Meet Mateusz Sklodowski | Plant Records Officer, National Botanic Garden Ireland

Meet Mateusz Sklodowski, Plant Records Officer at the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland. From a childhood fascination with unusual plants to a career in horticulture and ecology, Mateusz has always been driven by curiosity. Today, he’s helping modernise plant records at an institution with more than 200 years of history. Here, Mateusz shares his approach to collection management, his enthusiasm for digital mapping, and his vision for making plant collections more accessible and engaging.

What plant, place, or experience first sparked your interest in plants?

I think my interest in plants started when I was in primary school. I used to spend my pocket money in a small garden shop on my way home from school, searching through seed packets and bothering the staff about species that I had only read about. I'm really grateful to my parents and grandma for always making sure I had plenty of books to fuel that curiosity. I never managed to get Welwitchia or some strange, but fascinating myrmecophytes I dreamed of growing, but Lithops and cacti were more than enough to keep me fascinated. To my delight, I was quite successful at germinating and keeping many of them alive, and few are still thriving today in my family home. 

One of my favourite childhood books was a small photographic field guide to plants, animals, and fungi. As a 10 year old, I could spend hours flipping through its pages. I loved taking it outdoors and trying to identify everything I could find around me.

When did you know you wanted a career in horticulture?

By the time I finished secondary school, I knew I wanted my career connected to plants. They had been my main interest for as long as I could remember, and I couldn't imagine choosing a different path. I went on to study Horticulture and earned an engineering degree, but rather than satisfying my curiosity, it only deepened it. I then pursued a degree in Biology, specialising in Ecology. My research was based at the University of Warsaw Botanic Garden, where I studied the pollination ecology of plants of boreal mixed forests.
 

Today, I work as a Plant Records Officer at the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland. I'm fortunate to be part of a fantastic team and to contribute to the modernisation of the plant records and collection management systems of a botanical garden with more than 200 years of history.

Which IrisBG report or feature do you find most useful?

I've only been working with IrisBG for about three months, so I'm still discovering everything it can do. One feature I use regularly is the Item Report, which helps me quickly retrieve information on collections within a particular taxonomic group. 

It's especially useful when carrying out collection reviews or responding to requests from staff. I also make frequent use of the Data Import module. I use it regularly to perform batch updates across groups of accessions, which saves a great deal of time and makes collection data management much more efficient.

How does your work support your garden or institution’s broader mission?

I believe that a well-maintained and accessible plant records database is at the heart of a modern botanical garden. Accurate records support collection management, conservation work, scientific research, and educational activities. My role focuses on improving and modernising the way we manage plant data, ensuring that information is accurate, up-to-date, and readily available to those who need it. 

What excites you most about the future of plant collections?

The potential of making plant collections more interactive and accessible. I'd love to see a future where a visitor can look beyond a plant name label and explore the entire history of a specimen, including its origin, acquisition history, propagation methods, and journey through the collection.

Is there a skill you’re currently learning or hoping to develop next?

I'm currently taking a digital mapping and GIS course and have recently started digitising our collection maps. It's been exciting to see how spatial data can add another layer to plant records. I'm also thinking a lot about how to present collection data in WebExplorer in the most useful and engaging way. Finding better ways to visualise and share plant data is a challenge I'm really enjoying.

What’s a lesson horticulture has taught you that applies beyond the garden?

Horticulture, and later ecology, taught me that you can’t force growth, but you can create the right conditions for it. That means understanding the environment and recreating the conditions where something can thrive naturally. The same principle applies to people, projects, and even IrisBG data import templates as much as it does to plants. 😀

If you could give one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?

My advice would be to pay attention to the details and stay curious!

Do you have a book, podcast, or resource you’d recommend to others in the field?

I recently enjoyed reading Pathless Forest by Chris Thorogood. Beyond the fascinating plants, places, and people pictured throughout the book, what really stood out to me was the curiosity and enthusiasm shared by both the author and the people whose stories are featured. Their passion for discovery and exploration is infectious, and I think it's a mindset worth carrying into any career.