At BBG, it is vital that we keep accurate records of our rare and extensive Living Collection. Our horticulture team have been undertaking a project of mapping and photographing all the thousands of plants and trees here at the Gardens, and making this available on our Garden Explorer online database – allowing visitors to identify the many species around the Gardens from their phone.

However, previously when using the GPS receiver built into a phone to do this, the locations could be wrong by a few meters or more which made it difficult to locate the plants around you using the map.

To improve this and ensure valuable data was accurately measured, we invested in a dedicated GPS device thanks to the generous support of the Stanley Smith (UK) Horticultural Trust. The enhanced device has more receivers than a phone and is designed to help Gardens achieve a potential accuracy of around 30cm. But still, satellite positioning is prone to errors that can throw off locations by 5 meters or more depending on factors such as the weather…enter Premium Positioning and their donation of an RTK licence for us to use at BBG.

This RTK licence allows us to unlock the full potential of our new GPS device, adding an extra signal to the device and bringing our precision to as little as 2cm, with significantly increased reliability. Without this service generously provided by Premium Positioning, the Gardens would continue to have trouble in identifying plants in the densely planted Gardens.

The Gardens hopes to soon be able to offer visitors the ability to identify the plant they are looking at, based on their location, and view photos of it at different times of year – even if the label is missing. Visitors could also search a plant of interest and navigate to it in the Gardens using their phone, thanks to the accuracy of this RTK licence. 

A huge thank you to the Stanley Smith (UK) Horticultural Trust and Premium Positioning for their support in securing this technology for BBG, which will benefit the Gardens’ ability to maintain accurate records of our extensive Living Collection as well as improving the experience for visitors to gain better understanding of the plants around us.