Acknowledgements

The indiaplants.com website is a vast storehouse of information. It has been possible to get it together due to the support of family, friends and well wishers. A project of such magnitude would not have been possible without their contribution.

First and foremost I owe it to my wife Mayura and the kids. Their patience and unquestioned support has been omnipresent. My parents, Ramrao and Chandralekha Jagtap - whose contribution cannot be put down on paper. My brother in law Sunil - whose valuable suggestions have been very useful in making this site. Sister Preeti, brother Devendra and his wife Anuja have all given valuable tips.

Our indiaplants team of Ashwini Jagdale, Pratibha Khese and Vanita Jagdale have been a joy to work with. They have given their work topmost priority and have burnt our stock of the proverbial "midnight oil"!

Makarand Mhaiskar of Joytree Software with his team of Priti Joshi and Seena Kulkarni have made the backbone on which the site operates. Their foresight has made our work simple. Special thanks for tirelessly incorporating the innumerable suggestions and changes all along the way. The website will continue to evolve and we hope for their support as always.

Mehrzad Akhtrakhavari - for his criticism, encouragement, suggestions and guidance. He and Ton van Heigningen need special mention.

Our sincere thanks to David Lobo, Sam David, Manish and his team at Trinity Future-in P Ltd, for giving us valuable inputs not only in the field of information technology - but also sharing their valuable knowledge about plants.

From Mumbai, we would like to first thank Ar. Kishore Pradhan for his blessing and guidance. We have received invaluable help from Pushkar Londhe of Grand Hyatt, Suhas Joshi of ITC Hotels, Ashish More of Wangani, Sanjay of Tropica Nursery, Rode and Oagle of FOT, Sneh Prasar of Horticulture World, Staff and workers of the Jijamata Udyan, BMC and various gardens in Mumbai.

From Bangalore, Dr. Manmohan Attawar has been an inspiration for us since our school days. We have learnt a lot from his humble and down to earth ways. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Krishnappa, Balraj Reddy, Rashmi Amanna, Sriram, Gopi and Sh. Parthsarthy. Inputs from the Lalbaugh Botanical Gardens have been fruitful. Sh. Uday Singji and Buta Singhji of Namdhari Seeds have been very encouraging.

Visits to Delhi have always been fruitful. The contributions of Ajay Tyagi, Y.P.Singh, Shaheen Javid, Aakhilesh Tyagi, Geeta and Brijendra Dua, A.M.Khan, Wasim Khan, Ar. Rommel Mehta and finally the garden in charge and workers at Lodhi Gardens and Sunder Nursery.

Hyderabad has become a prominent horticultural destination in India. Chandra Mohan Reddy, Pradeep Ganu, Pravin Satyarthy, Shah Alam Khan have contributed personally with their effort. The innumerable public gardens and exhibitions too been great opportunities for seeing new varieties.

Being in Pune, a lot of the photographs and information and guidance has come from people nearer home. Surely cannot put down all names on paper here are just a few Arun Patil, Yeshwant Khaire, Shobha Bhopatkar, Yashvant Khaire, Ravendra Bhide, Varsha Gavandi, Tejasvini Kulkarni, Deepak Gupta, Brinda Gill, Narendra fursunge, Pritam More, Suresh Sakla, Shrikant Ingalhalikar and Dr. Mahajan. Staff and workers of Tukai Exotics, Jagtap Nursery, The Empress Gardens, Pune Municipal Corporation.

Gaurav Deshmukh, Vishwajeet Naik and Dhruv Naik for helping me with photography tips that have helped us to take pictures for indiaplants.com

Among other well wishers I must mention Rodney and Lumina Almeida from Goa, Rajan and Kalam from Kerala, many of the great nurserymen from Kadiyam among whom are Satya Deva Nursery, Satya Narayana Nursery, Gautami Nursery and of course fatherly Tadala Verraswamy.

My quest for plants and photographs has led to extensive travels abroad. My good friends Kayomarz and Shernaz, Raj and Sheila Bappoo have helped a lot. My sincere thanks to Kampon of Noong Noch Gardens for creating such a wonderful masterpiece and showing us around. Michael Ferraro and Anders too have helped.

The many plant lovers who have written such marvelous books that we have had to refer to in our quest for information. Their share has been monumental.

I know many names have been left out - but the effort of these people have been equally contributing and I thank them all.

-Sangram Jagtap