull College)
  • Grant writing would include the positive economic impact, the sustainability of the project after grant monies are gone, the feasibility of the grant’s overall purpose, and expenses that the grant would help defer.
  1. Types of Evidence
  • Qualitative and quantitative data
  • Evidence is based on scientific studies,which record everything from weather information to planting and harvesting information.
  1. Jargon/Vocabulary
  • Signal words related to pesticide labeling such as “danger,” “warning,” “caution”
  • Plant nomenclature such as Latin names for plants such as Acer rubrum (red maple), Quercus phellos (willow oak), and Amelanchier alnifolia (saskatoon or juneberry)
  • Chemical terms,which are safety-related chemicals such as WP(wettable powders—a formulation of pesticides that are held in suspension in water), or Ld50 (a lethal dose for 50% of a sample population)

(The above is a narrow focus of terms that a practitioner must know and use in writing. It does not include some terms used in greenhouse growing practices, arborist work, fruit and vegetable production, or landscape design work, all of which would also include other terms/jargon particular to specific courses or those working in this field.)

  1. Documentation Style

Other than journal articles, none is needed. For journals and other academic writing, a science-based style, such as APA, would be appropriate.

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Sources consulted

Dollyhite, Ronald, former Lead Instructor and Chair of Horticulture, Grounds, and Gardens, and currently Executive Director of Facilities at Wilkes Community College

Iowa State University. Department of Horticulture. 2018,