Prospects for Genetically Modified Ornamental Plants

Nature of Work: The development of new and superior plants helps to stimulate excitement and demand, improve competitiveness and profitability, and ultimately deliver superior and more diverse products to consumers. Numerous sources of novel traits have provided the current diversity in ornamental plants including wild collections of whole plants and seeds, open-pollinated seedling selection, random mutation, mutation breeding and conventional breeding. In the end, the new plant source is significantly less important than its quality, uniqueness and its ultimate marketability. There is little doubt that the long-term prospect for developing novel ornamental plants using the previously mentioned methods is excellent. In addition to the above, genetic engineering is fast becoming a focus among some horticulture breeders following the success of numerous genetically engineered agronomic crops.