Breeding woody ornamentals in a rapidly changing world

Ornamental plant breeding became an important industrial activity over the last decades. Today’s ornamental plant breeding is a complicated exercise, characterized by new and rapidly-changing challenges. The most common methods for creating novelty are cross breeding, interspecific hybridization and chromosome doubling. Newer breeding tools and the possibilities for targeted mutagenesis offer great opportunities for improvements in ornamentals, especially for the selection toward more difficult to assess or quantitative traits. The traditional breeding goal has always been to develop cultivars with improved esthetic traits and increased productivity. Recently, growing environmental awareness and bans on chemical pesticides make that enhanced disease and pest resistance is an increasingly important breeding target. Besides, climate change requires selection for outdoor plants that can withstand a broader range of environmental conditions. Cultivars with better drought tolerance are needed for application in gardens and public green. The traditional assortment of garden plants in more southern latitudes is becoming popular in more northern areas, thus cultivars with enhanced cold tolerance or that can tolerate larger temperature shifts in spring are desired. Meeting all of these medium-long-term targets requires adequate selection methods and bio-assays in minor crops.