Horticulture, as a practice of cultivating plants for food, beauty, and medicinal purposes, does not have a single inventor. Instead, it evolved over thousands of years through the contributions of various cultures and individuals. Early agricultural practices by ancient civilizations, such as those in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China, laid the groundwork for what we now recognize as horticulture.
In ancient times, civilizations began to domesticate plants and cultivate gardens, which can be seen as the roots of horticultural practices. The Egyptians, for example, developed advanced gardening techniques around 3000 BCE, and the Chinese have a long history of cultivation that dates back to several millennia before our era.
In the modern context, horticulture is defined as the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds, and non-food crops such as grass and ornamental trees and plants. The field has been influenced by numerous individuals over the years, including agronomists and botanists, who have contributed to its development and understanding. Therefore, it is more accurate to view horticulture as a collective evolution rather than the invention of a single individual.