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Thursday, February 11, 2010
Valentine's day in just around the corner, and at the gardens we are joining in the celebrations. For February 14th a special 'Love Trail' has been set out with some fun information about plants of passion. So come and visit the gardens and discover which plants can keep your love life hot!
Labels: Valentine's day
Friday, January 29, 2010
Belize Botanic Gardens sadly said goodbye to Heather duPlooy and Brett Adams at the beginning of January 2010. Heather and Brett have defected, so to speak, to Naples, Florida, where Brett has started a new job in the Naples Botanic Gardens (www.naplesgarden.org) as Curator of collections. We wish them every success in their new adventure. We welcome two new members of staff who have taken over from Heather and Brett; Sinead Mc Cormick, who has come from Barcelona, Spain and was working in horticulture. Sinead will be the new garden Foreman, and Jane Beard, who originally came from the UK, but has been living in Belize for 5 years. Jane is the new Business Manager. Her background is in Entomology, so can identify the good from the bad insects.
This year should be an exciting one for the gardens as we are planning several special events. So watch this space.
Labels: Goodbye and Hello
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Bauble Goes Abroad
How often do Canadian botanic gardens seek out the technology of Central American gardens? Not often, we bet. However, the biodiversity collection manager Bauble which was developed by our very own Brett Adams right here at Belize Botanic Gardens is now being used by the University of British Colombia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research to manage their plant collection records.
Brett wanted to design an open source database that would be free for any botanic garden. He made it available to assist other botanic gardens like Belize Botanic Gardens that need an alternative to pricier options that support only Windows. Though developed specifically for the needs of a botanic garden, Bauble can be used to manage a other biodiversity collections such as herbaria and arboreta.
Bauble supports both Linux and Windows and has been getting progressively better each year since its first release in November 2005. While others have expressed interest and have downloaded Bauble to use to manage their collections, this is the first major botanic garden, apart from Belize Botanic Gardens, that has chosen Bauble.
If you would like to learn more or download the latest version of Bauble just go here.
Monday, November 02, 2009
Guide to the Orchids of Belize
by Brendan Sayers, Foreman of the Glasshouses at National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin and Brett Adams, Foreman, Belize Botanic Gardens
Since 1996 Brendan Sayers of the Irish National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin has been working on the orchids of 
Belize. He began annual expeditions in Belize with Ken duPlooy, the Belize Botanic Gardens founder, in 1997.
Brett Adams, now the Foreman and Information Manager, joined BBG as a volunteer in 2002. He took over the care of our orchid collection and in 2003 he met Brendan and the two resumed the BBG-NBGG expeditions to record the orchid flora of Belize.
After years of research they began working jointly on the Guide to the Orchids of Belize and we are excited to announce that it is finally here!
This book is a laymen's guide to Belize's most commonly encountered orchids as well as a selection of some of the more unique species. It is the first publication of Belizean orchids with the latest taxonomic updates. It is an excellent book for orchid enthusiasts and anyone interested in tropical flora or the flora of Belize.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Beautiful Maanin at BBG
Belizean Music Video filmed at Belize Botanic Gardens
If you are a fan of Jr. Dre, aka Andre Neal, or the Belize Botanic Gardens you will enjoy this video. Dre has recorded a sweet, positive song called Beautiful Maanin and filmed much of it right here.
Nearly all the vidoe scenes with Dre were filmed at duPlooy's Jungle Lodge and Belize Botanic Gardens. You should recognize the early morning view from the Fire Tower pictured here.
Click here to enjoy!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
400 Trees for Belize
Thanks to Fred Krueger and the Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation
In February 2008 Fred Krueger presented Belize Botanic Gardens with $1,400US to plant trees on behalf of the Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation. Fred has been advocating tree planting for years in an effort to combat climate change.
The project, called 'Trees for Belize' got 400 trees in the ground on 4 properties around Belize. The trees planted for the Trees for Belize project were native species planted on land to supplement natural forests that had been compromised or for the regeneration of forest on land that had been cleared by previous owners for agriculture. As part of a natural habitat the trees have more impact and the partners agreed to allow trees to live out their natural lifespan in order to maximize their benefit.
Although there is some controversy surrounding the benefits of tree plantations, particularly if they replace natural forest or allow polluting corporations to be 'forgiven' their carbon debt, trees do absorb carbon. Especially useful are some of the long-lived hardwood species such as mahogany and cedar. The more natural habitats we can leave intact and the more we can rebuild, the better off we will be.
The project partners are Monkey Bay Wildlife Sanctuary , Adele Desroches and Nancy Adamson, Kate Devine and Belize Botanic Gardens.
Fred told me that the average American uses the carbon that 12 trees allowed to live 30 years can absorb every year! Learn what your carbon footprint is here. Then do your part and try to cut down on carbon emissions by:
- Decreasing your meat consumption.
- Considering each purchase you make: opting first for local, organic, energy saving and not buying at all.
- Sharing rides, taking the bus, bicycling or walking.
- Checking out your home and office for ways to save energy and reduce energy consumption.
- Reducing what you use.
- Recycling what you use.
- Never burning garbage.
- Getting active about conservation in your community.
- Planting trees!
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
New hope for Belize savannas and a new savanna for Belize Botanic Gardens
Belize Botanic Gardens is happy to be a partner in a new Darwin Initiative funded project. This, the second Darwin project we have been a part of, is to aide in the conservation of the lowland savanna ecosystems of Belize. The project was developed by Neil Stuart of the University of Edinburgh.
The goals of this project are to document the species of savannas around Belize, provide information for better vegetation mapping of these areas and to work with local institutions in Belize (Belize Botanic Gardens, University of Belize, Programme for Belize and the Belize Forest Department) to use, make available and interpret the information for science and the public.
Our role here at the gardens will be to install a new savanna with an interpretive trail. The savanna will be designed by our Foreman, Brett Adams who will make collections from the savannas in Belize to install in this area. The trail will be a place for visitors, especially local school groups, to learn more about the importance of savanna ecosystems and the need to protect them. Belize Botanic Gardens will also be responsible for producing educational materials for primary and secondary students in accordance with the curriculum.
The project will also bring BBG back in touch with old friends. The surveys of the savanna vegetation will be carried out by Zoe Goodwin of the Royal Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh. Zoe donated many months of her time to the Belize Botanic Gardens in 2008 when she patiently identified and labeled many, many trees around the gardens. Sam Bridgewater, who was the project leader for the Darwin xate project that BBG participated in a couple year ago, is also back, this time as a consultant for the project, providing his expertise on the flora of Belize.
We are looking forward to working on this project as we feel that savannas are areas often overlooked for conservation in Belize, yet they provide vital habitat for a number of specialized species and provide ecosystem services that we often take for granted.
In helping to bring the savanna story to adults and children we hope to inspire more appreciation for this valuable habitat and thus better conservation.
I encourage you to read all about this project at: http://www.eeo.ed.ac.uk/sea-belize/index.html
Monday, August 03, 2009
Thanks, to Magnolia Plantation and Gardens
Magnolia Plantation and Gardens was one of my favourite places to visit as a child and I am happy to list them as new friends to Belize Botanic Gardens. Recently, one of the board members, Dylan Nelson (who is also a longtime friend to the duPlooy family), visited us at Belize Botanic Gardens. She must have liked it as on her return she convinced the rest of the board to send us a donation!
Thanks, Dylan and thanks to everyone at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. We don't mention all of our donors on our news pages, but as a fellow garden we wanted to make special mention of Magnolia Plantation and Gardens and recommend that if you visit or live in South Carolina, make sure that this beautiful and historical gardens is on your must see list.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Better Orchids to Come at Belize Botanic Gardens
We at Belize Botanic Gardens extend our sincere thanks to The Orchid Society of the Royal Botanical Gardens of Ontario and Scott and Phyllis Milne for their kind donations towards the orchid conservation work at the gardens.
Undoubtedly, our native orchid collection is our most important collection in the botanic gardens. The orchids have been accumulated over 15 years of both independent collection and 10 years of expeditions and 15 years of collaboration* with the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin (NBGG) of Ireland. Through our work with NBGG 20 new records have been made for Belize including 1 new to science.
*Most recently Brett Adams of Belize Botanic Gardens and Brendan Sayers have collaborated on a book on the orchids of Belize to be out sometime this year. Keep an eye on the news page for updates on its publication.
Despite our success at orchid collection and records, we have continued to struggle with our maintenance of our collections, due to their special and varied water and light needs. Of course, it is important to keep them alive and well so that they can be available for research projects and educational displays. Thanks to this contribution, we will begin renovation of our orchid nursery, the structure which was established as a temporary nursery by Ken duPlooy 15 years ago! When our work is complete it will mean healthier orchids, better displays and ensure that the orchids will remain a useful conservation collection.
We are still in need of about $12,000USD to complete work on our orchid house and orchid nursery. If you would like to contribute contact us for more information.
