Collections Connections January 2023

Same collections focus, brand new look.

BY AMANDA BENNETT

The new look of this newsletter is just an outward sign of very exciting things at the Atlanta Botanical Garden I’d like to share with you. We have been very busy the past four years since I stepped into the role of Vice President of Horticulture and Collections. COVID made us rethink our daily routines, but never slowed us down. Plants are unaware of a global pandemic and despite all the challenges since 2020, we have come out smarter and stronger. And it gave us a chance to take a step back and reassess collections and processes.

Having worked at the Garden for more than 21 years and now overseeing indoor and outdoor collections gives a unique perspective on where we’ve been and where we’re going. In 2021, we completed a long-overdue rewrite of our plant collections policy. Updating what collections we’re focusing on as an institution not only reaffirmed our guiding lights but also gave opportunity for new staff, gardens and facilities to take part and be represented. However, having dynamic collections doesn’t happen overnight or by accident. Managers and curators of some of our most exciting collections; tropical and hardy orchids, hardy and tropical palms, hardy and tropical conifers, hardy cacti and succulents, begonias, ferns, camellias and gesneriads, wrote five-year collections management plans –the “how” to our “what,” as many of you know.

We also began to talk more about horticulturists supporting the work of our International Plant Exploration Program, led by Scott McMahan, in very practical ways. The opportunity to work with him and fellow horticulturists and scientists from the

countries he regularly visits is a thrilling prospect not only for our horticulture team but also for the future of plants and global botanical gardens. It’s a component of our mission that we strongly support. From developing potting mixes to setting up a nursery, lending basic horticultural skills to help colleagues and give them more tools for success is something we’re excited about. But more about that in future newsletters.

The Garden is fortunate to have a greenhouse in Atlanta that supports the conservatory collections and can produce limited numbers of rare or unusual plants to share. We also have a greenhouse range at our Gainesville garden that heavily supports collections between the two locations, as well as providing plants to other gardens and organizations. We’ve also recently transitioned to Brahms database in hopes of capturing more data associated with individual accessions.

Thinking toward the future has been a theme for me the past four years. We’ve built an amazing garden with world-renowned collections over the past 40+ years. How the Garden continues to build those collections, prepare for disasters and recovery of those collections, utilization for distribution to other gardens, and application to research and greater science, are just some of the topics we’ve all started talking about with more regularity. As a major botanical garden, our collections will become ever more important as our world and climate continue to change. I want to thank each of you reading this newsletter for being a part of this exciting time and the future of collections.

Amanda Bennett Vice President, Horticulture & Collections Atlanta Botanical Garden

Plant distributions have always been near and dear to our hearts – something we think is critical between botanical gardens.

As a major botanical garden, our collections will become ever more important as our world and climate continue to change.

FROM THE ATLANTA GREENHOUSE

Dear Friends,

In an effort to bring organization and structure to the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s plant collections, various horticulture teams have begun to draft five-year plans beginning with our most significant collections: gesneriad, begonia and tropical conifers. We have traditionally invested a significant amount of resources into these collections, as well as some we would like to further pursue and expand. These plans will help current and future staff looking to develop or shape these collections, offering guidelines and intention to what, at times, can be a vague direction. Other plant groups will be addressed in the near future, including such genera and broad groups as Hoyas and Dischidias, Ant Plants, Huperzia and Aroids. With limited space to grow, there is a greater commitment to the usability and display potential of new acquisitions.

Significant improvements have also been made in our facilities. The headhouse was recently renovated, bringing a much needed expansion of our potting area, and providing teams with updated office space, restroom and breakroom facilities. Within the actual greenhouses, there has been an unprecedented campaign which brought new shade curtains, a renovated evaporative cooling system, new doors, vent motors and an updated fog system. These upgrades have improved our greenhouses and the work areas of our horticulture, plant records, operations and amphibian teams.

This year also brought exciting staff development opportunities. Some 2022 highlights include The Gesneriad Society Convention in Tacoma, Washington as well as the American Begonia Society conference held here in Atlanta. Garden staff reconnected with old friends and acquaintances, making new contacts along the way. It is our hope that we continue our involvement in these events to learn more about these fantastic plants from fellow enthusiasts, and share with each other the passion and excitement that is so vital to building great botanical collections.

David Ruland Greenhouse Manager Atlanta Botanical Garden

FROM THE GAINESVILE GREENHOUSE

Hello to you all from the Atlanta Botanical Garden, Gainseville nursery!

It has been a busy year with many fun projects, including growing hundreds of plants for a new parking lot expansion, propagating new collection plants, and growing all sorts of oddities from seed and cuttings from around the world. Here are few of our main focuses over the past year.

Ethan Guthrie Horticulture Manager Atlanta

Magnolias

Magnolias are still a major focus, although a late spring freeze took out any chance of making hybrids or much seed at all this year. Last year, I was able to hybridize with a new cultivar from China called Magnolia ‘Lucky’. It is a M. maudiae hybrid that has highly pigmented dark pink and white flowers. Crossing it with a larger-flowered form of M. maudiae will hopefully yield some interesting results. As the weather allows, I will continue to work on hybridizing deciduous magnolias from our collection as well.

Along with hybridizing, we continue to work on growing wild collections of M. macrophylla var. ashei, Magnolia fraseri, and Magnolia fraseri var. pyramidata. These can be very challenging species to grow in containers. We’ve found that using air root pruning pots really makes a difference in survivability, even at the seedling stage.

Lastly, over the last couple of years, we have obtained two grafted plants of the rare Magnolia guongdongensis. I am happy to report they are doing well in containers. One is set to bloom this next year, which is very exciting! The other has some decent wood for grafting. Fingers crossed! I will be sure to share photos as they come. Thoughts of the first selfed and hybridized M. guongdongensis seedlings have me anxious for spring!

Botanical Garden, Gainesville

Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi seedlings

Magnolia ‘Lucky’

Magnolia guongdongensis

Tricyrtis

Another group of plants we have been focused on lately is Tricyrtis. This was spurred on by some recent species collections in China by Scott McMahan, manager of the Garden’s International Plant Exploration Program. Tricyrtis ravenii, latifolia, and macropoda have really been the catalysts for this renewed interest. Tim Marchlik, also with IPEP, has taken a special interest in this genus and has brought in other species and cultivars to evaluate. Some of these include T. puberela, T. ‘Lemon Twist’, T. formosana, and T. oshumiensis. With the addition of these species, we have almost continual bloom from June/July until frost. Tim has also found some variations in color forms in many of the species and is working to collect selfed seed as well as make our own hand crosses to evaluate. The diversity of flower size, color, form of plant and bloom time can really expand the use of this plant.

Cercis chuniana

I wanted to also update you on a 2015 collection of Cercis chuniana. When Scott first collected this species, we had no idea what we had. The foliage is somewhat different shaped than usual Cercis, and it has red fall color! With that alone, we were pretty excited. In 2018, the first of three seedlings bloomed, and low-andbehold it blooms in racemes that start white then mature to pink. With only two species that bloom in racemes, Scott was able to narrow it down to Cercis chuniana and not C. racemosa. From then, we have been able to grow more from open pollinated seed, as well as root cuttings at 3000ppm KIBA. We found that as long as you have two individuals close to each other, they will make viable seed. Our goal is to start distributing more seedlings next year. This year, we were able to grow seedlings from seed to 8’ tall in one season using air root pruning pots. We still believe this is a game-changer when it comes to Cercis

Other Collections

Summer

bulbs have become a collection of interest, including Zephyranthes

We have been bringing in all sorts of species and cultivars to trial. Thanks to Tim and Scott, we have access to many of the rare color forms coming from growers in Thailand. Most are still growing in the greenhouses, but the colors have been spectacular to watch. A few of note include ‘Pride of Singapore’, ‘Cherry Pink’, ‘Star Spangled’, ‘Heart Throb’, ‘Tiger’ and macrosiphon. Tim also continues to work on growing many species of Arisaema from seed, forcing them in and out of the refrigerator to speed up growth. Baptisias are also newer collection group we have started building. Through some generous donations, we have been able to obtain many of the new cultivars on the market. Our good friend Jack Johnston also was able to send seed of Baptisia alba var. macrophylla from Alabama as well.

Tricyrtis ‘Lemon Twist’

Tricyrtis latifolia

Tricyrtis macropoda

Cercis chuniana

Zephyranthes ‘Tiger’

Past, present and future Plans for the Garden’s tropical conifer collection

BY DAVID RULAND

Atlanta Botanical Garden has an extensive conifer collection. This comes as no surprise to anyone who has visited multiple times or has paid even a slight bit of notice to the plants throughout the garden.

Dating back into the 1990s and earlier, visitors to the Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory would be greeted by an assortment of planters in the lobby displaying an exciting array of tropical conifers. Intended to be a complementary continuum of the outside conifer garden, these primordial delights were the objects of fascination and wonder to both visitors and the garden staff who looked after them. While the theme and design of the conservatory lobby has since changed, these fascinating plants maintain a significant presence throughout the public glasshouse spaces, as well as within the support greenhouses.

Since the opening of the Fuqua Orchid Center in 2002, the Orchid Atrium has also proven to be a fantastic space to display some impressive specimens of Araucaria, Dacrydium, Acmopyle and other rare genera. Not solely limited to containers on the outer fringes, there are also a significant number of specimens planted throughout the Fuqua Conservatory and Orchid Center.

Since those early years, the indoor collection has grown significantly to become one of the larger botanical collections

at the Garden. The three significant families in this group are the Araucariaceae, Podocarpaceae, and Cupressaceae. There are also a smaller number of representatives from the Taxaceae These families naturally range through portions of the tropics, with some of the more fascinating species occurring on islands including New Caledonia, New Zealand, Fiji and Taiwan.

While remaining invested in the longevity of the current collection, the garden is also committed to a collection plan that includes trial plantings for cold hardiness in our increasingly warmer zone, as well as the propagation and distribution of selected material for safeguarding at other institutions. For instance, some of our most valuable material in the conifer collection came to us originally from the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, with the intent of getting material to the USA and safeguarding it at the Garden. It is our due diligence to continue sharing with other institutions. Currently we are evaluating several species of Podocarpus and Nageia for hardiness, as well as utilizing species of Amentotaxus, Calocedrus and others in our outdoor gardens.

As specimens in the collection are rejuvenated and propagated, the garden is hoping that other institutions will be interested in acquiring some of these propagules to build their own collection and share with us the fascination of these grand and wonderful conifers.

TOP: A snapshot of of our collectiion in the support greenhouses, including rare genera such as Acmopyle and Retrophyllum.

BOTTOM: Before and after, preparing a significant number of plants for shipping involves unpotting, cleaning and rewrapping roots and plants in order to fit them snugly and efficiently in the shipping container

Renovation and innovation Conifer Garden makeover leads to new opportunities

BY JIM SMITH, Outdoor Horticulture Senior Manager

The Atlanta Botanical Garden has a long-standing history of planting conifers for both trial and enjoyment that dates back to some of its earliest days. In fact, the Garden’s very first intern planted a small conifer, a Metasequoia glyptostroboides, in what was then a parking lot. Fast forward nearly 40 years, this 100-foot-plus tree now dominates the Garden’s Skyline, and that intern is now the Director of the Atlanta Botanical Garden, Gainesville campus.

But it wasn’t until 1994 that the Conifer Garden became an official destination, just outside the front door of the newly-built Fuqua Conservatory. Today, this conifer garden highlights every point of the Garden’s mission: to develop and maintain plant collections for display, education, research, conservation and enjoyment.

An exhibition of dwarf and hardy conifers native to all parts of the globe, we are continually evaluating the trees’ performance in the tough, Southeastern landscape, making adjustments to the collection while also protecting several species that are endangered or imperiled in their wild populations.

Perhaps one of the Conifer Garden’s most important functions is education. With the Atlanta Botanical Garden situated in the middle of one of the country’s major metropolitan cities, it’s

important to show our guests the conifer species that grow in a hot and humid climate, and that we can also choose varieties and dwarf cultivars that match the size of the landscape of homes throughout Atlanta.

In recent years, Garden horticulturists have worked to renovate and rejuvenate every aspect of the Conifer Garden from the soil and signage, to refining the plant palette. We went back to the drawing board on every aspect of this garden to ensure it was meeting the needs of our guests and the mission of the garden.

Soil health of the conifer garden was the first step in this renovation process. When the Conifer Garden was developed in 1994, the soil was heavily amended and contoured around boulders to provide an aesthetically pleasing landscape while providing varying ranges of different soil mixes to give conifer species from any native soil conditions a space to thrive. Over the years, settling and erosion have gradually changed this topography back to mostly native soil, causing root issues on some of the conifer species. Amending the soil of an existing garden continuously proves challenging because we do not want to disturb the roots of existing trees that are doing well. We selected areas for soil renovation that were mostly empty, as well as spaces

where the conifers were in rapid decline to gradually transform the garden over the next many years.

In 2018, companion plantings were added as a priority into this garden. Species other than conifers have certainly existed in this space since the garden was founded, but the garden had become largely a collection of specimen conifers. We carefully decided on a few visually-appealing, non conifer plant groups that could act in supporting roles to the conifers. Dwarf Ginkgos are among the closest companion to our dwarf conifers because they share a similar, very old branch of the evolutionary tree. Other companions include dwarf Acers and several ground cover perennials, including hardy Cyclamen, hardy Gesneriads, and Epimediums.

In February 2020, the Conifer Garden doubled in size, expanding onto the western side of the Fuqua Conservatory, rejuvenating a garden that was once dedicated exclusively to palms. The existing palms were evaluated for health and rarity, and either transplanted to other areas of the garden, retired, or kept in their original location.

This new bed also brought new opportunities within the collection. First, situated between a greenhouse and the Conservatory headhouse, this additional bed provided a warmer microclimate for

winter protection. As such, we are now able to trial the hardiness limits of certain half-hardy conifer species. Second, this bed is designated as a trial-ground for new conifers from the Garden’s International Plant Exploration Program. After leaving field trials at the evaluation nursery and given approval for longer term trials, plants are dug and planted in the conifer garden. Finally, the new bed also brought an infusion of palms as an official companion plant group throughout the entire Conifer Garden.

After updating its plant collections policy in 2020, the Atlanta Botanical Garden formed curatorial plans for various collections. Work on the curatorial plan for the Conifer Garden began in 2021. When finished, this set of guidelines will clarify priorities, help determine acquisitions and aid in the evaluation of the current collection.

Among many important taxa, a few have risen to the top of the list as species of interest to the Garden. Due to their hardiness in the Southeast and the number of unique taxa, our thriving Cryptomeria japonica and Chamaecyparis obtusa have become the first two conifers of interest in our collection.

With this new plan in place, the Conifer Garden has never had a brighter future.

Pause with purpose

Pandemic gave time to dig into conifer collections policy

BY JIM SMITH

As the world navigated the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, horticulturists at the Atlanta Botanical Garden took a rare break to plan our future with an updated plant collections policy – a road map for analyzing our collections that provides clear direction for the future.

The Garden is well-known for several taxonomic collections including Acers, Magnolias, Sarracenias and Orchids. But our Conifer Garden – a display collection – is a little different, as it’s comprised of many different genus of plants, both conifer and not.

We have many conifers outside and indoors throughout the properties of the Atlanta Botanical Garden. But this conifer display collection only guides the various plants housed within the hardy, outdoor, Conifer Garden at the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s midtown location. All plants, including the many conifer species and countless non conifer species of trees, shrubs, groundcovers, and even a few bulbs, fall within this display collection.

Fresh off the heels of forging the updated Plant Collections Policy that guides the Garden’s various plant group specializations, we took 2021 to determine goals for the Conifer Display Garden. This five-year curatorial plan outlines our Conifer Display Garden’s history, discusses our current collection positioning, gives parameters for what we want to focus on in the future, and even offers guidance on how we maintain the collection.

The heart of the Conifer Garden display collection is a diverse set of dwarf and rare hardy conifers from around the globe. There are close to 250 unique taxa of conifers in the garden, which represents nearly 20% of the world’s naturally occurring species! Two core conifer collections stand out above the other conifer species as groups that we grow particularly well and have several unique cultivars of. These groups include Cryptomeria japonica and Chamaecyparis obtusa.

Although the conifers are the stars, the increasing presence of non conifer species of trees, shrubs, perennials and bulbs truly bring the display garden to its apex. Without these supporting plant species, the Conifer Garden maybe be boring to the average guest. Shrubs, perennials and groundcovers give this garden the color, texture and height differences that makes the space so visually appealing.

Before the collections policy was revised and the curatorial plan was created, the Garden focused on keeping its collections healthy, adding some new conifers periodically to keep the garden fresh. There was little focus on soil remediation and there was not a clear direction for the various non-conifer plants in the garden. In just over one year, the curatorial plan has already helped us narrow down our species of focus, which includes dwarf Ginkgos, dwarf Acers, Cyclamen, hardy Gesneriads, hardy palms, and Epimediums while solidifying our tradition of growing and teaching our guests about growing hardy, dwarf conifers in the tough Southeastern landscape.

Horticulturists place new junipers as an evergreen screen in a newly renovated bed.

Balled and burlaped material provided the backbone to a newly renovated bed.

The newly renovated bed incorporating existing specimen palms, b&b conifers, as well as rare, unusual, and zone trial conifers.

Testing grounds

International Plant Exploration Program Nursery expands with new planting success

BY TIM MARCHLIK, IPEP Coordinator

This past year at the International Plant Exploration Program Evaluation Nursery has been an exciting one. There were many additions made, plant-wise and in terms of infrastructure, including a new deer fence that greatly expands our planting areas. There were also some happy departures of plants as many have reached a size where they need to be transplanted to the public display areas of the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s two locations. We have also been propagating various herbaceous and woody plants for use in our public garden areas as well as for distribution.

In December 2021, we had about 50 trees dug out of our field using a tree-spade (Magnolia, Cornus, Acer, and a slew of other genera). Our team then transported about 30 of these trees to the Garden’s midtown location where the horticulture team planted them in various areas of the garden.

Many plants flowered for the first time in the nursery this past year, however, a couple groups of plants stood out to us with surprising potential. The first group is hardy Amaryllidaceae, mainly Hippeastrum and Zephyranthes. While we were in Bangkok in June 2022, we met up with a Thai nurseryman who specializes in Zephyranthes breeding. We ended up purchasing a good many bulbs and now have them growing well in Georgia. The colors range from deep reds, to bright oranges and yellows, and feature double flowers and other unique traits rarely seen in the selections available in the USA. They love the heat and humidity of our summers, but are prone to rot during our wet, cold winters. Our team has found that providing extra drainage in a mounded-style planting bed helps them survive our winters in greater numbers. In particular we have seen that the ‘Labuffarosea’ hybrid-group tend to have the best tolerance for the wet winters.

Another group of plants that have performed extremely well are the hardy Gesneriaceae. We have trialed out a fair number of various

genera from the Gesneriad family, but few have performed as well as the Hemiboea genus. A number of wild collections from China (mainly H. subcapitata and H. subacaulis) have grown extremely well in the nursery, as well as other species that we obtained through other collectors and nurseries (H. cavaleriei, H. flaccida, H. gracilis). The bloom colors range from white to pink to purple, and in some cases cream/yellow. Clumps/patches form quickly through runners that grow during one season and emerge the next. They are extremely easy to propagate by cuttings and divisions, and they have proven to be quite winter hardy for us in zone 7b.

We have also been seeing great success in various Sinningia hybrids that we have been evaluating. Cultivars such as S. ‘Georgia Peach’, S. ‘Banana’s Foster’, S. ‘Invasion Force’ have proven to be quite hardy and are quite showy when in bloom. They also propagate easily through cuttings and divisions.

S. ‘Georgia Peach’

S. ‘Banana’s Foster’ Hemiboea subacaulis

Dangerous discoveries

Plant explorers find old friends, new plants in latest trip

BY SCOTT McMAHAN, Manager of International Plant Exploration

After a very long hiatus, Tim Marchlik and I were able to get back to working with our friends in Vietnam and India again this year. Together, we made a trip in late May to northeast India to meet with new colleagues and scout the mountains of eastern Arunachal Pradesh as well as a collecting trip to northern Vietnam in October. Meeting with our colleagues and discussing collaborative projects is always one of the main focuses of these trips, but this time our discussions in Vietnam were particularly important since we were planning a visiting scholar exchange between the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) and the Atlanta Botanical Garden for 2023.

Before heading out for our scheduled fieldwork in the north of Vietnam, we were given a tour of the VAST Biodiversity Station still under construction about an hour north of Hanoi. At this location, researchers will soon have access to newly constructed growing facilities, a tissue culture lab, field nursery space and office/ dormitory space. Next year, the Garden will host two researchers from the VAST Biodiversity Station for one month, allowing them to train alongside our horticulture, greenhouse and conservation staff. In exchange, the Garden will send two people from our horticulture team with Tim and me next year so we can provide consultation in areas like irrigation, plant propagation protocols, improved soil recipes as well as other basic horticulture techniques. It was very helpful to see the construction progress being made at the Biodiversity Station and to discuss with researchers the ways in which VAST and the Garden can collaborate.

Once our meetings and tours were complete, it was time to make the full day’s drive north towards the Chinese border to a beautiful province called Ha Giang. We had only about 10 days in the field and two main goals: find Loropetalum flavum (newly described species) and further explore a rugged area in Lao Cai province called Five Fingers, both of which were accomplished I’m happy to say.

One of our guides from VAST, Khang Nguyen, PhD, was the very person who described the new species of Loropetalum just a couple of years prior so we felt confident that we would find it, but we had no idea the condition we would find it in. The day after arriving in

Ha Giang, we set out to find the tree. Khang had not been to the area in more than two years, but he still knew the way. Once we got close, there was major road construction going on. The Vietnamese government was putting in a road to give access to a remote village,

Mark Weathington taking cuttings on giant Loropetalum flavum

but in doing so we found that they had cut down the very specimen of Loropetalum Khang described and had pushed the stump down the hillside. We immediately began looking around the forest below to try and find other specimens, which we finally found. No seed on the tree at this time of year, but cuttings were taken in hopes of at least protecting this species before the remaining plants are destroyed.

We spent an amazing couple of days hiking the hills of Bat Dai Son mountain area finding goodies like Begonias, Hemiboeas, Amentotaxus, Ardisia and a stunning array of ferns both evergreen and deciduous.

Amentotaxus sp. IV

Neolepisorus sp.

Next, we crossed our fingers that the good weather would continue and drove eight hours west to the picturesque, yet painfully steep limestone “spires” known as Five Fingers. This was Tim’s first time to Five Fingers, but he has heard me tell stories of our 2013 trip to this area when we became lost for several days or the even more gut wrenching tale of Scottish plant hunter Jamie Taggart who is believed to have fallen to his death there just days after our group came out in 2013, but whose body wasn’t found for three years. We were all experiencing the excitement and anxiety of being back in those mountains. The plants growing here are well protected by steep, sharp, almost volcanic-like limestone that becomes slick as ice when wet. Fortunately for us, we had nothing but beautiful weather and absolutely stunning views (with some extremely difficult hiking sprinkled in) during our time in these infamous mountains. From

the very beginning of our hike we we saw rare plants such as Oreocharis and Raphiocarpus (two potentially hardy Gesnariads unknown in cultivation), little leaf Rhododendrons, Castinopsis, Arisaema and more fantastic ferns! As if the plants we were seeing weren’t good enough, our campsite was situated just below one of the peaks and we were treated to some of the most dramatic sunrises and sunsets I’ve ever seen.

I find myself saying this after nearly all of my trips it seems, but this trip seemed to be one of the most productive yet. Our collections well-represent the diversity of the flora of northern Vietnam, but more importantly, the in-person meetings and conversations that were had really made this trip a success. Both the researchers at the Vietnam Academy of Science and staff at the Garden are excited about the possibilities this collaboration will bring.

Five Fingers

Record success Upgraded database improves collections, conservation data

BY WADE ENOS, Plant Documentation Assistant

Following a National Science Foundation grant obtained by the Garden’s Research & Conservation department, the Atlanta Botanical Garden has purchased BRAHMS database.

Developed by Oxford University starting in 1990, BRAHMS (Botanical Research And Herbarium Management System) was originally used for taxonomic research and to store data for herbarium collections, as the name suggests.

Over the years, the software has been updated for natural history collections, seed banks, and botanic gardens, and is now used globally at a number of notable institutions, including Royal Botanic Garden, Morton Arboretum and Millennium Seed Bank. We are very excited for some of the new functionality that working with BRAHMS will provide us – creating various reports, and the ability to add new fields and track new data as the need arises.

Keeping quality data on the Garden’s plant collection is not only important for educational purposes, but it will also allow horticulturists to find a particular plant in the garden efficiently, which is important when you have hundreds of thousands of plants in a collection. Knowing how many clones we have, for example, helps employees prioritize propagation of our plants, guide the purchase of new species, illuminates which plants we can share with other gardens.

When we share plants, we also share all of our data along with them, which often includes wild collection data. Data on where a plant was collected, what other plants were around it, and other information about its native habitat makes these plants much more valuable to any insitution’s collection. Records of plant deaths inform us what plants do not do well in our zone, or could point to a problem with the soil or drainage in a particular bed. These records also warn us

of particular pests so horticulturists can be proactive in their protection of the plants.

GPS mapping locations of all our plants allows us to easily find species when institutions request specific plant material for research, or if we want to locate the plant to photograph during a particular time in its bloom cycle. These photographs are added to the database so we can identify the plant if it loses its ID tag, so we can ID other plants that might come into the garden without a name, or to use in publications. It is not uncommon for other gardens to ask us for pictures to help with identifying their plants, or to see a plant’s form when mature. If we’re able to keep good records of our plants, not only can we help our own garden continue to grow as a globally recognized botanical garden, but also help other institutions in their research or collection goals as well.

Meet the teams

Outdoor and Indoor Horticulture, Greenhouse and Amphibian Program teams

Gainesville Horticulture and International Plant Exloration Program