Succulents Collection Zurich

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Entrance area, Mythenquai in Zurich
If the queen of the night is in bloom , the succulent collection will stay open overnight.
Echeveria in the succulent-collection greenhouse

The Zurich Succulent Collection is one of the most extensive and most important special collections of succulent plants in the world. About 6500 species and varieties are cultivated. The collection is the protective collection of the International Organization for Succulent Research (IOS).

history

The cactus breeder Jakob Gasser tried to sell his collection of succulent plants to the city of Zurich in the late 1920s. The city initially rejected the offer. Finally, the department store owner Julius Brann bought the collection in 1929 and donated it to the city of Zurich two years later. In 1931, Hans Krainz , an employee of the horticultural department, was appointed head of the collection. Krainz not only expanded the collection, he also succeeded in making international contacts. In 1950 they led to the founding of the International Organization for Succulent Research (IOS), which is still officially located at the location of the collection today. The IOS protection collection has also been located here since 1955.

The horticultural engineer Diedrich Supthut took over the succulent collection in 1972 as the second collection manager . He undertook numerous private trips to the areas of origin of succulent plants, making contacts with collectors and scientists. As a result, more and more plants came to Zurich. The technical facilities and greenhouses were renovated in 1983/84, the administration building was rebuilt.

As a result of austerity efforts by the City of Zurich, the idea arose at the beginning of the 1990s to no longer continue the succulent collection in the usual way. Several expert opinions were obtained which confirmed the great value of the collections. The threatened closure or spin-off was only finally off the table in 1999.

A friends' association was founded in 1996 to support the collection and, since 1998, has also published The Succulent World, the collection's magazine for special exhibitions.

From 2000 to 2009 Thomas Bolliger was the third manager of the collection. The collection is to be modernized, whereby the scientific work and the needs of the visitors must be brought into harmony.

Gabriela S. Wyss has been in charge of the collection since 2010. For the eightieth anniversary in 2011, the Zurich Succulents Collection gave itself a facelift. She has redesigned the foyer and the information room, optimized the way information is conveyed and provided a new visitor control system, as well as renewed her website.

Facilities

The Zurich Succulent Collection is located on the left bank of Lake Zurich , in the Enge district. On an area of ​​4750 m², i.e. less than half a hectare , there are six publicly accessible show houses and an outdoor area with hardy succulents. Another 700 m² greenhouses and 550 m² heatable cold frames are used for cultivation, acclimatization , winter storage or are required for protective collection. Nine people are employed in the succulent collection. Over 50,000 visitors are recorded every year.

For scientific work, the succulent collection has a herbarium with 30,000 items and a specialist library with 25,400 journals and books.

literature

  • Thomas Bolliger (Ed.): 75 Years of Succulent Collection (= Förderverein Succulents Collection Zurich, Secretariat [ed.]: The Succulent World. Magazine of the Succulent Collection Zurich. Number 11, March 2007, ISSN  1424-2052 ).
  • Urs Eggli, Gabriela S. Wyss: Succulents for Leisure and Pleasure, for Education and Science: The Zürich Succulent Plant Collection - 80 years in the service of succulent plant popularization. In: Cactus and Succulent Journal. Volume 84, number 1, 2012, ISSN  0007-9367 , pp. 12-25 ( DOI: 10.2985 / 0007-9367-84.1.12 ; PDF; 5.4 MB).

Web links

Commons : Succulents Collection Zurich  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Friends of the Zurich Succulent Collection: Friends of the Zurich Succulent Collection. From: foerderverein.ch, accessed on February 9, 2015.
  2. ↑ Green City of Zurich: Looking back ahead. In: Cacti and other succulents . Volume 58, 2007, number 5, p. 78.
  3. ↑ Unique variety at a glance. Leaflet. April 2016. In: stadt-zuerich.ch, accessed on July 25, 2017 ( PDF; 894 kB ).

Coordinates: 47 ° 21 '22 "  N , 8 ° 32' 6"  E ; CH1903:  682830  /  245,607