Our research program has two major activities – plant propagation and nursery crop production. The propagation area has most recently been focused on seed biology. The major effort concerns the physiological and ecological aspects of physical dormancy including the elucidation of the water gap mechanisms that control water uptake in physically dormant seeds. The second research area investigates the comparative morphological and ecological aspects of mucilage producing seeds in the Lamiaceae. Our main nursery crop project is a multi-state collaborative effort in sustainable nursery production. This project focuses on producing container-grown nursery crops with reduced inputs. These include water use and alternatives to standard plastic nursery containers.