Context: The botanic gardens (further only BG) in Europe have similar historical, cultural and social roots but country-specific conditions of their origin, mission and development. The BGs located in different countries have different, country and locally-specific climate, soil, resources, maintenance, pests and diseases. But, after all, they can grow the same plants, focus on the same design. BGs have various economic and marketing strategies depending on the founder and specific law and economy conditions in the country, within various organisations participating in the project (Academy of Sciences, universities and private entity). They deal with different financial resources and organisational issues related to their history. They deal with marketing at different levels or aim at different target groups of visitors. Educators, placement mentors and research students work in every botanical garden and they can focus on a range of research at local and international levels. BGs offer season-specific jobs and initial training for a new full-time and temporary staff. Working in botanic garden has many levels and it can offer many ways of informal learning. Every botanic garden is a unique location for education students, young people and the public. Objectives of your project: Main goals: A) To communicate with each other, reflect own practice in comparison with others and find similarities, inspiration and mutual understanding of the historical, cultural, social and educational, economic and horticultural characteristics and practice of botanical gardens in different European countries. B) Persons engaged in the project would use their hands and brains to share the good practices and co-operate in the creation of summary outputs for education and training for target group. Specific objectives in relation to needs and expectations of target groups: 1. To create new international network of BGs for communication, reflection, exchange practice, collaborative learning and co-operation of new knowledge. 2. To involve and induct students and young employees into the international network for their professional and personal development in complex understanding of the value of BGs 3. To create innovative educational and training materials for workers (incl. young employees) and students in BGs. 4. To create new ways to educate and inform professionals and general public, including tools of motivating young people. Description of the results 1. International network of BGs from four countries. 2. Methodology – Set of 5 booklets. Presentation of collections of historical plants (iris, rose, daylily and peony), history and traditions of growing irises in culture, introduction of garden assortment, breeding development, maintenance of the collections in terms of scientific significance, list of recommended garden varieties, summary and recommendation of basic garden maintenance of genus. 3. Travelling exhibition and guided walks in four countries. Impact: Local - which can have influence on local community, school groups, garden visitors who learn about cultural heritage in foreign countries, they educate in term of horticulture and research. Regional and national – visitors from one region/country, national horticulture societies, regional universities. International - European level, because there are partners from four countries involved in the project, cooperation within specialized organizations. The potential longer term benefits: International partnership of BGs workers and students for life-long learning and research in the field of BGs as a part of European cultural heritage.
The botanical gardens (further only BG) in Europe have similar historical, cultural and social roots but country-specific conditions of their origin, similar mission but different development. The BGs located in different countries have different, country and locally-specific climate, soil, resources, maintenance, pests and diseases. But, after all, they grow the same plants. BGs have various economic and marketing strategies depending on the founder and specific law and economy conditions in the country, within various organizations participating in the project (Academy of Sciences, universities and municipality or private entity). BGs deal with different financial resources and organizational issues related to their history. They deal with marketing at different levels or aim at different target groups of visitors. Educators, placement mentors and research students work in every botanical garden and they can focus on a range of research at local and international levels. BGs offer season-specific jobs and initial training for a new full-time and temporary staff. Working in botanic garden has many levels and it can offer many ways of informal learning. Every botanic garden is a unique location for education students, young people and the public. Objectives of the B-Ardent! project laid fundamentally in communication with each other, in reflecting own practices in comparison with others and in finding similarities, inspirations and mutual understanding of the historical, cultural, social and educational, economic and horticultural characteristics and practices of botanical gardens in different European countries. And it’s been kept in mind during the project. Persons engaged in the project used their hands and brains to share the good practices and co-operated together in the creation of summary outputs for education and training for target groups. Finally we received many positive feedbacks from outside the project for out outputs / booklets. Specific objectives in relation to needs and expectations of target groups are: The new international network of BGs has been created for communication, reflection, exchange of practices, collaborative learning and sharing of new knowledge. Many friendships have formed as well and people will keep in touch professionally in future. A significant success has been the creating of innovative educational and training materials for workers (incl. young employees) and students in BGs. The B-Ardent! comparative methodology booklets are a great tool to get closer insight into problematics of ornamental plant collections and cultural heritage of BGs. Number and type/profile of participants: Altogether 25 participants took part in the project. Moreover people have co-operated on creating the outputs. They were specialists from botanical gardens, who have had a great deal in rising the standard of publication up. In general the team consisted of 13 curators of plant collections, 3 university students and 3 directors of BGs participating along with 6 other staff related to partners’ botanical gardens. Plus 4 external specialist have been asked to elaborate expert review of the outputs. Description of the implemented activities: 1. International network of BGs from four countries proved to be efficient tool for sharing knowledge and good practices 2. Methodology – set of 4 booklets. Presentation of collections of historical ornamental plants (genera iris, daylily and peony), history and traditions of growing them in culture, introduction of gardens’ assortments, breeding development national and international, maintenance of the collections in terms of scientific significance. Most important results are lists of recommended garden varieties for each genera and summary and recommendation of basic garden maintenance. (For details see Intellectual Outputs) 3. Exhibitions introducing the B-Ardent! project, which has been presented separately in each BG in local languages. Guided walks accompanying exhibition took part as planned. Achieved Impact: a) Local - local communities have been addressed with garden expositions and guided walks as well as garden visitors who learn about cultural heritage also in foreign countries, they also educate in term of horticulture and scientific research. b) Regional and national – visitors from one region/country have had chance to visit exhibition, national horticulture societies took part in guided walks and their representatives received booklets, regional universities and libraries obtained copies of project booklet, too. c) International/European level - there are partners from four EU countries involved in the project, who cooperated also with international societies dealing with ornamental plants and with specialized organizations. This way we reached for instance American Iris Society, American Daylily Society, American Peony Society, Middle European Iris Society, German Society of Perennial Friends and more specialized companies and societies. Long term benefits: The project established international partnership of BGs workers and students for life-long learning and research in the field of botanical gardens. Many friendships have formed and we get to know the right people to ask while looking for professional answers to work questions.