ABSTRACT
Over the past 20 years, there has been an explosion in the range of technologies available to breeders of commodity crops. This has included the use of molecular markers1 and transgenic technologies2 to bring about signi‰cant increases in crop yields. Despite this availability and a signi‰cant amount of academic and industrial experimentation, these technologies have not been effectively applied to the development and commercialization of ornamental plants. This essay seeks to explain the commercial and business reasons behind this apparent missed opportunity.
