The NAC transcription factor family is one of the largest plant-specific transcription factor families and plays an important role in regulating plant growth and development. It has been extensively studied in model plants and crops, including secondary cell wall development, seed germination, root development, leaf senescence, flower organ formation and fruit maturation. It also mediates plant responses to biological and abiotic stresses, However, there is still a lack of systematic combing and discussion in the research of ornamental plants. This review introduces the structure and classification of NAC transcription factors. The biological functions of NAC transcription factor in ornamental plant organ growth and development (leaf border morphogenesis, flower organ development, leaf senescence, petal senescence, seed ball dormancy), and stress response (water, salinity, temperature, heavy metals and biological stress) in recent 20 years were reviewed. Finally, in view of the fact that most of the NAC transcription factors in ornamental plants are still in the stage of functional exploration such as bioinformatics analysis and expression pattern analysis, the future research of NAC transcription factors in ornamental plants is proposed from four aspects.