Horticultural Nursery Assistant
What the work is
Assists in propagating, cultivating and harvesting plants in a horticultural nursery. May also assist in propagating and cultivating plants for forestry purposes.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Loads, unloads and moves nursery supplies and equipment
- Prepares nursery sites and plots using hand tools and machines
- Assists with propagating and transplanting plants
- Tends plants by hand watering and weeding
- Adjusts mist irrigation systems, shade and ventilation
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a wholesale plant nursery with shadehouses, misting beds and a loading dock for trade orders. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A tray of seedlings comes up evenly and every pot has a healthy plant in it
- A customer picks up an order and says the plants look the best they have seen
- A cool morning when the nursery smells of damp soil and everything looks fresh
Hard days
- A heat spike in the shadehouse and a morning spent saving trays
- Lifting heavy pots and trays all day, in sun and wet
- An order that is not ready when the truck arrives
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 842231, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.