ISHS Acta Horticulturae 167: II Symposium on Growth Regulators in Floriculture
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT |
| Author: | R. M. Rudnicki |
| Abstract:
On behalf of the organizing committee, I would like to take this opportunity to thank those institutions and private persons who contributed to the success of the Symposium. We are especially grateful to The Polish Academy of Sciences for its organizational help in printing the papers contained in this volume. We very much appreciate the financial support of The Warsaw Horticulture Cooperative, The Floriculture Experiment Greenhouse Station in Pabianice, The Ornamental Plant Experiment Field Station in Nowy Dwór, Mr. K. Szyszkiewicz's Greenhouse Operation in Lódz, The Agriculture Cooperative in Jackowice and the many staff members and employees of the Research Institute of Pomology and Floriculture who helped us in organizational work. We would also like to thank The Experiment Station for Mushroom Production, a part of The Institute of Vegetable Crops in Skierniewice, The Family Greenhouse Operation of Mr.
T. Czech in Skierniewice, Mr.
L. Piekacz in Lódz, and The Director of the State Greenhouse Farm in Lódz-Widzew for their help and guidance during the various professional excursions. As the vice chairman of the Ornamental Plants Section of the International Society for Horticulutural Sciences, I have the great privilege of welcoming delegates of 15 countries to the Second Symposium on Growth Regulators in Floriculture organized by International Society of Horticultural Sciences (ISHS) and the Research Institute of Pomology and Floriculture in Skierniewice. I have the honour of introducing to you our distinguished guests: Professor Dr. Uwe von Hentig - Director of the Research Institute of Ornamental Plants Section of ISHS; Professor Dr. Szczepan Pieniazek - former director of our Institute, past president of ISHS and acting member of the Council of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the primary motivator for the initiation of the organisation and development of the floriculture research unit at our Institute; Professor Dr. Stanislaw Zagaja - director of the Research Institute of Pomology and Floriculture and acting member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and member of the Council representing the ISHS Council on this Symposium. As the chairman of the organizing committee I am obliged to say that we are especially honoured by the fact that the Section of Ornamental Plants of ISHS has given us the opportunity to organize the Symposium on Growth Regulators in Floriculture for the second time here in Skierniewice, during the 15th year anniversary of the Floriculture Research Division at the Institute of Pomology and Floriculture. We assume that the participants of the former 1st symposium were satisfied with the opportunities that we had created for them to discuss the results of their research, to exchange ideas, to meet people from many other countries and to create a friendly atmosphere between scientists of various countries working on flowers and on ornamental plants. We promisse you also this time to do our best for this meeting to create a friendly atmosphere and good opportunity for scientific discussion, exchange of ideas, and creation of personal contacts between people from various countries. The flower has always been the symbol of peace and friendship. We horticulturists, involved in the field of ornamental horticulture, have the privilege of working for the people, making their lives more enjoyable, and surrounding them more with the beauty of nature. We do not make scientific discoveries only to keep them for ourselves; we always try to discover the mystery of nature hidden in the plant in order to share it with other people for their knowledge and pleasure. We all are aware of the mystery of plant's growth and development. Despite the 104 years of research which have followed the publication of Charles Darwin's "The Power of Movement in Plants", our understanding of the control of many developmental processes in plants is only superficial. On the other hand, gradual and consequent expansion of research in the area of hormonal regulation of various aspects of the growth of plants creates opportunities for the synthesis and application of many plant growth regulators for the horticultural industry. Ornamental horticulture is an especially attractive field for the application of growth regulators. They can be applied to the plants without fear of harm for the consumer. This is one of the reasons why plant growth regulators have been successfully applied in many technologies for floriculture and ornamental plant production. The other reason is the tremendous increase in economic and productive efficiency by using growth regulators in some fields: like plant propagation, growth-control, and storage and distribution of plant material. It is hard to imagine now the development of micropropagation of plants by tissue culture, rooting, and weed control without the application of commonly available growth regulators. Thanks to growth regulators and to some understanding of the regulation of plant growth biochemistry, physiology and genetics, the most promising technology for improvement of plant productivity - is developing new area of science - genetical engineering. This is for the future. For now we would like to concentrate our discussion in the Symposium on some physiological aspects of plant hormones action in floricultural plants and on the use of natural and synthetic growth regulators for improvement of production technology. According to the program that we presented to you we should pay most of our attention to the following subjects; regulation of plant growth and development in floriculture and ornamental plants, differentiation of plant organs, propagation and the methods of micropropagation, and growth regulators in nursery production.
We will have plenary sessions for the presentation of all invited and contributed papers and plenary discussion after each session.
This will allow each participant to be active in the discussion in the morning prior to lunch.
Each day after lunch there will be organized excursions to the floriculture experiment station, and to the state and private farms in order to acquaint you with Polish ornamental horticulture.
I wish you profitable discussion, a pleasant time in our Institute, good weather, and good impressions of our country and our floriculture. | |
