Welcome to the Subtropical Horticulture Research Station's (SHRS), our mission is to conduct and support environmentally sound research on tropical and subtropical crops. SHRS meets the needs of U.S. Agriculture by the collection, evaluation, and development of improved commercial plants; the development of methods for the management of exotic insect pests; and the development of technologies to promote a sustainable agro-hydrology system.
The Miami station was started, as a plant introduction garden, in downtown Miami, on six acres near Brickell Avenue, in 1898. After an interim move in 1914 to the Charles Deering, Buena Vista Estate, the station's activities were permanently established in 1923 on the present 200 acre site. This location, the site of Chapman Field during World War I, is 12 miles south of the original 1898 station. The station was located here through the efforts of Dr. David Fairchild specifically for the introduction of tropical plants into the U.S.With the formation of the National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) in 1980, the mission was modified from plant introduction to conservation of valuable genetic stocks known as germplasm. The National Germplasm Repository located on the Subtropical Horticulture Research Station is one of seventeen repositories in the NPGS.