Ornamental Horticulture Major

04/16/24

 

In honor of both National Gardening Month in April, we are going to highlight one of the unique majors and programs at MCCC, Ornamental Horticulture and look at one of our student athletes in this major.

 

Freshman baseball player Shane Hickey (Jackson, NJ/Jackson Liberty) is an Ornamental Horticulture major.  Hickey has 28 hits and 28 RBIs in 34 games for the Vikings with a .500 on base percentage and .527 slugging percentage.  Hickey is an infielder with a .308 batting average.

 

The Ornamental Horticulture program trains students in the areas of landscape design, floral design, landscape maintenance, nursery and greenhouse production, and turf maintenance.  Students in the Ornamental Horticulture program can enter careers in nurseries, greenhouses, garden centers, landscape firms, golf courses, flower shops, and a variety of other businesses. 

 

The Ornamental Horticulture concentration focuses on the production and use of plan material for aesthetic purposes.  Mercer has two greenhouses, which allows students in the Horticulture major a great deal of hands on work to prepare them for their careers in the field.  Goals of the Horticulture program at MCCC include: identifying, propagating, and caring for at least 300 different woody and herbaceous plant specimens; implementing a soils management plan using modern irrigation and nutrient control techniques; properly applying common pesticides and fertilizers to achieve optimum growing conditions for plants and crops; producing and managing common greenhouse crops; and practicing integrated pest management.

 

The Horticulture major and program combine creativity of design with knowledge of science and the practical experience of making projects successful. The Ornamental Horticulture major at MCCC is one of Mercer’s most unique programs, offering students many career opportunities upon completion. 

 

Good luck and continued success to Shane Hickey and MCCC’s Ornamental majors!

 

To learn more about the Ornamental Horticulture major at MCCC, visit: https://www.mccc.edu/catalog/hort_orn_aas.shtml

 

To follow the latest on Hickey and Vikings’ baseball, visit: https://www.mccc.edu/athletics_men_baseball.shtml