Sibbaldia - the Journal of Botanic Garden Horticulture (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Journals)
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Establishing the National Seed Bank of Wales: Collecting, Conserving and Restoring the Welsh Flora
Get PDFSeed banks are an efficient method of ex situ plant conservation, capable of conserving vast genetic diversity within a small space. In 2018, the National Botanic Garden of Wales (NBGW) started on a journey to establish a new seed bank focused on conserving the Welsh flora to expand its native plant conservation activities. Now equipped with facilities allowing professional long-term seed conservation within two lab spaces in NBGW’s Science Centre, the National Seed Bank of Wales has become a valuable resource for plant conservation and research in Wales. This article describes how the new seed bank has evolved and how it operates, which may inform other small-to-medium size botanic gardens looking to develop seed collecting and banking activities. When based at a botanic garden, seed banks are an excellent resource uniting the horticultural, scientific and educational expertise of staff. Wider benefits beyond long-term seed conservation include improving short-term storage methods of seed grown by the horticulture department for conservation and display; and training horticulture and science students. An associated trial of harvesting and marketing seed from NBGW’s wildflower-rich hay meadows for restoration purposes has also proved successful and commercially viable, helping to fund our conservation activities
Parasitic plant cultivation: examples, lessons learned and future directions
Get PDFParasitic plants contain some of the most bizarre and fascinating organisms in the plant kingdom. Yet they are notable for their absence from botanic gardens’ plant collections and conservation strategies. Besides a handful of species, few are widespread in cultivation; indeed we estimate at least 76 per cent of species are entirely missing from collections today, and most of these have never been grown at all. Here, we place focus on the holoparasites, a group of plants long neglected due to their difficulty in cultivation. We review propagation breakthroughs in temperate and tropical botanic gardens to identify guiding principles for the cultivation of these neglected plants. We document the life cycle of a range of parasitic plants, and assess successful and failed attempts to propagate Rafflesia specifically, which has been the focus of decades of research. By uniting isolated case studies from around the world, we identify future directions for the cultivation and possible ex situ conservation of these botanical enigmas at a time when this is needed urgently. Finally, we recommend a dedicated global community of purpose as an intentional step forward: this could take the form of a Global Consortium for Conservation for parasitic plants, or a Parasitic Plant Specialist Group under the International Union for Conservation of Nature
Can horticulturists save the world?: A reflection on the curation of plant collections
Get PDFHaving worked with plant collections for 30 years perspectives change, particularly as we face increasing environmental challenges. Collections celebrate plant diversity whether it’s grown for science, conservation, education or for joy. These all remain strong and valid reasons, whilst the increasing awareness of environmental issues and notably the challenges of a changing climate bring a new emphasis. Horticulturists have been at the forefront of recognising these impacts, adapting our management and noting the changing behaviour of plants. In our collections, cultivated plants will be increasingly important as we adapt and mitigate, placing a new emphasis on conserving and utilising them. Connected is the increased recognition of the value of plants and green spaces to our well-being. These challenges raise the importance and relevance of plant diversity and horticulture to the wider society. So can horticulturists save the World? We will certainly have a major contribution to make
Knowledge, standards, \u27plantology\u27 and mentors: promoting excellence in horticulture for everyone
No full textThe Sibbaldia & PlantNetwork Conference 2020 opened with a free session. Participants were required to register in advance and registration was open to anyone with access to the internet. 300 participants registered and 142 attended on the day. A recording of the session was available to view for six months after the event.
The format of the session was a chaired panel discussion which explored what excellence means in horticulture. Topics were shaped by participants’ entries into an online poll which collated responses to the question ‘What does excellence in horticulture mean to you?’ and a word cloud was created from these entries. The chair navigated a discussion through the ideas which were of greatest significance to participants, according to the responses given in the poll. Panellists presented their own experiences on the subjects discussed and shared how their organisations approach them. The result was a lively and informative discussion between five experts in the fields of horticulture and education which ranged particularly around the knowledge educators want to share, how standards are defined, and what institutions can do to foster excellence. The discussion moved on to how more young people can be drawn into horticulture and subsequent professional development opportunities
Student Project Deaccessioning: A curatorial review
Get PDFDeaccessioning in collections can be controversial because of the value associated with some taxa and their conservational, historical, educational, display and research significance within the collection. Twenty-one horticultural institutions completed a survey on the protocols for deaccessioning plant material. The resulting data were collated to provide a comparison of the different approaches institutions take towards deaccessioning their collections. This study has identified that conservation and education are the most important factors in managing garden collections. Accession data of high quality is an essential part of managing a collection, but poor accession data should not be a reason to deaccession plants. Space constraints are the primary factor behind the deaccessioning of collections. This paper is a summary of the research project completed by the author for the BSc in Horticulture with Plantsmanship at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE)
Candide and Botanical Software: technology cultivating garden visitation and collection management
Get PDFAbstract
It is clear that the biodiversity crisis and overarching threat of climate change are having a fundamental impact on the biology of the planet. Botanic gardens, and related institutions, are uniquely positioned as centres of expertise in plant biodiversity. Their efforts in the exploration and documentation of biodiversity are also a fundamental prerequisite for the conservation of plants. The systematised and structured documentation of a garden’s collection of plant material, together with the collection policy and overall mission, characterises an institution as a botanic garden. However, the currently available tools and processes are not cost-effective, accessible at a global level, and do not provide the necessary efficiency for the needs and workflows of botanic gardens and plant collection management. In the context of gardens and visitation, there is also a growing disconnection between people and plants, particularly in an increasingly urbanised world.
Here, we present numerous innovative initiatives towards tackling these challenges, assisted by technology. We discuss the application of machine-learning in the automatic identification of plants (including composite tools such as Augmented Reality), and digital engagement through mobile-based complementations to visitors’ experiences. We also explore the documentation of quality data for botanical collections, and how advancements in collection management systems will play a major role in the efforts of the botanic garden community, and use of their richly-diverse plant collections in the vanguard of research, conservation, education, and visitation. Thus, ongoing technological developments in tools for botanic gardens and their visitors, present positive and influential contributions in tackling global challenges associated with plant conservation and engaging the broadest and most diverse audiences
Our garden heritage is in our hands: protecting yesterday, today and tomorrow
Get PDFHeritage organisations take responsibility for the conservation and protection of places and objects deemed in some way significant. That protection usually involves, by necessity, the management of change. In garden heritage, that pace of change can be particularly rapid and unpredictable, with the greater movement of pests and diseases across the world and the impacts of global climate change both acting as particular accelerants in our time.
Our sector needs to achieve increased resilience and responsiveness to secure our heritage gardens and their plants for future generations, keeping them relevant, and without meaningful loss or diminution. We need to show that we understand our plants and places, that we have teased the golden thread of heritage significance from the past so that it is clearly visible and can be shared, valued and cast forward into the future for succeeding generations. We need practitioners with the right skills to care for our heritage, building from garden apprenticeships and horticultural students through to professional gardeners, craftspeople, managers and thought leaders. Above all we need to work together to demonstrate the power and potential of our places and plants for the benefit of society
The Climate Change Alliance: botanic garden horticulturists as agents for change
Get PDFIn 2016, the publication of the pioneering Landscape Succession Strategy heralded a horticultural response by Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria to climate change risks faced by their living collections. This initiative led to the botanical world’s first Climate Change Summit in 2018 and the subsequent establishment of the Climate Change Alliance for Botanic Gardens. This article describes some of the anticipated climatic changes facing the Melbourne Gardens site, the strategic management of collections when considering these challenges, and how other botanical organisations can benefit from this approach through collaboration and sharing of expertise
Video of Session 4 Sibbaldia & PlantNetwork Conference 2020
No full textA Video of Session 4 of the Sibbaldia & PlantNetwork Conference 2020. Referenced in Slack and Toomer \u27Horticulture in 2020\u27
Maurice Mason – farmer, plant hunter and friend to the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin, Ireland
Get PDFMaurice Mason is well documented as an accomplished amateur horticulturist and plant collector. His contributions to horticulture were recognised by his guest attendance at the Kew Guild Annual Dinner in 1960 and the award of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Victoria Medal of Honour in the same year. He was generous in sharing his plant collections, and this generosity extended to Ireland. His less well-known contribution to Irish horticulture through the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin is outlined here