Routine testing of ornamental plants involves ELISA screens that include a number of specific tests to detect the presence of a virus belonging to a particular group. This approach has been desirable for a number of reasons: cost-effectiveness, simplicity and speed. Despite these advantages, the screens can become quite complicated due to the number of specific tests that need to be conducted. Furthermore, with certain host species, non-specific tissue reaction is not at all uncommon thus prompting the use of more than one ELISA format for a particular test. As an alternative to our ELISA screens, we have developed two PCR group tests that respectively detect members of the tobamovirus and the carlavirus groups. These tests are coupled with reverse transcription using random hexamers or oligo d(T)16 primer, respectively. For the PCR part, primers are designed based on the conserved regions of the viral genome and are used under optimized conditions for the amplification of the target sequences. Using our tobamovirus group PCR test, we successfully detected CGMMV, KGMMV, ORSV, PMMoV, RMV, SHMV, TMV and ToMV from leaves, stems, fruits and seeds of infected plants. Our carlavirus group PCR test could detect all carlaviruses examined: BBScV, CLV, CVB, KLV, LSV, PotLV, PVM, PVS and SLV.