WELCOME ADDRESS

It's for me a pleasant duty to wish you welcome in this Congress Centre of Angers, at the opening of our Symposium ISHS, sponsored both by the Commission for Urban Horticulture and the section “Floral plants”.

This meeting here today is the result of a long story. To simplify, I will only date it back to the Congress of Bath in 1985, where the young Commission for Urban Horticulture carried out its first congress, managed by its president David Robinson.

I went there to speak about ornamental shrub breeding ; I was surprised to realize I was the only breeder. As I told David Robinson about it, the latter had immediately offered me to fill this gap by organizing a next meeting on ornamental shrub selection and breeding : it was in 1985, today is 1992.

In the meantime, we talked about it at Spa in 1988, then at Cordoba in 1989 with the President Christensen, then at Florence in 1990 with the same, plus the current President of the Commission Urban Horticulture, H.B. Tukey, who since then has been keeping encouraging me to set up this congress.

So you are here in Angers, in a French region where horticulture holds an important economic place. If we break down the different sectors, the Region occupies the following ranks in French horticulture :

1st rank for :

• ornamental nursery stock : 13.6 % of the national acreage
• bedding plant production : 15.9 % of the national total (in number)
• fruit growing : 15.8 % of the national acreage.

2nd rank for :

• pot plant production (with flowers or foliage) : 14.3 % of the national production (in number)
• bulb production : 22.3 % of national acreage.

3rd rank for :

• cut flower and foliage production with 9.0 % of the national production (in number and in acreage)

Besides productions, this region is lucky to pool together organizations involved in research (INRA - CNRS - University), in development (CNIH : National Interprofessional Centre for Horticulture) and in teaching (ENITHP). Several members of these organizations are taking part in papers in this Congress.

The visits scheduled will make it possible to illustrate some of these aspects.

Around 60 people will take part in our work and 13 nationalities will be represented. It is not therefore a huge congress but it is perhaps the right size for an efficient working group.

I would like to finish by thanking the local organizations which trusted the potential of this meeting and which financially supported its realization :

• the General Council of the department of Maine et Loire,
• the Town Council of Angers,
• the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Angers,
• the Chamber of Agriculture
• the Agricultural Bank (Crédit Agricole)

and of course, our organization on which we depend, the National Institute for Agronomical Research (INRA),

and last, but not least, R. Tuffigo for his help in this translation.

L. DECOURTYE
Convener