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Belize Botanic Gardens |
| Name: | Belize Botanic Gardens | |||
| Address: | P.0. Box 180 | |||
| City/Town/Village: | San Ignacio | District: Cayo | Country: Belize | |
| Phone: | (501) 824-3101 | Fax: (501) 824-3301 | Phone #2: | |
| Website: |  Upgrade to a Premier Listing |
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| Email: |  Send private email |
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| Photo Gallery: |  Upgrade to a Premier Listing |
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| Video: |  Upgrade to a Premier Listing |
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| Description: | Belize is a country rich in natural diversity. Belize Botanic Gardens celebrates and protects this natural heritage. Our mission is to grow, study, protect and promote tropical flora, especially our native species; to provide information for our community, science, government and industry and to do this in an educationally useful setting, Come and see how our collections, location, and local knowledge make us an ideal location for researchers, teachers, students and tourists. Check out our News to see what's been going on lately. We are a botanic garden, Belize Botanic Gardens or BBG to be exact. BBG is 45 acres of native and exotic plants growing in the Cayo district of western Belize. The garden is in a valley on the banks of the Macal River, surrounded by the Maya Mountain foothills. Modestly speaking we offer you beautiful plants in a beautiful place, but we're oh! so much more. Our main work is encouraging sustainable agriculture, maintaining conservation collections and engaging in conservation education. What that boils down to is that we aim to inspire our community and visitors (this could be you!) to protect our leafy friends and their habitats by learning more about the wonderful world of plants. To do all this we have a mere 8 full time employees. That means each of us has about 10 jobs, (sometimes eleven). It's a lot of work but it is worthwhile. Ken and Judy duPlooy began living in Belize in 1989. The land they purchased had been cleared by the previous owners for farming and it required some sprucing up. So, Ken began planting this and that to put some colour around place. He was 47 when he began this dabbling in landscaping, before which he had only ever managed to raise a rubber tree plant and five daughters. Since 5 out of 6 talked back he didn't think he'd spend more than a few months on the project. But... Anyone familiar with gardening in the tropics knows that the growth rate of tropical plants can be quite stimulating to the novice. Ken was no exception. Heady with the variety of the flora and the fact that it grew by leaps and bounds, Ken was soon transformed into an amateur botanist. His opportunity to really go wild was in 1994 when he and Judy were able to purchase the farm adjoining their property on the Macal River. This land had also been bulldozed for farming and the duPlooy's wanted to 're green' the area and encourage birds and wildlife to return. Ken wasted no time in turning the vegetative wasteland into a giant field covered with sticks holding up horse feed sacks. His family was furious until they discovered that under each sack was a young plant of some sort being protected from the sunshine until ready for exposure to the elements. There was a combination of plants for plants sake and tropical fruit Ken thought could be economically important for Belize. Once uncovered the size and scope of the collection began to attract attention from plant enthusiasts, farmers, scientists, botanic gardens and related organizations. The support and encouragement Judy and Ken received helped them decide it was time that the eclectic collection become something more. Ken kept busy covering every square inch of space with new plants while Judy began to gather the resources and information needed to make the transformation to a botanic gardens.Together they officially registered Belize Botanic Gardens in 1997. If you want to know what happened after that...come see for yourself. |
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