There is strong consumer interest in native plants for landscaping to create natural gardens that attract wildlife and are not invasive. For growers to capitalize on the native market, they must expand their product lines by adding new species. Landscape plants are often used in locations with challenging environmental conditions including reflected light, high temperatures, inadequate water supply, infertile soil, road salt, and pedestrian pressure. Expanded use of native species will be most successful if growers, landscapers and consumers know which native species will perform well in challenging landscape situations. Research I have conducted at the University of Connecticut has identified underused native shrubs that are adaptable and have thepotential to become revenue-generating crops for the nursery industry. Each plant offers gardeners multiple ornamental attributes such as interesting summer foliage, refined habit, edible fruits, attractive flowers, and respectable fall foliage color. These native shrubs have been unused in the landscape because their landscape adaptability was unknown and because production systems have not been developed. Some native shrubs are already being successfully produced by the nursery industry and are widelyused in the landscape. Growers must be able to produce these newly identified native shrubs using production systems whose efficiencies are on par with those already used to produce successful native shrubs crops. The goal of the research presented here is to develop commercially viable propagation systems for these novel native shrubs.
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