New Feature: Know Your Plants

Beginning now, we are starting a new series aimed at creating a repository of information on plants, the common gardening plants that we have been growing in our gardens, be it on land, in balconies, in pots on our terraces. Looking up for information on plants is quite a task in itself. Ever since I have been gardening, I have been trying to look for information on plants, that I have been growing and looking for information on, which has been a mountain of a task, as finding information on growing plants, and associated information is quite hard, when it comes to find plants information based on our local Indian conditions, as there is rarely any information available on plants.

Developed countries like the US or the UK have quite developed agricultural or horticultural programmes that put in quite a lot of effort in researching and curating information and creating extensive plants databases. Most of this information on plants and their varieties are easily available online, and looking for information on plants using their tools is nothing more than a child's play.

For us, the situation is quite grim. While there are quite a lot of academic research going on, here in India, getting the information on their work is quite a task in itself. There are premier organizations like PUSA, NBRI, IIHR engaged in research in agricultural and cash crops. However, information about specific plants from these organisations is not available, atleast not easily. Other than that, there are quite good initiatives by some private bodies, and in their case, the information is quite usable and easily available too, however, unless some government initiatives come in, it is not possible to create information repositories like the ones available in the US and the UK.

Thus, I decided to look for information on our gardening plants, from various sources, information that is available at a number of sources, and will try putting them here for a quick and easy reference. Though, this is a huge task single handedly doing it, but, I should try this one.

So, hoping to help you find information on your plants, at one place, and we will try to make that information as accurate as possible. So, wish me luck! Any help on your part will be quite appreciated.