American Horticultural Society

American Horticultural Society A to Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants (The American Horticultural Society)The American Horticultural Society (AHS) is a nonprofit, membership-based organization that promotes excellence in American horticulture. It is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia.
Established in 1922, the AHS is one of the oldest national gardening organizations in the United States. Today's organization resulted from the merger of three gardening groups: the current namesake American Horticultural Society, the National Horticultural Society, and the American Horticultural Council.
In addition to publishing horticultural reference books, the American Horticultural Society publishes a bi-monthly magazine, The American Gardener, which is a member benefit. Other benefits of membership include participation in the annual seed exchange, discounted or free admission into participating botanic gardens and arboretums across the United States, and discounted admission into AHS events and programs.
The American Horticultural Society conducts various events annually, to educate and inspire gardeners. Each summer the AHS conducts the National Children and Youth Garden Symposium, which is a forum for educators, garden designers, community leaders, and children’s gardening advocates to network and collaborate on techniques and practices to engage children with the natural world. Numerous Garden Schools are also conducted annually, covering various topics from gardening with native plants to sustainable gardening.
Society headquarters are located at River Farm, overlooking the Potomac River in Alexandria, Virginia. Annual events at River Farm include hosting an annual spring plant sale, educational lectures, and a gala fundraiser each fall. Education is further instilled in the Society’s internship program, which hires interns in editorial/communications, youth programs, website development and maintenance, and horticulture. The Horticultural and Corporate Partners programs join other allied organizations who help to support the Society’s vision of making a nation of gardeners.

For more reading on the practices of the American Horticultural Society: American Horticultural Society A to Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants by Christopher Brickell.

Horticulture

Horticulture is the study and science of plant cultivation. Horticulturists work and research in the fields of cultivation, plant propagation, plant breeding genetic engineering, and crop production. Horticulture involves trees, shrubs, flowers, fruits, vegetables, berries, nuts, and turf. Horticulturists work to improve the quality, nutritional value, resistance to diseases insects and environmental conditions, and crop yield. Horticulture is the compound of the words horti, meaning grass, and the word culture (grass culture.)

Some of the earliest origins of horticulture lie in the transition of human communities from nomadic hunter-gatherers to sedentary or semi-sedentary horticultural communities, where they would cultivate on a smaller scale a variety of crops in the immediate area of their dwellings or in specialized areas visited occasionally during migrations from one area to the next. The most widely know beginnings of horticulture are found in the Mesoamerican cultures, where they would use a method know as slash and burn or areas know as swiddens. The technique was to cultivate a plot of land and then after a few seasons they would abandon the site and cut down or burn the forests of a new area to cultivate that area.

For more reading on Horticulture: Principles of Horticulture 5th Edition. By C. R. Adams - K. M. Bamford - M. P. EarlyPrinciples of Horticulture, Fifth Edition