The Garden has developed a plant collection of national importance, with approximately 8,000 species of plants representing biomes around the world. In particular, the Garden is known for its spectacular collections of alpine plants in our rock garden and alpine house, and for wide range of species in the genera Sorbus s.l., Rhododendron and Berberis.
Our collection is managed using Iris BG database and the Garden is an active member of BGCI: if you would like to know more about the collection, please contact info@standrewsbotanic.org
Specialist borders
The China Border contains the bulk of the woody material collected by the 1981 Sino-British Expedition. (The Hon. Curator was leader of this joint expedition with the Chinese botanists from the Kunming Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences.) It is being added to constantly with new and wild-collected material.
The Chile Border contains a broad representation of the endemic woody Chilean flora and is now beginning to be supplemented with herbaceous perennials and bulbs.
Conservation
The Original Botanic Garden was founded by the University of St. Andrews in 1889 in the precincts of St. Mary’s College. Originally a small garden, laid out according to the Bentham and Hooker plant classification, by 1960 the old Botanic Garden had grown to extend across a variety of soil and climatic conditions in other parts of the University.
The current Botanic Garden site of 7.5ha (18.5 acres) was created from two fields in the early 1960s to cater for expansion of the collection and release the town centre lands for other purposes. In 1987, the Garden was leased to Fife Council. In 2014 St Andrews Botanic Garden Trust was formed from the Education Trust and took full responsibility for the garden with continued support from Fife Council and the University of St Andrews.
Situation, topography and soil conditions dictate the design of today’s garden. The aim at St Andrews Botanic Garden continues to be to create not only an amenity in which to relax and enjoy the beauty and atmosphere, but also to provide a scientific garden for teaching and research.</p.