Collaboration and projects

Each year the Garden is collaborating with a number of domestic and international institutions, societies and individuals, through professional projects, consulting programs, scientific research, manifestations etc.
Most important is the continuous collaboration with botanic gardens in Europe and the rest of the World, through seed exchange, sharing knowledges and experiences and sampling specimens for scientific research. This is a valuable way of acquiring rare plants for public display, but also the information on dangerous pests and alien species and how to suppress them. After the exhibition glasshouse restoration we plan to open a small seedbank for storing seeds and spores of Croatian plant taxa.

The Garden is currently Croatian representative in the European Botanic Gardens Consortium. Representatives of the national networks in European countries come together in the EBGC, of which the Botanic Gardens Conservation International is the convenor (BGCI). The Consortium was established in 1994 to plan Europe-wide initiatives for botanic gardens, especially within the context of implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and other European biodiversity policies and strategies.

We also maintain constant contacts with many domestic institutions; museums, institutes, national and nature parks, when conservation and protection of valuable Croatian flora is concerned. For instance, we were in charge of projects aimed at restoration of two mountain botanic gardens, in the Velebit and the Biokvo mountains. At times we depend on other institutions when our facilities are inadequate for specific types of cultivation, e.g. cultivation of lilac cultivars donated decades ago from the RBG Hamilton (Canada), restored through grafting with the help of Croatian forestry institute.

Even rather small, the Garden is regularly a surveying and research spot for various student projects and thesis researches, usually concerning plants but also birds, fungi and insects (mostly pests), which is of great value to the Garden; based on the obtained information we are able to fight pests and improve habitats for useful animals like pollinators, birds and bats.