I thank SOI President, Prof. Tagliavini, and SOI Council for having given me the honor and the responsibility of serving Italus Hortus as Scientific Director.
I accepted having clear in my mind the value of this Journal, whose former Director Prof. Riccardo Gucci I gratefully thank for his excellent work, and the difficulties we have to get it indexed by Scopus and eventually ISI.
We believe the current format of the journal which publishes review on many and specific aspects of horticulture has an inherent value both for the researchers and the students.
Our goal is to became a good place to publish for the joungest fellows and for those who wish to contribute to our general knowledge and culture approaching specific fields, particularly new fields of the horticultural research.
I am grateful to those who accepted to cooperate in this current issue which is the first one of my direction and we are ready for the second and third issue with the final goal of becoming indexed by Scopus next year. I know it is not an easy task but I firmly believe a big group such we are, the horticultural scientists in Italy, has the capacity of work it out successfully. Let me gratefully thank SOI Secretariat and the Assistant Editor for their work which is more than essential to me.
Enjoy Italus Hortus