Botanical technician Peter Murray said that it is the diversity of plants that requires extensive maintenance, comparing the garden to "the Noah's Ark of the plant world."

"It's not just Michigan, it's not just the Midwest, it's not just the US" that they procure plants from, Murray said. In order to care for these nonnative species, he said they employ a staff of six students who work full-time in the summer, and welcome a crew of volunteers.

Hope Rankin, also a botanical technician, said they have a greenhouse in Beaumont Nursery — south of campus — in which they house the plants that are not hardy enough to withstand East Lansing winters.

"We have an approximate total of 1,800 stations or labels in 90 beds," she said. "There are actually more beds, but the 90 are the formal beds in the lawn." Of these, she said there are about 200 potted plants they transport on trucks to the greenhouse for the winter, about 70 plants from which she takes cuttings to start new plants in the heated greenhouse under mist, and about 120 items she grows routinely from seed in the greenhouse.

"So right now we have all these tender little plants that I grew from seed and from cuttings, and we're just now starting to take them out and put them in the garden — along with those great big, giant potted plants," Rankin said.

The staff begins transporting plants to the greenhouse in October, typically after the homecoming football game, she said. In April, they work to prepare the beds, but do not bring plants back out to the garden until May in order to avoid the last frosts.

The April showers also bring Red Cedar floodings, but Murray said while the water approached the beds, the plants have not yet been inundated and the flooding is typically not as devastating as most people assume.

He said the gardens were actually strategically placed beside the Red Cedar in the 1800s not only because of the fertile soil, but also because — being a flood plain — the land would not be a suitable site for building development.

Murray said the main precaution the staff had to take against flooding this year was to remove equipment from their main storage room located under the library bridge. The equipment was safely taken to higher ground, but the water rose to about two feet in the storage room, he said.  

Curator Frank Telewski said it would likely cost a couple hundred to $1,000 to replace the trees and plants damaged from the harsh winter. 

"We're funded primarily through the general fund, although we also do have a few endowments and we certainly appreciate gifts from alumni and friends," he said. "Our operating budget is less than $200,000 a year — that includes all student labor…it's all salaries and general operating budget."

However, Telewski said that this past year, the plant material from the garden and the campus arboretum supported in excess of $100 million in sponsored research.

"Think of it like a living library," he said.