“What if we dedicated ourselves to researching all types of landscapes?” This question, hypothetically posed in 1927, led to the establishment of what we now know as the V\u00fdzkumn\u00fd \u00fastav Silva Taroucy pro krajinu a okrasn\u00e9 zahradnictv\u00ed.
Initially, it was called the “Research Station for Ornamental Gardening”. It was founded on the former estate of Count Arnošt Emanuel Silva Tarouca in Pr\u016fhonice. The state purchased the estate, including the castle, park, farm buildings, and extensive lands.
In 1936, the institution was reorganized and renamed the “Research Institutes of Horticulture in Pr\u016fhonice”. After World War II, its activities focused almost exclusively on ornamental gardening. In 1946, it became the “Research Institute of Ornamental Gardening”. It was affiliated with the Oseva breeding enterprise within the Czechoslovak State Farms.
The Czechoslovak Dendrological Society ceased its activities in 1951. The institute took over its society garden, which is today’s Dendrological Garden. It was briefly reassigned to the Ministry of Agriculture.
By 1955, the institute fell under the Czechoslovak Academy of Agricultural Sciences. It became the guarantor of the development of the former Tarouca estate. It also oversaw horticultural and dendrological research of ornamental trees, especially in castle parks.
However, in 1962, Pr\u016fhonice Park, including the castle, was handed over to the Botanical Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. The institute once again came under the administration of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management. In 1964, it became part of the Czech Academy of Agriculture.
Gradually, it developed both the structure of research activities and the grounds. These grounds once belonged to the dissolved Czechoslovak Dendrological Society north of Pr\u016fhonice, near \u010cern\u00fd rybn\u00edk. In the 1970s, a workplace for horticultural and dendrological research emerged as a replacement for Pr\u016fhonice Park.
Another significant change came in 1977. The institute strengthened the breeding of ornamental plants. Under the new name “Research and Breeding Institute of Ornamental Gardening in Pr\u016fhonice”, it became part of the Sempra Praha production economic unit.
Advisory services for ornamental gardening began in 1979 and a branch was established in Brno. By 1984, the institute became the national sectoral information center for ornamental gardening and the use of greenery in the environment. Monitoring of environmental pollution also began to develop.
In 1991, the institute, under the slightly modified name “Research Institute of Ornamental Gardening”, transferred from the Ministry of Agriculture to the newly established Ministry of the Environment as a contributory organization. The workplace for landscape research in Brno and Karvin\u00e1 was affiliated with it.
From 1993, research expanded to include biomass as a renewable energy source. From the mid-1990s, it also focused on rescue programs for endangered plant species.
The institute’s name changed again in 2000 to “V\u00fdzkumn\u00fd \u00fastav Silva Taroucy pro krajinu a okrasn\u00e9 zahradnictv\u00ed”. The name symbolically incorporated the name of Count Arnošt Emanuel Silva Tarouca. He was the founder of Pr\u016fhonice Park. He founded the Dendrological Society for the Promotion of the Study of Trees and Garden Art in Austria-Hungary in 1908. After 1922, he chaired its successor organization, the Czechoslovak Dendrological Society.
Since 2007, the institute has been a public research institution. From January 1, 2025, the institute’s name changed to “V\u00fdzkumn\u00fd \u00fastav pro krajinu, v. v. i.” by decision of the Ministry of the Environment.
Today, the V\u00fdzkumn\u00fd \u00fastav Silva Taroucy pro krajinu a okrasn\u00e9 zahradnictv\u00ed is a multi-disciplinary institution. It engages in comprehensive landscape research at all levels. This ranges from ecosystems and natural communities to populations and individual organisms.