Nick Kreevich is the Arboretum cartographer and plant recorder. Photo by Liz Potasek.

By Liz Potasek

It sounds like a simple job: keep track of what you planted in the garden. But as any home gardener is bound to learn, if you don't keep good records, things in the garden can get confusing in a hurry.

With 1,200 acres featuring 32 display and specialty gardens, 48 plant collections and more than 5,000 plant species and varieties, keeping track of what's planted where at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is no easy task. And yet maintaining and sharing that data is key to the Arboretum's role as a living museum of plants.

Enter Arboretum Cartographer and Plant Recorder Nick Kreevich. Kreevich's job involves wrangling that data and finding user-friendly ways to share it with our members and visitors. His background in geographic information systems (GIS) allows him to create and manage maps that contain data about the Arboretum's collection, and his passion for plants shines through in his work – especially in the newly launched Garden Highlights, a weekly report highlighting all the beauty to be found at the Arboretum throughout the seasons.  

Kreevich started at the Arboretum in July of 2019, and over the past three years, his work has had a positive impact in every department throughout the Arboretum. 

Kreevich using the Arboretum's GNSS receiver to capture plant locations. Photo by Liz Potasek.

What do your job duties involve?

Just like many other staff at the Arboretum, I wear many hats, literally and figuratively. I work under the Curator of Ornamental Plants, helping manage and catalog our sprawling plant collections. I specifically use my GIS skills and plant knowledge to keep the Arboretum's map records of accessioned plants updated. Along those same lines, I work directly in our plant records database verifying plant nomenclature, accessioning all new permanent plant material for the collections and creating plant inventory reports for staff, researchers and outside institutions. In collaboration with our assistant curator, I also help place and replace record labels and plant display labels in our collections.

With my GIS background, I am able to support special projects that use geospatial content. For example, in 2020 I collaborated with the Natural Lands team to help them create a web-based map and application, accessible on a mobile device, to track and create records of their work on invasive species management.

I also work and collaborate with multiple departments on special map requests that may be in a web-based or digital format and even print material for handouts or signage.  Some of this content is publicly available, such as our Wayfinding Map and Plant Finder.

You may have seen in the past couple years that we have relaunched our What's in Bloom content, which will now be called Garden Highlights to promote ornamental plants for all their features, not just their flowers. One day a week, I walk the entire grounds to curate this webpage, providing guests with up-to-date information on the best plants to see at the Arboretum. 

Why are you passionate about your work here at the Arboretum?

It is hard to lack passion for work when you get to work at such a beautiful place. I think what makes me so passionate about my work, however, is being able to collaborate with other individuals who are just as passionate. It is a great work environment when you have others pushing you to be your best self in your skill set and knowledge. 

Before I began working in a public garden setting, my only knowledge of the horticulture world was a plant taxonomy class I took in college. After working in several other public gardens, I learned what really drives me with working in this industry is providing the public with quality data related to plant collections. I love when I am out in the gardens and I see people taking photos of a plant label because they want to try to find it for their own garden.

What is your earliest memory of gardening or nature?

I never had a garden of my own until I moved to Minneapolis. Growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, I always remember going to visit my papaw and helping him pick giant beefsteak tomatoes off the vine. I could always hear him hooting and hollering on the other side of the yard as the Japanese beetles skeletonized his roses. I spent a lot of time as a kid playing in the creek behind the house as well. Now knowing more about storm water runoff and combined sewer overflow, it probably was not the best decision, but my friends and I caught lots of crawdads and snapping turtles in the process.

Kreevich working in the lily ponds at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. Photo courtesy of Nick Kreevich.

Who inspired your career path?

This is a hard one to answer. I have many mentors in my life that led me to this place. My biggest supporter has always been my mom, but that is because she just wants me to be happy. I had two professors while pursuing my bachelor's degree, Dr. Carol Hanchette and Dr. Sarah Emery, who were huge inspirations. 

Dr. Hanchette, my senior thesis advisor and a well-known individual in GIS and its application to public health, gave me the inspiration to follow my dreams through her stories about working on National Geographic Expeditions in the Arctic Circle. 

Dr. Emery was my plant taxonomy professor. I was not technically allowed to take this course, but after emailing her and telling her of my interest, she allowed me in, which ultimately led me down this career path in public gardens. I cannot thank her enough for igniting the flame.

Kreevich's home dahlia garden. Photo by Nick Kreevich.

Do you have a home garden? 

I live in the Longfellow Neighborhood in Minneapolis, so my garden space is limited. However, I do have several perennial borders with mostly herbaceous plant material. My partner, who is a floral designer, also has two Dahlia plots in the backyard, where 60-plus cultivars reside. My favorite plant changes year to year, but I was thrilled to snag a beautyberry (Callicarpa dichotoma 'Issai') for my garden at the Arboretum Plant Sale.

Kreevich's current favorite plant, Callicarpa dichotoma 'Issai' (beautyberry). Photo by Nick Kreevich.

What is the most challenging part of your work?

I think the most challenging part of my work is trying to reconcile incomplete plant records. We bring in a lot of plant material every year to the Arboretum. It is easy for documentation of where plants came from or where they were planted to fall through the cracks. As we are all aware, there are A LOT of plants at the Arboretum, so to be able to find and tie a particular plant to a record is quite rewarding.

As an expert in your field, do you have any tricks, tips or advice that would help our readers?

As difficult and dead the language of Latin may be, I think it is important to learn your botanical nomenclature since it is a universal language. There are many plants with similar common names, so knowing the Latin name allows you to better differentiate between plants. Another beautiful thing about the Latin name is that they often also describe the characteristics of a plant, which can be particularly useful when trying to identify.

How does your work impact Arb members or visitors in a meaningful way?

Our mission at the Arboretum is to be a resource for horticultural and environmental research and public education. Quality record keeping of our plant collections is an important aspect when providing this information to the public. I hope to provide just enough information to get people out to a local nursery to purchase that labeled plant they saw at the Arboretum or that featured plant on Garden Highlights. It is also my own personal goal to get the public to appreciate and admire each individual plant for its own unique characteristics.