A Focus on B.C.Native Plants

As part of VanDusen’s commitment to environmental responsibility, we have embarked on an exciting new initiative focusing on B.C. native plants and their habitat niches. This initiative has been funded in part through a grant program jointly administered by Investing in Nature – A Partnership for Plants in Canada, Canadian Botanical Conservation Network (CBCN) and Botanical Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). VanDusen received funding for additional plant material, as well as for conservationoriented informational brochures that will interpret the Garden’s native plant collection.

Plant research and educational programs at botanical gardens advance conservation science, promote public awareness of the importance of plants and advocate the need for their conservation. Investing in Nature is a global conservation program which recognizes that over 200 million visits are made to botanical gardens annually. As a consequence, collectively, botanical gardens are important scientific and educational facilities, providing leadership in plant conservation and public education. Investing in Nature is funding education programs in Canada, China, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S.; revitalizing conservation in 16 botanical gardens in Argentina, Brazil, India, Indonesia and the Middle East; and creating living gene banks in botanical gardens worldwide.

At VanDusen, we have several opportunities to showcase native plants. Under the Douglas firs at our entrance we will be featuring native ground covers and low growing shrubs. The Western North America section presents our main collection of B.C. natives, as well as the B.C. section of the Canadian Heritage Garden. The additional plant material will enhance the Western North America section in particular. New VanDusen gardener Egan Davis has been renovating this section recently and describes how the garden will take shape (see next page).

An informational brochure, "Native Plants, Plant Diversity in British Columbia" is available for visitors. It will present the collection from a conservation point of view, guiding the visitor to plant locations in the garden while presenting information on the critical issues relating to native plants. Loss of biodiversity, for example, as a result of encroaching development, invasive exotic species and habitat loss, is just one issue that will be covered. Sometimes we gardeners tend to concentrate on plants as individuals and forget that these specimens are part of complex ecosystems in nature. This interpretive tool will encourage visitors to reflect on the fragility of these various habitats and to become more aware of conservation issues in general.

Being explicit about our conservation message, whether it is responsible water usage (see March 2004 Bulletin), the ‘green’ aspects of our proposed capital project or this native plant initiative, makes the critical link between our collections and their larger context regionally and globally.

[top]