Horticultural science programs teach people the scientific principles behind cultivating plants. Students learn to breed and grow fruits, vegetables, trees, shrubs, and other kinds of plants. They study the life cycles of plants and how to nourish them at each stage.

Have you eaten a banana recently? Maybe you ate one with a bowl of cereal this morning or enjoyed one in a banana split. Eating bananas doesn't seem like much of luxury, does it? But only a few decades ago in East Asia, it was. In fact, when you bought a banana for someone, it was considered a special gift. You might only do so in rare instances, such as for relatives who had to be hospitalized.

Nowadays, many countries - including those in East Asia - enjoy bananas and other types of fruit all-year-round because of imports and exports from other countries. In fact, here in the U.S., we annually export over $2 billion worth of fresh fruit and nuts. We can thank horticultural scientists - among other people - for the fact that we can enjoy a mango in Chicago in December or regularly eat hybrid fruits such as the pluot (plum and apricot).

In horticultural science programs, you study the science of growing plants in order to increase the production and quality of fruits and vegetables. You also learn to apply basic sciences such as botany, genetics, and chemistry to develop new and better kinds of plants - not just fruits and vegetables. You also study environmental factors that affect plant growth and development. These factors include weeds, pests, soil conditions, and the presence of other plants.

In this program, you can also study specific kinds of plants. For example, you could study forest trees (silviculture), trees in general (arboriculture), or flowers (floriculture). You also learn about the reproduction of plants, both naturally and artificially. You might learn how to graft parts of plants onto others or to breed two different kinds of plants together. You could also study plant genetics to make a plant stronger or even more nutritious. These are just a few of the ways that you apply science to growing plants.

Many colleges and universities offer horticultural science programs where you can earn a bachelor's, a master's, or a doctoral degree. In general, a bachelor's degree takes about four years of full-time study after high school. A master's degree typically takes an additional one to two years, and a doctoral degree usually three to four years after that.