Program overview
Ornamental Plants and Horticulture, simply put, is about working with flowers, grasses, trees, and shrubs—studying how to make them grow better, bloom brighter, and use them in parks, neighborhoods, streets, and even rooftop gardens. This major falls under the forestry direction within agriculture, and at the graduate level, you'll dive deeper into subjects like plant taxonomy, plant physiology, landscape trees, floriculture, garden plant breeding, plant arrangement and landscaping, and landscape ecology. The core is understanding plant growth patterns and using that knowledge to design green spaces that are both beautiful and sustainable. China has a natural advantage in this field: incredibly rich plant resources—thousands of ornamental species alone—and the design philosophy of classical Chinese gardens (like Suzhou gardens) is world-renowned. Many universities (e.g., Beijing Forestry University, Nanjing Forestry University) have dedicated botanical gardens and greenhouses where students can get hands-on with cross-breeding, tissue culture, and stress experiments. Who is this major for? If you love nature, don't mind spending time outdoors in the sun squatting to observe plants, have the patience for repetitive experiments (like recording growth data), and want to use creativity to combine plants into beautiful scenes, this major will be a great fit.