The bromeliad collection at the Loki-Schmidt-Garden in Hamburg is one of the last large living collections of this plant family in Europe. Of the approximately 3000 known species that are native exclusively to the New World, being cultivated here, more than one third are cultivated here. One of the many challenges is to recreate the different climatic conditions, from hot deserts and savannahs, cool cloud forests to high mountain landscapes such as the Páramo of the Andes. The collection was established in the 1970s and goes back largely to the gardener at the time, Hans Werner Welz.
It has reached its current size thanks to his own collecting trips and lively exchanges with collectors, scientists and other botanical gardens from all over the world. Many of the plants cultivated here are now highly endangered or can no longer be found in their natural habitat. There are also dozens of living type plants here that are are always used as a reference for subsequent identification, which makes the scientific value of this collection even clearer.