To meet the goals of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, the plant conservation community can leverage their collections to build integrated plant conservation programs. Using existing ex situ plant diversity as a foundation, public gardens are increasingly working together to build genetically diverse living collections as a global safety net against plant extinction. Cycads are the most threatened plant group in the world and face considerable conservation obstacles. Ex situ conservation is vital to most cycads’ long-term survival. Central to this effort is planning and building genetically appropriate cycad collections.