Education and Outreach

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Sharing knowledge and appreciation of plants with the UBC community, British Columbians and the world

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A UBC Teaching Resource

UBC Botanical Garden is a "green classroom"; it is a teaching resource used for dozens of University of British Columbia classes. Students from the UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences visit the Physic Garden to understand the history and future of their discipline. The UBC Faculty of Arts uses the garden for coursework in Anthropology, Fine Arts (what better inspiration?), Geography and more.

The garden is also an invaluable teaching and learning resource for professors and students in the UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems and the UBC Faculty of Science. In particular, the UBC Agroecology Program, UBC Landscape Architecture Program and UBC Department of Botany rely on the living collections and green space present at the garden for teaching in plant taxonomy, horticulture, bryology, landscape design, conservation biology, agroecology and biogeography.

As part of its commitment to life-long learning, UBC Botanical Garden also works with UBC Continuing Studies to offer programs to nontraditional university students. Notable among these cooperative programs is the UBC Certificate in Garden Design.

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Local Education and Outreach

Educating the British Columbian public about plants is a service for the community that UBC Botanical Garden proudly pursues.

Weekend courses and noon lectures by garden staff and associates are available throughout the year, with nominal fees to cover costs. Special evening lectures by guest speakers are occasionally held, often in association with a local plant society (2003 featured Christopher Lloyd, David Mabberley and Helen Dillon). Free noon seminars are held once every month, generally with an emphasis on scientific investigations at the Botanical Garden or the Centre for Plant Research.

Events and plant sales are opportunities for outreach and education not missed by UBC Botanical Garden. The UBC Apple Festival not only features thousands of kilograms of apples, but also gives the public a chance to learn more about apples from the BC Fruit Testers Association, local Master Gardeners and the apple growers themselves. The Native Plant Sale, held in cooperation with the Native Plant Society of British Columbia, features guided tours of the Native Garden and educational booths from local environmental and nature society groups. Other events and sales also feature learning opportunities.

Since 1981, UBC Botanical Garden has offered a telephone horticultural advice service, Hortline. For over twenty years, British Columbians have had the opportunity to talk with a UBC Botanical Garden volunteer or summer student about problems in their garden.

Visitors to UBC Botanical Garden can also learn about plants while they tour the garden. In 2002, a program of interpretative signage was launched to augment the plant labels. Since the purchase of a laser engraving machine in 2001, the number of plant labels has also been steadily increasing, helping visitors learn more about the plants in the garden.

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Global Education and Outreach

The Internet has allowed UBC Botanical Garden to expand the audience of its mission to communicate appreciation and share knowledge of plants. Due to an ever-increasing amount of questions asked of garden staff and volunteers via email, UBC Botanical Garden launched its plant and gardening discussion forums in 2002. This was done with the rationale that the questions and answers should be shared with anyone who can access the information, instead of only the initial inquirer. It has since grown rapidly into a community of plant enthusiasts from both the local area and around the globe.

Although small compared to other Internet gardening discussion forums, the UBC Botanical Garden forum is seemingly the largest of any plant-related forum that fosters communication between the public, other plant professionals and UBC Botanical Garden researchers, staff and volunteers.