The history of College of Horticulture can be traced back to the Teaching and Research Group of the Pomology and Vegetable established by the Department of Agronomy of Shanxi Agricultural College in 1954, which was replaced by the Horticulture Department in 1958.And then it was renamed as College of Horticulture in 2001. In June 2020, under the background of the merger reform, the College of Horticulture together with the Horticultural Research Institute and the Vegetable Research Institute of the former Shanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences formed the new College of Horticulture of SXAU.

College of Horticulture consists of 6 departments of pomology, vegetable, floriculture, science and engineering of facility agriculture, horticulture basics and art design. The college also owns 5 National Comprehensive Experimental Field Station of Modern Agricultural Industrial Technology System, 1 national and provincial jointly-constructed Engineering Technology Center, 1 National Pear Original Germplasm Preservation Base, 1 National Science Popularization Base, 1 Provincial Key Laboratory, 2 Provincial Engineering Technology Research Centers , 2 Provincial Teaching Innovation Centers, 1 Provincial Eggplant Innovation Strategic Alliance, 1 Provincial Resource Sharing Platform, 1 Provincial Germplasm Resource Bank of Prunus humilis, 1 Provincial Society, 3 University-level Research Institutes (Centers) and 10 Outstanding Agricultural and Forestry Talent Cultivation Off-campus Bases.

The College has horticulture master’s degree, doctoral degree authorized units, horticulture postdoctoral research station and 2 provincial key disciplines of Pomology and Vegetable Science.The college also has 4 undergraduate majors of Horticulture, Protected Agriculture Science and Engineering, Visual Communication Design and Environmental Design, and 2 major fields which are Flower &Landscape Design and Medicinal Tea. Among them, the horticulture major is the State Key Discipline, pilot major of Outstanding Agricultural and Forestry Talents Cultivation Program of the Ministry of Education, the National Characteristic Specialty, the Provincial Advantageous Major. The Science and Engineering of Facility Agriculture is a Provincial Key Discipline.

There are 217 faculty members, including 36 professors, 71 associate professors, 11 PhD supervisors, 76 Master supervisors and 42 National and Provincial Teaching and Research Talents.

Currently, there are 2,209 students, including 346 postgraduates and 1,863 undergraduates. The college actively develops the reform and practice of the “2+1+1” University-Enterprise (institution) Joint Talent Cultivation so as to continuously improves own streng and the quality of talents. There are numerous of outstanding students, such as Jiang Libin, winner of the 2013 China University Students of the year, Liu Qinghe, the National Excellent Village Leaders and Wei Xuyang, the Star of Self-improvement of Chinese College Student.

In the past 3 years, 22 national projects and 122 provincial projects were undertaken by the college. 519 high-level papers were published in various academic journals domestic and overseas, of which 48 papers were indexed by SCI, 41 papers were in national first-level journals, and 142 papers were in Chinese core journals.31 monographs were written. 29 new varieties were developed, including 24 national varieties. 141 patents were authorized, including 1 international PCT patent and 21 invention patents.1 national industry standard, and 37 provincial standards were formulated.And 1 Second Prize of the Shennong Chinese Agricultural Science and Technology Award of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, 1 First Prize and 4 Second Prizes of the Shanxi Provincial Science and Technology Advancement Award were obtained.

After merging the Shanxi Agricultural University with the Shanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences and standing on a new start, the college will stick to fostering virtue through education as its foundation, assume strengthening and promoting agriculture as its duty, centering on talent cultivation, persist in the mission of scientific researches, establish a sense of social service for agriculture, rural areas and farmers, stay confident in cultural heritage and innovation, seize the opportunity, build on the good momentum and strive to draw a new blueprint for the development.