Abstract: Graduate thesis，the most representative work when the graduate obtains the degree，presents the academic discipline direction and the research characteristics of the postgraduate training units，and also shows the discipline developmental level and the industrial demands to a certain extent. Bibliometrics analysis was used to analyze the graduate thesis in horticulture collected from 1998 to 2017 in China National Knowledge Internet（CNKI）by CiteSpace software. From the perspective of graduate degree thesis，the research hotspots，trend and frontier of horticulture subjects were analyzed. The results showed that the hotspots of graduate thesis in horticulture were photosynthesis，genetic transformation，genetic diversity，fruit quality，biological characteristics and plant hormones，most of which belonging to plant physiology and molecular biology. Graduate thesis in horticulture mainly focuses on basic research，but less on application research. Research subjects selection and countermeasures of horticulture in the future were proposed in this study.

Key words: horticulture, graduate thesis, bibliometrics analysis, research hot topics, talent training