Horticulture has been defined as the agriculture of plants for food, materials and beauty for decoration. According to American horticulturist Liberty Hyde Bailey, "Horticulture is the growing of flowers and vegetables, of plants for ornament and fancy." A more precise definition can be given "The cultivation and sale of fruits, nuts and ornamental plants as well as many additional services". It includes plant conservation, landscape restoration, soil management and garden design and maintenance, arboriculture. In contrast to agriculture, horticulture does not include large-scale crop production or animal husbandry. Horticulturists apply knowledge and technologies to grow intensively produced plants for human food and non-food uses and for personal or social needs, their work involves plant propagation and cultivation with the aim of improving plant growth, quality, nutritional value, resistance to insects and environmental stresses. They work as gardeners, therapists and technical advisors in the food and non-food sectors of horticulture.

The word horticulture is modeled after agriculture, comes from the Latin hortus "garden" and cultura "cultivation", from cultus, the perfect passive participle of the verb colō "I cultivate". Hortus is cognate with the native English word yard and the borrowed word garden; the major areas of Horticulture include: Arboriculture is the study of, the selection, plant and removal of, individual trees, shrubs and other perennial woody plants. Turf management includes all aspects of the production and maintenance of turf grass for sports, leisure use or amenity use. Floriculture includes the marketing of floral crops. Study of flower cultivation. Landscape horticulture includes the production and maintenance of landscape plants. Olericulture includes the marketing of vegetables. Pomology includes the marketing of fruits. Viticulture includes the marketing of grapes. Oenology includes all aspects of winemaking. Postharvest physiology involves maintaining the quality of and preventing the spoilage of plants and animals.

Horticulture has a long history. The study and science of horticulture dates all the way back to the times of Cyrus the Great of ancient Persia, has been going on since, with present-day horticulturists such as Freeman S. Howlett and Luther Burbank; the practice of horticulture can be retraced for many thousands of years. The cultivation of taro and yam in Papua New Guinea dates back to at least 6950–6440 cal BP; the origins of horticulture lie in the transition of human communities from nomadic hunter-gatherers to sedentary or semi-sedentary horticultural communities, cultivating a variety of crops on a small scale around their dwellings or in specialized plots visited during migrations from one area to the next. In the Pre-Columbian Amazon Rainforest, natives are believed to have used biochar to enhance soil productivity by smoldering plant waste. European settlers called it Terra Preta de Indio. In forest areas such horticulture is carried out in swiddens. A characteristic of horticultural communities is that useful trees are to be found planted around communities or specially retained from the natural ecosystem.

Horticulture differs from agriculture in two ways. First, it encompasses a smaller scale of cultivation, using small plots of mixed crops rather than large fields of single crops. Secondly, horticultural cultivations include a wide variety of crops including fruit trees with ground crops. Agricultural cultivations however as a rule focus on one primary crop. In pre-contact North America the semi-sedentary horticultural communities of the Eastern Woodlands contrasted markedly with the mobile hunter-gatherer communities of the Plains people. In Central America, Maya horticulture involved augmentation of the forest with useful trees such as papaya, cacao and sapodilla. In the cornfields, multiple crops were grown such as beans, squash and chilli peppers, in some cultures tended or by women. Since 1804 The Royal Horticultural Society, a UK charity, leads on the encouragement and improvement of the science and practice of horticulture in all its branches and shares this knowledge through its community and learning programmes, world class gardens and shows.

The oldest Horticultural society in the world, founded in 1768, is the Ancient Society of York Florists. They still have four shows a year in York, UK; the professional body representing horticulturists in Great Britain and Ireland is the Institute of Horticulture. The IOH has an international branch for members outside of these islands; the International Society for Horticultural Science promotes and encourages research and education in all branches of horticultural science. The American Society of Horticultural Science promotes and encourages research and education in all branches of horticultural science in the Americas; the Australian Society of Horticultural Science was established in 1990 as a professional society for the promotion and enhancement of Australian horticultural science and industry. The National Junior Horticultural Association was established in 1934 and was the first organisation in the world dedicated to youth and horticulture. NJHA programs are designed to help young people obtain a basic understanding of, develop skills in, the ever-expanding art and science

The J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome is an indoor multipurpose stadium located on the campus of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, it is used as the home of the NAU Lumberjacks football and both men's and women's basketball teams of the Big Sky Conference. The seating capacity is 11,230, with 1,230 seats in portable bleachers. Opened nameless in 1977, the inaugural game was a one-point conference win over Montana before 12,860 on September 17. NAU football was played outdoors on natural grass at Lumberjack Stadium; the dome hosted the Big Sky men's basketball tournament in 1987, 1997, 1998, 2006. For its first six years, the Walkup Skydome was the world's largest clear-span timber dome, until the completion of the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington, in 1983; the architect was Wendell Rossman of Phoenix responsible for many other buildings on the surrounding NAU campus. The wood used in construction of Walkup Skydome was southern yellow pine. At its launching in 1977, it was the third indoor football stadium in the Big Sky Conference: Holt Arena at Idaho State in Pocatello opened in 1970 and the Kibbie Dome at Idaho in Moscow was enclosed in 1975, after four years as an outdoor venue.

The Skydome is named after J. Lawrence Walkup, the president of NAU from 1957 to 1979, a period of tremendous growth for the university. During an era of tight budgets in the mid-1970s, he creatively coordinated financing for the venue. More than half of the $8 million project came from voluntary student fee increases, supplemented with $1.5 million in legislative funding and a campus fund of $2 million from two decades of vending-machine revenue. The athletic director at NAU at the time was Hank Anderson, who served from 1974 through 1983; the two-year-old Skydome was named for Walkup after his retirement in 1979. The elevation at street level is 6,880 feet above sea level, the highest among NCAA Division I FCS football stadiums and second among NCAA Division I football venues only to an FBS venue, Wyoming's War Memorial Stadium, by 335 feet. AstroTurf, the playing surface for football was changed to infilled FieldTurf in 2002; the building underwent a major renovation from December 2010 to September 2011 at a cost of $26 million.

The scope of the project included bringing the fire and safety up to code while remodeling the bathrooms, offices, locker rooms, press box. The athletic training and equipment on the main floor were remodeled and three elevators were added to the complex. Fans now enter the building to a panoramic view of the field on the west concourses. Capacity was reduced to 10,000. Besides sporting events, the arena is used for commencement ceremonies and other events such as conventions and trade shows; the arena floor features 97,000 square feet of space. The Walkup Skydome was used by the NFL's Arizona Cardinals during their summer training camp, held at NAU; the Cardinals are able to move inside to conduct practice. List of NCAA Division I FCS football stadiums List of NCAA Division I basketball arenas List of convention centers in the United States Official website NAU Athletics – official site – facilities

Richard Parr Daft was an English cricketer. Daft was a right-handed batsman, he was born at Nottinghamshire. Daft made a single first-class appearance for Nottinghamshire against Surrey at Trent Bridge in 1886. Surrey elected to bat, scoring 282 in their first-innings. In response, Nottinghamshire made 223 all out in their first-innings, with Daft being caught behind by Henry Wood off the bowling of John Beaumont for 5 runs. Surrey reached 100/2 in their second-innings; this was his only major appearance for the county. Ten years he played for Berkshire in the 1896 Minor Counties Championship, appearing twice against Buckinghamshire and once against Hertfordshire, he died at South Croydon, Surrey, on 27 March 1934. His father called Richard, was a first-class cricketer, as were his brother Harry and uncle Charles. Richard Daft at ESPNcricinfo Richard Daft at CricketArchive