The Vallarta Botanical Garden is a young and rapidly developing garden/arboretum established in 2004 and opened to the public since 2005. It is a critical resource for natural science education for the greater Puerto Vallarta region both for the local public and the steady flow of visitors to this popular international travel destination. The nearest botanical gardens / arboreta along Mexico’s west coast are either a 12 hour drive to the north in Culiacán, Sinaloa or 12 hours to the south in Acapulco, Guerrero. Considering the enormous natural floristic diversity of this section of the country, the importance of the work of these institutions is even better appreciated. The “exceptional” trees of Mexico’s tropics (those that can not be seed banked through conventional methods) include both oaks and magnolias for which Mexico is the Neotropical leader in diversity. The garden is working hard on further developing its magnolias as a flagship element of its woody plants collection. It is also working on taxonomic capacity building for neotropical oaks (a notoriously challenging disciple) to better identify and properly collect new materials for much needed near-situ collections.