At the suggestion of Josif Pančić, by the decision of the Ministry of Education and Church Affairs of the Principality of Serbia, the Botanical Garden in Belgrade was founded in 1874 but was met with many difficulties including flooding from the Danube. Knowing about the problems that Pančić had regarding the construction of the first Botanical Garden in Serbia, King Milan Obrenović donated his property inherited from the grandfather of Master Jevrem Obrenović to the Great School in 1889 for the purpose of building a new Botanical Garden. The king`s wish was for the Garden to be named after his grandfather "Jevremovac".

Now in the Jevremovac Botanical Garden a very rare event has occured: an agave in bloom. These slow growing plants are notorious for living up to a hundred years and they only bloom once, shortly before dying. It is very rare for them to bloom in glass gardens and Belgrade is one of a lucky few to experience this.

On this unseasonably warm February day the IWC members were invited by the mexican embassy to a guided tour of the gardens, learned about the serbian Spruce, the Monk's pepper tree and the ancient oak of Jevremovac Botanical Gardens. Then they toured the glass houses full of blooming and about to bloom orchids and finally got to see the tall, nectar dripping flowers of agave sisalana! The spouse of the Mexican Ambassador presented the gentlemen leading the visit with tokens of appreciation and the IWC members in turn each received their own small agave plant to take home from the Botanical Garden Team.