Landscape Horticulture

Horticulture and landscaping, while closely related, serve distinct purposes in the realm of plants and outdoor spaces. Horticulture focuses on nurturing and cultivating plants, whereas landscaping emphasizes the design of the environment. Together, they enhance the beauty of nature in our homes, parks, and cities. The traditional view, which emphasized the aesthetic and decorative functions of plants in human environments, has been surpassed by new demands for functional green spaces or green infrastructure that improve human quality of life and promote One Health. New roles have been assigned to these spaces, such as water conservation and biodiversity restoration. Nature-based solutions are frequently employed to enhance landscapes in both urban and rural areas. For these reasons, the group’s activities concentrate on fostering the multidisciplinary skills of researchers, professionals, and practitioners to develop sustainable solutions that address pressing and diverse needs. For all these reasons horticulture needs to develop new paradigms to consider suitable species and plant life forms, and cultivation techniques to fulfill the challenges due to climate change, population density, and conservation of biodiversity.

The goals are:

• improving the horticultural techniques towards sustainability,
• increasing the number of species for landscaping purposes in the view of biodiversity conservation,
• proposing new techniques of plant assemblages for landscaping purposes,
• improving the skills requirements,
• improving the circularity in the horticulture and landscaping processes.