Floral and nursery crops are among the top 5 commodities in 27 states and among the top 10 commodities in 42 states.
Gardening is the number one hobby in the United States.
It's hard to find a town or city that doesn't have a greenhouse or nursery business serving it. And that's just the production end of the industry. The industry is important to both rural and urban communities. ARS has joined with industry and universities to create the Floriculture and Nursery Research Initiative, a research program to benefit this industry. And it's none too soon, because until this initiative began, the industry received relatively few federal research dollars.