The demand of flowers and ornamental plants is increasing day by day and a large number of people in India earn their livelihood by either producing or marketing flowers and ornamental plants. Floriculture business is expanding rapidly worldwide. Recognizing the importance of ornamental plants in general and floriculture in particular, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) initiated a major network programme on floriculture at National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI),

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... Research and development projects were started with the main objective of promotion of floriculture in India. All research and developmental activities on floriculture are essentially multi-disciplinary in nature and based on a conscious effort to interlink science and society to promote sustainable development of floriculture. The main objective and efforts have been made to take the research from laboratory to the field so that it can be applied at the grassroot level for the benefit of the society. A long concentrated efforts of CSIR has so far resulted in a number of success stories and the effort in this direction is continuing. The primary objective of the article is to give a coherent and concise account of all floriculture work done at CSIR-NBRI with an emphasis on recent developments. Annuals : It plays very important role in floriculture trade. Information on classification of annuals according to use, designing and colour scheme, cultivation, pest and disease management, pot culture, commercial use etc. have been compiled. Nursery Management : To start floriculture activities/ business one should develop basic knowledge on different cultural practices/ operations related to floricultural crops. NBRI has developed full package and practices on Plant Propagation Techniques and Cultural Operations. Different floricultural crops are propagated/multiplied by different means like sexual propagation (by seeds), asexual propagation (