Textbook of Floriculture and Landscaping

Preface

India is blessed to have a long history of floriculture and gardening since time immemorial. The status of gardening during ancient time has been presented in Ramayana, Mahabharata, the four Vedas viz., Artharva Veda, Yuzur Veda, Rig Veda and Sam Veda, the Puranas, etc. Now-a-days, floriculture is regarded as a viable diversification from the traditional field crops due to its higher returns per unit area. Owing to steady increase in demand of flowers, floriculture industry in India is growing at a compounded annual growth rate. Landscaping is getting attention globally due to change in life style of people. The floriculture industry comprises the florist trade, nursery, flowering and ornamental plants, bulb and seed production, micro-propagated materials, essential oils from flowers and some newly emerging areas like source of nutraceuticals, natural dyes, etc. Government of India identified floriculture as a sunrise industry and accorded it 100 per cent export oriented status. There are more than 300 export-oriented units in India.

The present book “Textbook of Floriculture and Landscaping” contains 44 chapters including some fundamental chapters on gardening and landscaping in Section 1 comprising Ecotourism, Bio-aesthetic planning and Computer aided designing (CAD) for landscape design. Section 2 contains chapters on plant species viz. trees, shrubs, climbers, annuals, foliage plants, cacti and succulents, etc. The art of plants and flower arrangements are described in Section 3. Lastly, Section 4 deals with the importance and scope of floriculture, flower seed production and 15 commercial flower crops. Efforts were made to bring the book in its most simplified way keeping in view that the book will cover most of the parts of B.Sc. (Ag.), B.Sc. (Hort.) and M.Sc. (Ag.) in Horticulture syllabus. The book ensures a sound knowledge regarding floriculture and landscaping by including more than 1000 questions. Thus, it will also help the students for their competitive examinations.

We must pay our heartfelt gratitude to Prof. GC. Tripathi, Vice-Chancellor, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi for encouragement and support. Senior author is also grateful to Hon’ble V.C., B.H.U., who assigned him responsibility of Professor-in-Charge to do Landscape work of Main Campus and South Campus (R.G.S.C.) of B.H.U. and sharpen his skill in the field of landscaping and gardening.

We feel immense pleasure to express our heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Panjab Singh, President, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi, Chancellor, Rani Laxmi Bai Central Agricultural University, Jhansi; Ex-V.C., B.H.U., Varanasi & Ex-V.C., J.N.K.V.V., impart relevant knowledge and will be of immense value for students, teachers, scientists, progressive farmers and all those who are concerned with promotion of floriculture.

I personally congratulate and appreciate efforts of the authors Dr. Anil K. Singh, Prof. & Ex-Head and Dr. Anjana Sisodia, Assistant Professor, Department of Horticulture, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi to put together information on various aspects of flower crop production, planning the contents and bringing out this book. I am sure that this publication will be very useful to all, who are concerned with Floriculture and Landscaping.

Jabalpur and Ex-DG (ICAR) & Secretary (DARE) for his inspiring guidance, encouragement and blessings.

We have immense pleasure to express our gratitude to Dr. Neeraj Tripathi, Registrar, BHU, Varanasi and Shri M.K. Pandey, Controller of Examination, BHU, Varanasi for their moral support and encouragement.

Authors are thankful to Prof. A. Vaishampayan, Director & Dean, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, BHU, Varanasi for their moral support, encouragement and creating working atmosphere in the Institute.

We wish to express our appreciation to Dr. Kalyan Barman, Assistant Professor, Department of Horticulture, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, B.H.U., Varanasi for his dedication in compilation and some valuable suggestions regarding the manuscript. We have great pleasure in acknowledging moral support, encouragement, valuable suggestions and constructive criticism received from Prof. Arun K. Singh, Prof. Satish K. Singh, Prof. H.P. Singh, Prof. Rakesh Singh, Prof. P.K. Singh, Prof. J.P. Shahi, Prof. H.B. Singh, Prof. O.P. Mishra, Dr. Amitabh Rakshit and Dr. Birinchi K. Sarma of Institute of Agricultural Sciences, B.H.U., Varanasi

Support and help received from Late Prof. J.N. Singh, Late Prof. B.P. Singh, Late Prof. D. Sanyal (Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan), Prof. A.N. Maurya, Ex-Director (I. Ag. Sci.), Dr. A.K. Pal, Prof. M.M. Syamal, Prof. S.P. Singh, Prof. B.K. Singh, Prof. Anand K. Singh, Department of Horticulture, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, B.H.U., Varanasi are duly acknowledged.

We appreciate the efforts made by our Ph.D. Scholars Mr. Anupam Tiwari, Ms. Necharika Kanth, Mr. Tejraj Singh Hada, Mr. Sumit Pal, Mr. Vikas Jain, Mr. Md. Muthanna, Ms. Minakshi Padhi and Ms. Raimani Hembrom (I.I.H.R., Bengaluru) in collection of literature and compilation. We appreciate the efforts of Mr. Sumit Pal Jain, M/s New India Publishing Agency, New Delhi for printing the book in the nice form.

We don’t have words to express our emotional feeling towards our parents, family members and relatives for their encouragement and support who have been affectionate, understanding and patient during the long hours we spent on the manuscript.

Varanasi

(Girish Chandra Tripathi)