The importance of reputation for horticulture has already been pointed out in the past. Against the background of increased environmental awareness in society and an increasing shortage of skilled workers, the relevance of the topic for horticulture has increased further. Additionally, reputation can be an important strategic resource for companies. Since reputation as a latent construct can-not be measured directly, a model is needed that represents reputation through quantifiable indicators. To this end, this article will provide an overview of a multi-stage research approach to measuring the reputation of German horticulture. The first step defines the relationship between reputation and the terms image, which represents the external view, and identity, which describes the

internal view. The theoretically developed results from the literature analysis are summarised in a first structural model and validated by experts (N = 102) in a second step. This shows that the reputation of horticulture is considered slightly positive by the experts. Furthermore, the results of the expert survey make it clear that the reputation of the entire horticultural sector is particularly shaped by the segments of service horticulture. With the help of this survey, the structural model could be adapted to horticulture. Subsequently, based on the examples of fruit growing and gardening and landscaping the reputation is assessed in a consumer survey using the structural model developed before. The results of the consumer survey establish the basis for deriving recommendations for action for horticulture.