Horticulture is both a science and an art. It focuses on the intensive cultivation of plants for our benefit, improving plant health, growth, beauty, and usefulness.
This website, Chris Welch's Horticulture Field Guide, I dive into three key areas:
Arboriculture: Caring for individual trees and shrubs, especially in urban and suburban areas. This includes tree planting, pruning, disease management, and sometimes, tree removal.
Nursery Horticulture: Plants in nurseries, from young trees to shrubs and ornamentals, are grown primarily for landscaping or retail.
Landscape Horticulture: Designing and managing outdoor spaces, from public parks to home gardens, skillfully arranging trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses to create beautiful and functional landscapes.
This platform is where I share what I learn across these areas. I aim to inform, educate, and guide while documenting new ideas and practices. If I'm exploring something new, it only makes sense to share that knowledge here.
This website reflects my passion for horticulture. It's a carefully curated collection of my thoughts, research, and insights. Whether I'm diving into the intricate details of plant biology or appreciating the broad beauty of a landscape, you'll find a bit of everything here.
During high school, I worked in a greenhouse, never once envisioning a future in horticulture. Yet, a serendipitous landscaping summer during my first year of college changed everything. I was captivated and promptly pivoted my academic focus to Landscape Horticulture. As I navigated my college years and the interludes in between, I wore many hats: from a hands-on landscaper to a climbing arborist. Post-graduation, my path led me to a wholesale nursery, where I've since dabbled in its operational facets and the nuanced world of arboricultural consulting.
