)]. Peaches with showy flowers having extra petals have been used as ornamentals for centuries, often in combination with novel growth forms like upright, weeping and/or dwarf ( Hedrick, 1917 ; Hu et al., 2005 ; Lammerts, 1945 ). These “double
When breeding floriculture plants, one must have a targeted phenotype and genotype in mind before the initial cross-pollination event is performed. In the case of the floriculture breeding program at the University of Illinois, our initial goal was to develop a commercially acceptable, yet novel, Impatienswallerana(bedding plant impatiens) phenotype with improved resistance to the western flower thrips, Franklinella occidentalis, a significant insect pest in production greenhouses. This study describes the process used to obtain a large impatiens phenotype (>61 cm tall and >125 cm wide) with acceptable branching, leaf color, flower size, flower number, flower display, and flower colors with improved resistance to western flower thrips. A reliable and simple evaluation technique, based on the number of leaves expressing western flower thrips feeding damage after inoculation, was developed and utilized to create more resistant impatiens genotypes based on generation means. Using a 1 to 9 scale, mean damage ratings for the original germplasm populations 1, 2, and 3 were 5.18, 6.02, and 6.11, respectively, with the trend for populations 1, 2, and 3 skewed toward susceptible plants. Germplasm with novel phenotypes were derived from crosses with plants in populations 1 and 3 with commercial cultivars. These novel phenotypes had improved levels of resistance with a mean rating of 5.06 and a normal shaped distribution. The potential for improving resistance to western flower thrips feeding exists within available germplasm and the tools necessary for proper evaluations are available.
Bacterial diseases continue to plague ornamental crops, Genetic resistance offers one way to manage disease; combined with use of indexed propagules and sanitation, it can be a powerful control. Classical breeding offers some genetic solutions. Introgression, by genetic engineering, of antibacterial genes derived from the Cecropiamoth is a second breeding approach which appears promising in other horticultural crops. A case study for control of Xanthomonas, species of which severely limit geranium, anthurium, and other ornamental production, is given for anthurium. Transgenic anthurium plants expressing or containing antibacterial genes coding for the antibacterial peptides Attacin, P13 and T4 lysozymes, and the modified cecropins Shiva and SB37 were produced and challenged with bacteria. Juvenile and adult plants showed various degrees of tolerance to bacterial blight. The implications of this approach to bacterial disease control in various ornamental cropping systems will be discussed.
, secondary shrubby woodland, and roadsides at altitudes between 600 m and 3000 m ( Chen and Taylor, 2011 ). This species is of particular interest to floriculturists because of its sweetly fragrant inflorescences with attractive pink to white tubular flowers
expression pattern during flower development, whereas miR159c and novel_miR_08 showed the opposite expression profiles ( Fig. 4 , Tables 1 and 2 ). However, some miRNAs, such as miR396a, miR396b, miR396d, miR530, miR5303, novel_miR_03, novel_miR_04, novel
life of cut rose flowers; however, additional novel alternative preservatives to improve flower quality and delay senescence of cut rose flowers for international markets are needed. Oligosaccharides are an important aspect of sugar research
develop and validate a model to predict time to flower of a novel Limonium hybrid based on environmental factors (primarily DLI) and/or plant growth variables (e.g., leaf number and groundcover index). Materials and Methods Plant materials
abscise. Surprisingly, flower initiation occurs very early the previous year. Only 4 weeks after the new leaves have unfolded, the subpetiolar buds initiate flower development ( Higuchi and Utsunomiya, 1999 ). Normally, these flowers would blossom the
cultivated as pot or cut flowers. Although more than a dozen species with different morphologies and ploidy levels have been described for Gloriosa , most of them are currently regarded as forms of G . superba L. ( Nordenstam, 1998 ; Vinnersten and