On 14 May, Vilnius University Botanical Garden celebrates its 50th anniversary in Kairėnai. On this occasion, on 3 May, we are opening a photographic exhibition "50 Years of Vilnius University Botanical Garden in Kairėnai" at the Garden Museum, which tells about the significant stages of the Garden's development. The founders of the garden and its dedicated staff are, of course, in the foreground.

The exhibition includes photographs by S. Žilinskaitė, V. Stanevičius, A. Ufartas, A. Levickas, I. Raubaitė and others, showing how the once raw meadows and knotweed areas have given rise to the abundant, varied and well-manicured plant collections. To be more precise, they did not appear, but were planted and cultivated by people who dedicated their lives to the Botanical Garden and whose everyday work was accompanied by funny events.

Exhibition will be open: from 3 May, The exhibition will be open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays (from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.).

The exhibition includes fragments from the photo albums compiled by S. Žilinskaitė, a long-term employee of the VU Botanical Garden, which were regularly published as a wall newspaper in the garden in Kairėnai.

In 1974, when it was realised that Vingis Park was becoming too cramped for the Botanical Garden, as well as for the University's plans for research, experimental work and study programmes, a huge new plot of land in Kairėnai, almost 150 hectares in size, was allocated to the Botanical Garden for its development. This included fields and woodlands, the abandoned Kairėnai Manor, and the homes and outbuildings of local residents.

It was not simple or easy to establish a botanical garden on such a site. A few decades later, the botanical garden was already renowned for the largest plant collections in Lithuania and the most remarkable in the context of the Baltic Sea. Together with the Vingis department, the garden in Kairėnai has over 10,000 names of plants.

The VU Botanical Garden has been open to visitors since 2000. In recent years, the Garden has attracted more than 140 000 visitors annually and has been developing educational and cultural activities. The number of visitors to the Garden has grown rapidly over the decades: in 2005 it reached 15,000, in 2011 - 57,000, and in 2023 - 143,000 people. 

Today, the VU Botanical Garden operates 5 departments, 4 of which are located in the Kairėnai district - the Administration and Economy Department, the Science Programmes Department, the Plant Collections Department, and the Communication and Services Department. The Historical Division of the Garden is located in Vingis. The Botanic Garden has more than 100 employees: scientists, curators of plant collections, specialists, gardeners and garden workers.

We sincerely thank all the long-standing and current employees of the Garden, thanks to whom it has changed, grown and today has become an important attraction for all lovers of plants and plant growers.