Training

The Garden offers training opportunities for future gardeners. It also supplies plants for university courses and participates in the lectures held for those studying biology or learning to become teachers.

Gardening and horticulture

Gardening and horticulture

As opposed to commercial nurseries, scientific plant collections contain plants that come from all corners of the world and have highly diverging ecological requirements. This calls for a top-notch education and highly specialized knowledge about their respective cultivation conditions. The Botanical Garden is proud to train budding gardeners, and our highly qualified graduates enjoy very good job prospects.

During the three-year programm, up to nine trainees are taught to become professional gardeners in our very own facility. During this time and depending on the season, the candidates work in the different greenhouse areas and collections as well as in the outdoor zones. This gives them first-hand knowledge and skills in culturing and propagating plants with a wide range of environmental requirements. The training also involves preserving and maintaining park-like landscapes.
Part of the curriculum is also devoted to learning about the Garden's plant collections and the species they contain. Correctly documenting and labeling plants for living scientific collections is another important aspect.

University teaching

Numerous classes and lab courses at the University of Vienna showcase living plants and require students to actively examine the material. These plants are provided by the Botanical Garden. Every year, the Garden delivers nearly 10,000 specimens representing about 4000 different species. The university courses are designed for, among others, biologists, geneticists, pharmacists and nutritional scientists. Students from other faculties and universities also use the Garden. These include students enrolled at the Department of Geography of the University of Vienna, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, and the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna.

In addition, the Botanical Garden is involved in coursework within the frame of the University of Vienna's Studium Generale, for which it offers a module for botany and species protection.