Living collections prioritization at public gardens
Date
2017
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
As living museums, public gardens are responsible for maintaining an assemblage of plants as outlined by a collections policy and in support of an institutional mission. However, not all accessions within a living collection are of equal value to public garden institutions and available space, time, and resources must be allocated to collections of plants or individual plants that are of highest priority. Objective collections planning is a beneficial exercise in preparation for garden renovations, long-range institutional planning, propagation decisions, reviews of the living collection, or allocation of resources in routine or disaster situations. Depending on the mission of an institution, priority plant collections or specimens may be selected for their historic importance, cultural significance, educational value, conservation value (irreplaceable genetics, known provenance, or threatened status), research/evaluation value, aesthetic value, or replacement cost. ☐ This research investigated the processes behind living collections prioritization and evaluated current trends among public garden institutions in the United States. Research was conducted through two surveys, collection policy evaluation, and case study analysis of eight public gardens to answer the following questions: (1) Are public garden institutions actively prioritizing their living collections? (2) How are public garden institutions identifying special or core collections? And, (3) How does identification of core collections benefit public garden institutions? Ultimately, this research advances the topic of living collections management and provides examples of public garden institutions who have successfully completed the collections organization process and recommendations for those seeking to improve upon, or begin the procedure at their own institution.
Description
Keywords
Biological sciences, Communication and the arts, Botanic garden, Curation, Living collection, Living collection, Plant collections, Public garden, Public horticulture