Description
Plan, direct, and coordinate nursery and greenhouse operations producing ornamental plants, trees, shrubs, turf, and specialty crops for wholesale, retail, or landscape use. Oversee propagation, growing, harvesting, and distribution; manage staff, budgets, and production schedules; ensure compliance, quality, and safety; and implement climate, irrigation, nutrition, and integrated pest management to meet market and sustainability goals.
- • Collect and record growth, production, and environmental data.
- • Manage nurseries and greenhouses that grow horticultural plants for wholesale or retail customers, display, or research.
- • Determine plant growing conditions and set propagation, planting, and care schedules.
- • Position and regulate irrigation systems and program environmental and irrigation control computers.
- • Prepare reports required by state and federal laws.
- • Inspect facilities and equipment for disrepair and coordinate maintenance and repairs.
- • Maintain financial, operational, production, and employment records.
- • Coordinate clerical, record-keeping, inventory, procurement, and marketing activities.
- • Negotiate with buyers for the sale, storage, or shipment of plants and horticultural products.
- • Analyze soil, growing media, and water to set fertilizer and pH management programs.
- • Provide information to customers on plant selection, care, and landscape maintenance.
- • Analyze market conditions to determine crop mixes, volume targets, and space allocations.
- • Supervise construction and upkeep of greenhouses, shade structures, irrigation, benches, and drainage systems.
- • Replace chemical insecticides with environmentally friendly practices and implement integrated pest management.
- • Conduct inspections to determine plant maturity, quality, or to detect disease, pests, or nutrient issues.
- • Determine types and quantities of plants to be produced based on budgets, incentives, contracts, and projected demand.
- • Develop and enforce policies for operations administration, facility maintenance, safety, and biosecurity.
- • Direct production operations, including propagation, potting, spacing, pruning, fertilizing, spraying, and shipping.
- • Evaluate marketing and sales alternatives, such as wholesale, retail, contracts, or online channels.
- • Hire, supervise, and train growers, technicians, and seasonal workers.
- • Monitor activities such as irrigation, chemical application, pruning, grading, and packing to ensure compliance with standards.
- • Monitor greenhouse and nursery environments to maintain optimal light, temperature, humidity, and CO2.
- • Obtain financing and purchase machinery, supplies, substrates, liners, seeds, and containers.
- • Develop crop plans and production schedules to meet seasonal demand and delivery dates.
- • Oversee propagation methods such as seeding, cuttings, grafting, division, and tissue culture coordination.
- • Manage inventory, labeling, and plant health certification and phytosanitary compliance.
- • Coordinate logistics for order fulfillment, shipping, and installation with carriers and landscape crews.
- • Implement water conservation, recycling, and runoff compliance; manage fertigation systems.
- • Conduct staff training on IPM, pesticide handling, equipment use, and safety protocols.
- • Use horticultural software and sensors for climate control, scheduling, inventory, and traceability.
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O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
