Floriculture and Landscaping
Domain 6 covers commercial flower production and ornamental design: crop schedules, garden styles, principles of design and lawn management.
Commercial flowers
- Loose flowers: marigold, chrysanthemum, jasmine, crossandra.
- Cut flowers: rose, gladiolus, gerbera, carnation, orchid.
- Gladiolus is grown from corms; chrysanthemum is a short-day plant, so flowering is scheduled by light control.
- Pinching in chrysanthemum increases branching; disbudding in carnation improves flower size.
Landscaping
- Elements: line, form, colour, texture, space.
- Principles: balance, rhythm, proportion, unity, emphasis.
- Styles: formal (symmetrical, geometric), informal (naturalistic), Mughal (char bagh), Japanese.
- Lawn: doob grass (Cynodon) for sunny lawns; sow fine seed, roll, and mow frequently.
Worked example
A rectangular bed 10 m x 2 m is to be planted at 40 cm x 40 cm. Area per plant = 0.16 m2; bed area = 20 m2; plants = 20 / 0.16 = 125. Reasoning: convert spacings to metres first, then divide bed area by plant area; add 5-10% for gaps and casualties so the design does not look sparse.
Marks-losing traps
- Mixing elements with principles of design.
- Treating a corm as a bulb.
- Using shade-loving ferns in full sun.
- Planting a formal garden at irregular, random spacing.