From 23 to 28 August, the 32nd International Horticultural Congress (IHC2026) is taking place in Kyoto, Japan — the world’s most important scientific event in our field. 🌱
VRDS Buzau is among the participants!
The official opening took place on Sunday, in a setting that says everything about the spirit of this congress. At the entrance we were greeted by an ikebana arrangement by the Ikenobō school — 550 years of Japanese floral art history.
The ceremony culminated in a spectacular calligraphy performance (書道), in which three characters outlined the theme of the congress:
🌱 芽 me – bud
🌸 花 hana – flower
🌼 咲 saku – to bloom
An image that captures this year’s congress theme, “Exploring the Diversity of Horticulture”: the seed that makes it through winter and then blossoms in a thousand forms, each with its own colour and beauty. It is exactly our everyday work — preserving and showcasing the richness of vegetable and horticultural plant varieties.
🏆 The first day also featured the My PhD Thesis in 3 Minutes competition, with 6 finalists from Colombia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Korea, Japan and Spain. The podium:
🥇 Portugal – Exploring Catharanthus roseus for anticancer alkaloid production in vertical farming systems
🥈 Japan – Improvement and application of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry imaging for strawberry fruit quality evaluation
🥉 Netherlands – Far-red in greenhouse tomato cultivation: from light perception to fruit yield improvement
A competition we know well: in 2022, at the previous edition of the congress, we took part ourselves — so we followed this year’s presentations with emotion and appreciation. 🌱
Five days full of science, ideas and international collaboration lie ahead. Stay tuned! 🇯🇵
