The German Gene Bank for Ornamental Plants (DGZ), founded in 2009, comprises four gene banks (Rhododendron, Rose, Gene Bank for Seed Propagated Ornamentals and Gene Bank for Vegetatively Propagated Ornamentals) and the Plant Collection Network. Since 2014, the Federal Office of Plant Varieties has been in charge of coordinating the DGZ.

Every Gene Bank of the DGZ consists of the Federal Office of Plant Varieties, the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food, a coordinator as well as collecting and supporting partners. A subnetwork involves the collections of plant groups from its collecting partners. Supporting partners do not insert plant material in a gene bank, but they are important participants based on their expert knowledge. The DGZ preserves and documents plant collections to promote their use by providing propagation material and the resulting available data. https://www.bundessortenamt.de/bsa/en/plant-genetic-resources/german-gene-bank-for-ornamentals/

The Julius Kühn-Institute (JKI), currently represented by Dr. Sylvia Plaschil, performs various functions in the DGZ. Since the foundation in 2009, the JKI has been a member of the Advisory Board. Later the JKI became a supporting partner of the Gene Bank for Seed Propagated Ornamentals and the Gene Bank for Vegetatively Propagated Ornamentals.

Since October 1st 2019, the JKI has been coordinating the Subnetwork Pelargonium of the Gene Bank for Vegetatively Propagated Plants in the DGZ and it is a collecting partner at once. In the  Pelargonium Subnetwork, collecting and supporting partners are united in their engagement for this genus in Germany. The common goal is to document genetic resources of local collections and their long-term maintenance. Species and cultivars have been documented in a publicly accessible database of the Federal Office of Plant Varieties. https://www.bundessortenamt.de/apps55/genbank_zierpfl/public/de

The Pelargonium working collection in Quedlinburg comprises about 100 accessions of 60 species and 13 sections, whereupon the horticultural important sections Ciconium and Pelargonium are the focus of the collection. One to six accessions, cultivated as a clone, exist per each Pelargonium species. In addition, cultivars and unique primary hybrids, resulting from research, are collected.