ABSTRACT
Bedding plants are a big business. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agriculture Statistics Service survey of the 15 largest producer states noted that there are 1537 businesses producing a wholesale value of $1.96 billion of bedding plants in 2012 (USDA, 2013). This category includes both seed and vegetatively propagated herbaceous plants for the landscape, along with herb and vegetable transplants. Bedding plants make up nearly half of all oriculture industry sales in the United States. Although vegetatively propagated annuals (most are tropical perennials) are rapidly gaining a share of this market, seed-grown annuals and perennials will probably always comprise the majority of sales. In fact, four of the top six bedding plantsgarden impatiens (Impatiens walleriana Hook.f.), wax begonias (Begonia × semperflorens-cultorum hort.), marigold (Tagetes patula L. and T. erecta L.), and pansy/ viola (Viola × wittrockiana Gams.) (Figure 37.1)—are produced from seed. The other two are propagated by both seed and vegetative cuttings-petunias (Petunia × hybrida hort. Vilm.-Andr.) and the number one bedding and landscape plant, geranium (Pelargonium × hortorum hort.). Vegetable transplants, another large crop category
that is statistically lumped in with bedding plants, are also produced from seed.
