Activities

Main tasks and purpose of botanic gardens have already been described about us, and to that we can add another modern definition, which illustrates well what we do in botanic gardens;
Modern botanic gardens are global treasuries in time of great ecological crises, places dedicated to cultivation, study and display of documented collections of living plants. They are not mere tourist attractions, but research centres and nature conservation hotspots which;

• are dedicated to developing, documenting, determining, cultivating, exchanging and disseminating their plants and knowledges,
• serve as referent centres for plant species identification, cultivar registration, nomenclature and research in botany,
• have an important role in nature conservation, specially of rare and endangered plants, sometimes as the last refuge for saving near-extinct species.

In short – modern botanic gardens are academic places committed to research and preservation of plants.
Most activities in a botanic garden grossly depend on number of adequate staff (botanist, gardeners) and financial possibilities: the most distinguished botanic gardens in the world, e.g. BGBM in Berlin (Germany), RBG Kew (England, UK), RBG Edinburgh (Scotland, UK) and Missouri botanical garden (USA), have vast collections in numerous greenhouses and great open spaces, hundreds of employees and million-euros budgets, and can truly be considered as real plant research centres.
Smaller gardens have limited possibilities, but still have an important role in growing valuable collections, education and conservation. Our garden belongs to such small botanical gardens and we do all the work from the aforementioned definitions, within our personal and financial possibilities. One of our top priorities is enriching our collections of Croatian flora (which is quite valuable in European terms), i.e. collecting live specimens or seeds of rare and endangered species in natural habitats, their cultivation and establishing permanent ex situ populations in the Garden.
In collaboration with various institutions in Croatia we share our experiences, with the goal to restore old and establish new plant collections in Croatia. Through the European botanical garden consortium we are in permanent connection with our colleges from European botanic gardens
All of our work also has an educational character: it is possible to tell a story about virtually every plant, rock, building or animal in the Garden and to teach our visitors something new. We do this in guided tours through our collections, in many radio and tv coverages, in written texts, guides and other publications and in annual popular exhibitions.