Horticulture was one of the foundational disciplines at Texas A&M University, and in 1876 Dr. C. P. B. Martin taught horticulture as a member of the first faculty of what was then the A&M College of Texas.
In 1887 horticulture emerged as a research focus at the new Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, which later became Texas A&M AgriLife Research. Hence, the irony!
Horticultural crops are grown throughout Texas with major concentrations of commercial production in the Rio Grande Valley, the Winter Garden region around Uvalde, the High Plains north of Lubbock, the Hill Country around Fredericksburg, and in East Texas. This tremendous geographic diversity, with the accompanying variation in seasonal temperatures, allows Texas to produce fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals from near tropical and early season crops in the Valley to later season, more temperate crops grown in the Panhandle, North Texas and East Texas.
The value of horticultural crops produced in Texas exceeds $1.74 billion, according to the 2012 U.S. Census of Agriculture, but the total economic contribution of specialty crops far exceeds that number when the postharvest, value-added, and service sector contributions are included.
In short, specialty crops contribute greatly to the Texas economy. They also greatly improve the quality of life for Texans.
For more than a century, AgriLife Research has made advances in the aesthetic disciplines of horticulture as well as in the production of high quality, healthful fruits and vegetables. Horticulture continues to thrive at AgriLife Research today. In 2014 the organization added two more faculty positions in fruit and vegetable production.
To read more about the contributions of the Texas A&M and AgriLife Research horticulture program, click here.
Dr. Dan Lineberger is head of the Department of Horticultural Sciences at Texas A&M University. He has been a member of the graduate faculty at Texas A&M University since 1990. His area of research is information technology and web-based communication.