Step Into the Best Botanical Gardens in the United States!
Today we take a trip and visit the 10 best botanical gardens in the United States!
We don’t know about you, but we love botanical gardens.
There are a perfect way to escape from the city and enjoy all that nature has to offer.
Cherry blossoms, vanilla orchids, exotic butterflies and … a pumpkin village, are just a few unique attractions featured at these 10 stunning botanical gardens.
Let’s get straight to business and step into the best botanical gardens in the United States! We hope you enjoy exploring our top picks.
10Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden, Dallas
Our journey begins in Dallas where we will visit the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden, a 66-acre oasis located at 8617 Garland Road.
With 66-acres of finely manicured grounds, the botanical garden definitely provides mesmerizing views for residents and tourists.
Opened in 1984, the Arboretum features a spring flower fest, which is the largest in the Southwest, featuring over 500.000 blooms.
If you visit this amazing botanical garden in autumn, you’re about to see a pumpkin village, with over 50.000 pumpkins, squash and gourds.
Kids will be pleased too. The 8-acre children’s area includes more than 150 interactive games and a 20 foot-high waterfall.
9Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Coral Gables, Florida
Located in metropolitan Miami, just south of Coral Gables, Florida, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden is a 83-acre botanic garden with an extensive collections of rare tropical plants including cycads, palms, vines and flowering trees.
Among its gems are also included rare exotic fruit species, such as cacao, vanilla orchids and mangosteens.
Opened in 1938, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden plays many roles, including laboratory, museum, learning center and conservation research facility and it became the home of the American Orchid Society.
You’ll also find a butterfly conservatory that showcases almost 3.000 exotic butterflies.
Throughout the year it hosts a series of seasonal weekend festivals ranging from the International Chocolate Festival, the Butterfly Festival, the Bird Festival, the International Mango Festival, the Ramble, the Food and Garden Festival, the Orchid Festival and the Edible Garden Festival.
8Chicago Botanic Garden, Chicago
Owned by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County and managed by the Chicago Horticultural Society, the Chicago Botanic Garden opened to the public in 1972.
The 385-acre living plant museum is situated on 9 islands featuring 26 display gardens and surrounded by 4 natural areas: McDonald Woods, Dixon Prairie, Skokie River Corridor and Lakes and Shores.
The Botanic Garden draws about 1 million people annually. After all, its collection of 185 bonsai is one of the best public displays of miniature masterpieces, with works by bonsai master Susumu Nakamura.
In 2006, the Chicago Botanic Garden received the Award for Garden Excellence, given yearly by the APGA and Horticulture magazine.
7New York Botanical Garden, New York City
Located at 2900 Southern Blvd, Bronx, NY, in the middle of the Big Apple, the 250-acre botanical garden features a Victorian-style glasshouse that provides a world tour of 11 district plant habitats, including a desert and tropical rainforest of Africa and America.
It is one of the oldest botanical gardens in the world and it’s a must!
Also a must are the 2 of the garden’s major events, the spring orchid exhibit and winter train show.
At the heart of the national landmark botanical garden (it was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1967) are 50 acres of old-growth forest, which is the largest existing remnant of the original forest which covered all of New York City before the arrival of European settlers in the 17th century.
Here at the New York Botanical Garden there’s always something new to see and smell: day lilies, perennials, roses, magnolias, tulips and many more.
6Atlanta Botanical Garden, Atlanta
If you seek for a memorable experience, at Atlanta Botanical Garden you’ll find it!
Take a 600 foot-long canopy walk among the branches of oaks while looking down on bulbs, perennials and camellias!
Of course, that’s just one way to experience this amazing botanical garden.
Located adjacent to Piedmont Park in Midtown Atlanta, the botanical garden’s mission is to ‘develop and maintain plant collections for the purposes of display, education, conservation, research and enjoyment‘.
It is composed of a number of smaller themes gardens, each containing different landscapes to display a variety of plants.
You’ll love the Fuqua Orchid Center, home to the largest collection of species orchids on permanent display in the U.S.
The garden’s old parking lot is now the Edible Garden that features an outdoor kitchen where tourists can enjoy healthy food.
5San Francisco Botanical Garden, San Francisco
The 5th most amazing botanical garden is located in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and includes over 50.000 individual plants.
In 2009, the San Francisco Botanical Garden received 865 accessions totaling over 4.100 individual plants.
From mid-January through March is all about the garden’s beautiful magnolias. During this time, almost 100 rare magnolias erupt in vibrant white and pink flowers.
The mild Mediterranean climate is ideal for plants. However, the botanical garden does not include greenhouses for species requiring other climate types.
Nevertheless, San Francisco Botanical Garden should be on your bucket list.
Don’t forget to visit the garden’s specialty collections: Dwarf Conifer garden, Garden of Fragrance, Dry Mexico, Rhododendron Garden, Ancient Plant Garden and Zellerbach Garden of Perennials.
4U.S. Botanic Garden, Washington D.C.
USBG, the United States Botanic Garden is located in Washington D.C., near Garfield Circle.
The best part? It is open every day of the year, including federal holidays.
USBG is the oldest continually operating botanic garden in the U.S., established by Congress in 1820.
Like the nearby Smithsonian Museums, admission is free. So enjoy the garden’s collection that features 65.000 plants, including rare plants such as ferns that date nearly as far back as the botanic garden’s founding.
The amazing botanic garden consists of 3 locations: the Conservatory, the Production Facility and the Bartholdi Park.
What is unique about this garden is that here there are 4 plants that are believed to be directly related to the original Wilkes Expedition.
3ABQ BioPark Botanic Garden, Albuquerque, New Mexico
ABQ BioPark is located on the banks of the Rio Grande River, in Albuquerque.
This fairy tale biopark has 36 acres of gardens to explore along more than one and a half miles of paths.
The ‘highlights’ here are 2 exhibits, the Japanese garden designed by architect Tory Tanaka and a children’s garden guarded by a topiary dragon, as you can see in the photo below.
ABQ BioPark Botanic Garden also includes an aquarium and a zoo.
The entrance fee will be money well spent, as the membership also includes the aquarium and the zoo and, for extra money, you can ride the train from the gardens to the zoo.
If you forget to bring your own food, you can purchase food and beverage items at the store located just outside of the entrance to the gardens.
2Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
Now we travel to St. Louis to visit the Missouri Botanical Garden. You’ll really love this one!
For over 154 years, the Missouri Botanical Garden has been an oasis in the city, a place for family fun and also a center for education, conservation and science.
Although originally planned as a refuge, it has become a premier educational, research and reconstruction site.
From its summer music fest to its holiday flower shows, Missouri Botanical Garden hosts many annual events.
Check out their calendar to see what’s ‘growing’ on: Botanical Garden Calendar.
It features 79 acres of gorgeous displays that include a 14-acre Japanese garden which is the garden founder Henry Shaw’s original 1850 estate home and one of the largest in North America, and one of the world’s largest collections of rare orchids.
1Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Richmond, Virginia
The first position goes to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, located in Richmond, Virginia. It spreads over 50 acres and includes the Lakeside Wheel Club built by Lewis Ginter.
The botanical garden features a stunning classical domed conservatory that houses an orchid collection and an annual butterfly exhibit held on Memorial Day Weekend through mid-October.
We love how the botanical garden looks on winter, when it dazzles with an annual display of more than half a million lights.
Your kids will love that giant treehouse that is part of the botanical garden’s interactive children’s area.
To bring something from our experience, the Garden Shop is at your disposal.
Known for its distinctive merchandise that includes gardening tools, containers, statuary, home decor, soaps, educational games and toys for children, gardening and nature books, the Garden Shop has something for everybody.
Their trained staff and volunteers will help you select the ideal gift for any occasion.
These are the Best Botanical Gardens in the United States!
Cover Image from: reggiewear.wordpress.com
We hope you enjoyed our article and we will like to know your opinion about this top 10 list, so make sure you leave it in the comment section below!
Stay tuned for more to come!
