Core collection always plays an important role and one of the highlight in the study of plant germplasm resource, which shows an important significance for the evaluation, conservation, utilization and exchange of plant germplasm resource. In this paper, the concept of the core collection of plant genetic resource, procedures of its construction, evolution & test of the core collection and the new research progress of the core collection construction in horticultural crops have briefly been summarized. Subsequently, some study perspectives have been proposed on this research field in the near future. Four novel opinions have been presented, such as (1) grouping of germplasm and sampling strategy are always the most important steps in the core collection of horticultural crops; (2) core collection of horticultural crops, which with a large produce and originated from China, need to be carried out as soon as possible; (3) we should pay high attention to the study on gene discovery and utilization with the rapid, precise and high-throughput pattern based on re-sequencing technology and (4) we need to enhance the research management and cooperation to increase the sharing of the existing core collection in horticultural crops around whole country. This paper provides the theoretical and technological reference for studying and application of horticultural crops core collection.