In this Room I share with you my fascination with plant reproductive biology and its application to horticulture and related disciplines.
I begin by dispelling the widely held oversimplification that "plants grow from seeds" - indeed many of them do, but quite a few have evolved the capacity for asexual (clonal) reproduction. Even before the origins of agriculture, about 12,000 years ago, mankind has been observing wild plants performing feats of asexual reproduction.
From this increasingly sophisticated understanding of the natural history of cloning, early agriculturists domesticated a number of fruit, nut and other food crops and eventually a host of ornamentals as well. The Room includes hands-on demonstrations of clonal propagation by layering, cuttings, grafting and micropropagation.