What makes a botanic garden a botanic garden? BCARM has (some of the answers!

John Sandham, Collections Development Officer, Botanic Garden and State Herbarium, South Australia

What makes a botanic garden a botanic garden? What are the values that differentiate your botanic garden from just a normal garden?

My aim is to begin to answer the above questions while extending a friendly and supportive hand to all from the BGANZ Botanic Collections and Record Management (BCARM) working group. This gesture is to all of you out there who are challenged by your living collections. I hope to assist you in understanding why you have inherited your plants and their importance to your garden’s future.

It is hoped that a wider group of like‑minded professionals, like yourselves, will encourage dialogue between the botanic garden management and their horticultural staff, and develop consultation with the broader staff, including the botanical, educational, technical and interpretive officers.

The diversity of botanic gardens and their collections within the BGANZ network is complex, with differing climates, terrains and topography. This network is respected as a botanical collective unequalled in our region, or even globally. The need to value and respect our collections by constantly evaluating them for current security, for their possible modification and for future development is essential.

Neither the planning of nor the reasons for particular collections have always been documented formally. A clear direction for all botanic gardens needs to be established to reflect the changes in social, cultural and scientific attitudes. This can only be achieved by a well‑defined but flexible policy that reflects the individuality and the uniqueness of our gardens.

Categories and principles required to define and evaluate living collections may be wide and varied. They provide a methodical and consistent procedure, however, that allows us to follow a systematic strategy for all our existing and future collections.

These values must also reflect our changing world, which includes international agreements in plant procurement, challenges that arise from climate change, and the continual battle we all have with controlling decimating pests and diseases. The latter relates especially to the wider environment and the future weeds we may unknowingly hold in our collections.

John Sandham

We need to consider the value of each collection to the overall displays and their interpretation. Some collections will have valuable taxa of varying status, such as rare or threatened in the wild, or a unique horticultural value, which should be respected when planning collections to ensure their security.

We need to consider the value of each collection to the overall displays and their interpretation.

The autumn colour at Mount Lofty BG. Credit: Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium of South Australia, Environment, Heritage and Sustainability Division, Department for Environment and Water

The importance of interactions between these scientific collections and their landscaping and aesthetic potential for the garden sites is also important to sustain our appeal to our visitors. That visitors should have easy access to the interpretation of each collection must also be respected in future strategies.

The following are suggested categories for consideration, which could reflect your primary themes for the collections. Collections may fall into one or more of the categories. This multi‑layered approach to your existing collections adds to their potential for interpretation and research. It is worth noting that collections do not have to be displayed in these themes but can capture their elements and values, while displaying plants in an engaging way to capture our visitors’ interest and inspire a love of plants. Collections may have an education, research and conservation goal, as well as significance in other botanical themes. This will support the long‑term relevance of collections in your botanic garden and will ensure acquisition to those collections is clearly defined.

The seven suggested categories for consideration are as follows.

1. Geographical

• a collection or display of plants based on a defined geographical area • a good representation of endemic plants found in a defined region • plants from key vegetation regions • plants with biogeographical connections • plants of cultural significance to a region • regional floras of similar environmental conditions • geographical areas not represented in other Australian botanic gardens

2. Biological and ecological

This involves collections and displays of plants which grow together in biological or ecological communities defined by a particular range of environmental conditions, such as:

• representatives of habitats existing or manufactured • characteristic plant associations of a particular ecological community – species interaction • the association between plants as found in their natural environment and the details of these habitats – subtle landscape differences

3. Taxonomic and evolutionary

This involves a collection of plants which demonstrates principles of plant classification and evolution, such as:

• plants demonstrating selected principles or features of plant classification or evolution • plants from a defined taxonomic group • plants which show diagnostic features of a particular group • a reference collection of particular plant taxa • collections relating to evolutionary adaptations

4. Ornamental and landscape

This involves a collection of plants grown for their ornamental and landscape qualities, such as:

• traditional or modern horticultural themes

• hybrids, cultivars and species grown for horticultural interest or display • plants which are important to the landscapes that do not fit into any other categories

5. Historical and cultural

This involves plants which display aesthetic, scientific, historical or social values for past and present generations, such as:

• plants that have heritage associations including those that may be re‑introduced • plants which are remnants of the original vegetation before the garden sites were developed • plants of the original design intent • plants which are linked to the past and present in terms of their use • plants which are used by cultural groups • plants of economic importance

6. Conservation

This involves plants which require protection due to their status in line with state, national or international conservation strategies. Threatened species and remnant vegetation may be highlighted. This will also cover the conservation of old cultivars and ornamental plant collections and includes:

• sufficient stock of known‑provenance plants to maintain a viable collection of rare or threatened plants in conjunction with other botanic gardens or institutions • extant plants that are endangered in Australia, New Zealand or overseas • remnant vegetation • plantings which convey a conservation message

7. Research collections

This involves plant collections which demonstrate or are assembled for scientific research, such as:

• plants related to current research projects undertaken by internal staff or in collaboration with other organisations • plants that have been used in the past for research by internal or other organisations • evaluation of plants for introduction for horticultural or landscape use.

Your garden may have other categories that BCARM would embrace as part of future dialogue. In this case, they will need evaluation procedures, carried out by horticultural operations staff and higher management. These reviews will record all collections your botanic garden holds, their display status, and their future strategies and limitations.

The Palm House containing the dry arid Madagascan collection in Adelaide BG. Credit: Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium of South Australia, Environment, Heritage and Sustainability Division, Department for Environment and Water Wittunga Botanic Garden with the South African Proteaceae Terraces. Credit: Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium of South Australia, Environment, Heritage and Sustainability Division, Department for Environment and Water

Any acquisitions must follow the criteria set down in your adopted policy along with the instigation of new collections. These new acquisitions must also be properly accessioned, so you know everything about the new additions. This will include the provenance of the material and in what plant form it was received.

A complete understanding of current local, national and international agreements or legislation, and their requirements, is essential to ensure any new procurement to your collection is valid and doesn’t contravene any of the above criteria.

There is of course a need to follow the appropriate biosecurity procedures to protect your environment from pests and diseases and stop the introduction of new weed species. There are also two main international agreements that you should be aware of, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

It is also important that your adopted policy records your discarded collections and the reasons behind these actions, along with the proper recording of the de‑accessioned species. This provides valuable information for future staff about the performance of plants in your garden and ensures successful future plantings.

All the above need to run concurrently with your plant records. This article stresses the importance of a good plant database and record management and how they are a vital part of the process. This is another initiative from BCARM in which it wants to support and share its collective wisdom with other botanic gardens.

Some gardens have basic spreadsheets while others may have invested in one of the many plant record systems available worldwide. Some of these packages have high upfront costs and ongoing annual fees that may not suit all gardens. BGANZ, through BCARM, has seen the need for a more affordable system. After an extensive tender process, BCARM recently announced ‘Hortis’ as our preferred plant database system. BGANZ has negotiated a great deal for all members, who can take advantage of special rates in the first year of sign up. With six gardens already on board, I encourage all member gardens to have an in‑depth look at this new software from Botanical Software, part of the Candide group. For more information, please see the article Moving to Hortis: Cairns Botanic Garden shares their experience in this issue.

If this article has interested you and you would like to assist BGANZ further, we invite you to become part of the conversation. Feel free to join us and become an active member of BCARM. Please contact BCARM chair Emma Simpkins (emma.simpkins@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz) and let her know you’re interested.