Plant Nursery Worker (Nursery Operative) CV Examples & Writing Guide

One page, written for a grower or nursery manager who is hiring before spring. The name and businesses are invented. Everything else is the kind of detail a real nursery hand can pull from a production sheet or a dispatch log.

• Can you work the season? Nursery work is heaviest from late winter through early summer. Managers look for someone who lasted a full season and came back, so write 'seasonal, returned for a second season' when it is true.
• What can you run without training? Forklift, tractor, sprayer, irrigation controller, potting machine. List the equipment by name; 'operated machinery' tells a grower nothing.
• Do you know plants or only tasks? Naming plant groups you have grown (perennials, conifers, liners, rootballed trees) separates you from general labour.
• Do you hold PA1 and PA6 spray certificates? Those certificates move an application to the top of the pile because a certificate of competence is a legal requirement for spraying professional pesticides and takes time to get.
• Physical reliability: lifting, heat, rain, early starts. Say it plainly once, with a number, rather than repeating 'hard worker'.

“In February we hire fast. The CVs that get a call say what the person potted, what they drove, and whether they hold a spray certificate. When somebody writes 'came back for a second season', that tells me more than any list of qualities.”

Two or three lines. Years in the trade, the type of nursery, the equipment or certificates you hold, and one number. Put your availability in it during the hiring season.

Most people copy the job description straight off the advert. Rewrite it with the crop, the count and the season, and the same duty becomes evidence.

Split them so a manager can find what they need. Growing skills come first, equipment second, and the people-facing skills last unless you are applying to a retail garden centre.

• Growing work: potting and transplanting, seed sowing, plug and liner handling, sticking cuttings, grafting, pruning and pinching, spacing, grading, staking and tying, hardening off, overwintering and frost protection.
• Irrigation and feeding: drip lines and emitters, overhead booms, hand watering, fertiliser injectors, checking EC and pH, controlled-release fertiliser incorporation.
• Plant knowledge: identifying perennials, bedding, shrubs, conifers and ornamental trees; reading labels and crop plans; knowing RHS hardiness ratings for the plants you grow.
• Pest and disease: weekly monitoring, sticky traps, recognising aphids, thrips, spider mites, sciarid flies, botrytis and root rot; basic biological control releases.
• Equipment: counterbalance and reach forklift, pallet truck, tractor with pallet forks, skid steer, potting machine, tray filler, sprayer and spreader, hand tools.
• Dispatch and records: order picking, labelling, load counts, stock counts, spray records, basic tablet or handheld scanner use.
• Work habits growers name in adverts: dependable on early starts and in bad weather, safe manual handling up to 25 kg, works with a crew, follows spray safety rules, some Polish or Romanian on a mixed crew.

• Pesticide certificates of competence. Applying professional pesticides in the UK requires one. Most nursery staff hold PA1 (the foundation module) plus PA6 (hand-held applicators) or PA2 (boom sprayer). Write the units and the year, and add NRoSO membership if you keep up the CPD points.
• Forklift certificate. Employers must make sure operators are trained and competent, so a certificate from a previous employer counts. Most courses are accredited by RTITB, ITSSAR or AITT. List the year and the truck type.
• COSHH and pesticide safety training. If you have handled or worked around sprays, say you know the PPE and re-entry rules; growers have to train staff on them and will recognise it.
• Category C1 or C driving licence. Only relevant for delivery roles, but say the category if you hold one.
• Horticulture courses: an RHS Level 2 or Level 3 qualification, a land-based college course, or a short course run by a growers' trade body. All three are worth a line.
• Emergency First Aid at Work, plus any tractor, telehandler or ATV training you received on the job.

This is an entry-level trade and plenty of people start with nothing but a willingness to be outside at 6am. Your CV needs to show hands, reliability and availability.

1. 1Open with a career objective that names your start date and the days you can work. Seasonal hiring turns on availability.
2. 2Count anything with plants or soil: a home vegetable patch, a school greenhouse, an allotment, helping on a family farm, mowing lawns for neighbours. Give it a heading and a rough scale.
3. 3Add physical and reliable-worker evidence from unrelated jobs: warehouse shifts, fast food during a rush, removals work, night shifts filling shelves. A perfect attendance record is worth a bullet.
4. 4List any equipment you can already run, including a ride-on mower, a pressure washer, a 4x4 towing a trailer or a forklift from another job.
5. 5Say you can handle loads up to 25 kg repeatedly and work in heat and rain, because adverts ask for it directly.
6. 6Keep it to one page and print a copy. Small nurseries still take applications in person.

• One page. Two pages only if you have a decade in the trade and supervisory work to show.
• Plain single-column layout, PDF, no photo and no date of birth on a UK CV. Nurseries often print applications, so keep it readable in black and white.
• Label seasonal jobs as seasonal and say if you were asked back. Gaps between November and February are normal in this trade and nobody will hold them against you if you label them.
• Mirror the advert's words. If it says 'container production', 'rootballed' or 'liners', use the same terms so the applicant tracking system at a larger grower matches you.
• UK adverts use several titles for this job: nursery operative, nursery worker, horticultural assistant and garden centre assistant. Search for all of them and use the advert's title in your CV. In the US the same job is a plant nursery worker and the document is a resume.
• Include a phone number you answer. Nursery hiring in spring often happens the same day someone quits.