Have you ever stopped to marvel at the beautiful landscaping of the EMBL campus, full of fascinating flowers, colourful foliage, and diverse plants? We have three dedicated gardeners to thank for making EMBL Heidelberg’s grounds comparable to that of a botanical garden. Georg Körber, Head Gardener, Gabi Schuster, and Helmut (Jimmy) Moro put their heart and soul into making the campus a place to enjoy nature and discover all sorts of plants when exploring outside. We spoke to Georg and Gabi to hear all about their day-to-day work and the diversity of plants found at EMBL.

What does a typical day for you look like?

Georg: Every day is truly different, depending on the season and, of course, the weather. Each morning, we meet to talk about what needs to be done during the day. I try to have an overview of the campus so that I can distribute the tasks amongst the team, and we sometimes also get requests from other departments to help out, so we try to be flexible regarding our day-to-day business. 

Gabi: I try to keep an eye on the indoor plants as well – during the pandemic, when no one was allowed on campus, I begged to get a key to save all of the plants and give them water, and I’m happy to say they survived! It’s truly rewarding seeing the plants thrive and the campus bloom in different colours all year long – inside and outside. We’re all very passionate about what we do.

Georg: That’s true. Being responsible for a campus this large entails many different, sometimes granular tasks which can only be accomplished when you are familiar with the grounds and enjoy taking care of them. Even in winter, there’s a lot to do: put up all of the Christmas trees, clear snow from pathways, clean the ventilation system and make sure all of our equipment is working as it should, among many other things. Gabi also always sands the benches and paints them so they’re ready for the new year.

Is there a lot of plant diversity on campus?

Georg: Absolutely. We probably have over 300 different kinds of plants around campus – there are so many that you really can’t count them all! There are also many different areas which require different kinds of plants depending on how sunny or shaded they are, that’s why we always have to check which plants can thrive in which environment. I also try to make sure that we alternate the plants we use so that we don’t always plant the same thing when plants die. The diversity therefore develops almost all by itself.

Gabi: We do have many different plants here, ranging from huge sequoias to dinner plate hibiscus (my favourite), and various fruit trees we planted and which are accessible to staff. We also planted a little herb garden for our cooks to use in the canteen. However, not everything can be planted here, for example, rhododendrons would require a much more acidic soil which we sadly do not have. But we do try to have different flowering plants each season, especially for the bees, for whom we also try to omit the flowers when mowing the lawns.

Are there any specific plans for the next year?

Georg: We plan with lots of passion for gardening. Gabi is a great lover of flowers, so there will be lots of those! However, there is no set plan, everything develops naturally, almost like the plants themselves. Sometimes things just come up – for example, when an external company suggested simply sowing the area in front of the IC building with grass, I seized the opportunity and created an artistic structure with intertwined lavender and white-flowering phlox. While I was planting, some EMBL employees were inspired and came up with additional nice ideas, like spelling out ‘IC’ in flowers. For next year, I’d like to design the slope directly under the IC with various ground-covering phlox. This will look very colourful in spring. The team and I are looking forward to what else next year will bring and how we can make the grounds flourish even further.

Are you interested in plant research and want to visit our campus to see firsthand the wonderful grounds our gardeners have created? Have a look at our new EMBO | EMBL Symposium ‘Diversity of plants: from genomes to metabolism’ which will take place 9 – 12 April 2024!