The adventures of an accidental scientist: Part III

I work with a family of plants called chenopods right now. Most people don't really care about them, they're kind of weedy and the most significant thing they do is give people allergies. But they happen to be closely related to quinoa, the grain of the future, and so we are interested in taking all the cool characteristics of the other chenopods and giving them t quinoa.

So when I go down to the greenhouse in the morning to water my plants and take tissue samples, this is what I see:


It's a nice break from the windowless basement lab. But then I walk through the horticultural greenhouses on my way back up to the lab, and this is what I see:





Why can't we work on the genetics of pretty plants? Also, I want a hall in my house like that first horticultural picture. Maybe just along the back of the house. Wouldn't that be awesome?