idealist.org

It is the Garden's mission to improve public understanding of the natural world, horticulture, and the relationships between plants and people. To do so the Garden operates a public garden in which it exhibits and interprets living collections in historical and contemporary settings, in display and demonstration gardens, in its forty-acre forest, and in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.

It is also the Garden's mission to expand humanity's knowledge of plants and how they are utilized. To do so, the Garden maintains major collections of plant specimens in its Herbarium and major collections of research materials in The LuEsther T. Mertz Library. These are combined with field and laboratory research, scholarly publications, and graduate education programs.

In all of its work, the Garden is dedicated to environmental education and the conservation of plant diversity.