Landscape Horticulturist

What landscape horticulturists make

Job Bank puts most landscape and horticulture technicians between $21 and $41 an hour. General landscaping labourers are a separate, lower-paid Job Bank group, so crew pay at small companies sits below that. Foremen, landscape designers, golf course superintendents and city parks staff sit higher. Owners of a busy landscape company can earn more than that, with the risk that goes with it.

Starting pay

Labourer crews at small companies start closer to minimum wage. Seasonal at many companies: April to November, then snow removal or a layoff on EI (Employment Insurance) over winter. Municipal parks jobs pay more and are unionized.

Foreman or Red Seal

Hardscape (stone patios, retaining walls) and landscape construction pay more than maintenance. Snow removal contracts turn a seasonal job into a year-round one, with long nights after storms.

What it costs to get there

College horticulture diploma (2 years, optional)

$4,000 to $8,000 a year

Apprenticeship school blocks

$400 to $800 per block

Hand tools, boots and gear

$500 to $1,500

Certificate of Qualification exam

About $150 to $200

Canada Apprentice Loan and EI (Employment Insurance)

Available to registered apprentices

Roughly, all in

$650 to $17,700

Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel

Most people in this trade learn on a crew and pay almost nothing. The low end is hand tools, boots and gear plus the Certificate of Qualification exam fee, with an employer covering the short school blocks. The high end is a two year college horticulture diploma paid up front, a fuller kit and the exam. Registered apprentices can use the Canada Apprentice Loan and draw EI (Employment Insurance) during school blocks, but the federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed in March 2025, so do not budget around it.

Many people skip school and learn on a crew. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed in March 2025.

Benefits

• Municipal parks and golf courses

  Pension, benefits, union.

• Outdoors

  Summers outside, no cubicle.

• Winter off or snow contracts

  Mostly your choice.

• Company truck

  Foremen often drive one home.

• Own business

  Low startup cost compared with most trades.

The path

A Red Seal apprenticeship or a college diploma, or a crew job that grows into a career.

1. 1

   High school diploma

   Grade 12

   Grade 12 with biology, math and shop. Some school boards offer landscaping and horticulture courses.

2. 2

   Start on a crew

   Any spring

   Landscape companies hire every spring. Garden centres and golf courses hire students. Get a driver's licence first.

3. 3

   Register an apprenticeship (optional)

   3 years

   Ontario calls the trade Horticultural Technician (code 441C). Register with Skilled Trades Ontario, SkilledTradesBC or your province's authority. Ontario requires 6,120 hours: 5,400 on the job plus 720 in school.

4. 4

   Or a college diploma

   2 years

   2-year horticulture or landscape technician programs at Niagara College, Humber, Fanshawe, Olds College in Alberta, Kwantlen Polytechnic University in BC and others. Often combined with the apprenticeship.

5. 5

   Certificate of Qualification and Red Seal

   After your hours

   Pass the exam. The Red Seal title is Landscape Horticulturist.

High school courses that help

• Biology

  Plants, soil, pests.

• Math

  Quoting jobs, calculating gravel and stone.

• Shop

  Small engines and building.

• Art or design

  Layouts and planting plans.

• Business

  Most companies are small and owner-run.

Time and money, at a glance

Years to qualified

2 to 4

Total out of pocket

$1,500 to $16,000 depending on route

Paid while training?

Yes on a crew, no in a diploma program

Exam required

Optional, Certificate of Qualification

Voluntary, but the ticket matters for bigger work

No province requires a licence to landscape. The Red Seal Landscape Horticulturist ticket matters for municipal jobs, golf courses and design-build firms, and Landscape Ontario's certification programs help you win contracts. Applying pesticides needs a separate provincial licence.

Tickets that raise your rate

• Pesticide applicator licence

  Provincial exam. Required for lawn care and tree spraying.

• Landscape design

  Drafting, plant selection and software. Design-build firms bill it at higher rates.

• Hardscape and stone

  Interlock, retaining walls, natural stone. The best-paid crews.

• Irrigation

  Installing and servicing sprinkler systems is a specialty with its own certification.

• Golf course turf management

  Diploma programs lead to superintendent jobs at $70,000 and up.

Nice-to-haves

• Driver's licence with trailer experience

• Small engine and equipment skills

  Mowers, compactors, skid steers.

• Plant identification

  Learn 100 plants by their Latin names and you are ahead of most.

• Snowplow experience

  Winter work.

Owning a landscape company

This is one of the easiest trades to start a business in: a truck, a trailer, a mower and a few clients. Thousands of Canadian landscapers are self-employed. Growing past a one-truck operation means hiring, quoting and winter cash-flow planning, and that is where most either take off or stall.

A typical day

Spring and summer: 6:30am at the yard, load the truck, first site by 7:30. A maintenance crew mows, trims and weeds 6 to 10 properties. A construction crew builds one patio or planting bed for days: excavation, gravel base, compaction, stone, plants, mulch. Hot, dusty, done by 4 or 5pm. Winter: plowing at 2am after a storm, or time off.

The honest trade-offs

Work life

Typical hours

45 to 55 in season, less or none in winter

Remote work

None

Physical demand

Very high

Unionized

Municipal parks and golf courses only

Similar paths

• ArboristClimb, prune and remove trees, often with a chainsaw at height. Well paid near power lines, and one of the more dangerous trades.
• Landscape ArchitectParks, streets, campuses and the land around buildings. A design degree, two years of practice and a four-part exam.
• CarpenterFrame houses, form concrete towers or finish trim. The broadest trade on any site, paid from day one.

Snow pays the winter

In most of Canada, landscape companies survive winter on snow removal contracts. Storm nights mean 12 to 16 hours in a plow truck.

It is a Red Seal trade

Landscape Horticulturist is on the same national list as electricians and welders. Few people know that.

Landscape Ontario is big

Landscape Ontario, the provincial industry association, represents landscape companies across the province and runs one of Canada's biggest landscape trade shows, Congress, in Toronto every January.

Plants have Latin names for a reason

Every nursery tag uses the same Latin name worldwide. A horticulturist who knows a few hundred can order plants anywhere.