The St. Vincent and Grenadines Botanical Garden Guidebook project has been established to produce and deliver 1,000 bespoke high-quality colour guidebooks that will highlight the history and heritage of the garden

 

The proceeds from the sale of the initial 1,000 guidebooks will be used by the garden to fund subsequent print runs, ensuring the sustainability of the project 

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The garden was established in 1765 and is the oldest botanical garden in the western hemisphere. By around 1800 it was a global plant hub growing over 1,300 different species, most of which came from the Caribbean region and South America

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Today the botanical garden is a major tourist attraction for St Vincent and the Grenadines, and a beloved green space for locals, but no guidebook has ever been written for the garden in its 260-year history

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This project will produce and deliver a bespoke 64-page high-quality colour guidebook that explores the garden today, as well as providing an accessible history and a letter of support from the garden's director can be seen here 

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The guidebook will highlight a range of plants and people connected with the garden, highlighting the hidden role enslaved African people played in its development during colonial times, and Indigenous plants uses as recorded by the garden's longest serving curator, Alexander Anderson 

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The guidebook will include some of the historic botanic illustrations of John Tyley, a mixed-race self-taught artist working in the garden in the last-1700s, as well as newly commissioned botanical illustrations, with text written by experts on the garden's amazing heritage

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​A full breakdown of costs is available here

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