Botanical Gardens in Tucson, AZ
Looking for a place to commune with plants in Tucson?
You’ve got a few options right inside the Tucson city limits (and in the surrounding ‘burbs.)
Here are the places plant life thrives closest to town:
Tucson Botanical Gardens
These are Tucson’s nearest botanical gardens:
Tucson Botanical Gardens
2150 N Alvernon WayTucson, AZ 85712
(520) 326-9686
Hours
Daily: 7:30 am-3:30 pm (Gates Close at 3 pm)
Admission: $15 (Adults); $13 (Students/Senior/Military); $8 (4-17); Free (Children 3 and under)
Parking: Free
Gardens
- Xeriscape Garden
- Children’s Garden
- Pollinator Garden
- Zen Garden
- Rose Garden
- Grapefruit Grove
- Cactus & Succulent Garden
- Bird Garden
- Iris Garden
Other Attractions & Amenities
- Butterfly Pavilion
- Special Exhibits
- Classes
- Fresh, Seasonal Restaurant
Mission Garden
946 W Mission LnTucson, AZ 85745
(520) 955-5200
Hours
Sunday-Tuesday: Closed
Wednesday-Saturday: 8 am-Noon (Summer)
Wednesday-Saturday: 8 am-2 pm (October-March)
Admission: $5 (Suggested Donation)
Parking: Free
Gardens
- Early Agriculture
- Native Plants
- Mexican
- Chinese
- Medicinal
- Youth
Other Attractions & Amenities
- Critter Nights
- Bird Walks
- Classes
- Festivals
Cele Peterson Rose Garden
Gene C. Reid Park920 S Concert Pl
Tucson, AZ 85716
(520) 791-4873
Hours
Daily: 6 am – 10:30 pm (April 1-November30)
Admission: Free
Parking: Free
Gardens
- Rose Garden
Tohono Chul
7366 N Paseo Del NorteTucson, AZ 85704
(520) 742-6455
Hours
Daily: 7 am – 5 pm
Fridays & Saturdays: 7 am – 9 pm (Late May-Early September)
Admission: $15 (Adults); $13 (Students/Senior/Military); $6 (5-12); Free (Children 4 and under)
Parking: Free
Gardens
- Hummingbird Garden
- Sonoran Seasons Garden
- Desert Palm Oasis
- Ethnobotanical Garden
- Butterfly Garden
- Children’s Garden
- Desert Living Courtyard
Other Attractions & Amenities
- Garden Bistro
- Greenhouse
- Performance Space
- Gallery
- Classes/Talks
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
2021 N Kinney RdTucson, AZ 857434
(520) 883-1380
Hours
Daily: 7:30 am – 2 pm (June-September) Saturdays: 7:30 am – 9 pm (Mid-June to Late August) 8:30 am – 5 pm (October-May)
Admission: $30 (Adults); $25 (AZ Residents); $28 (Senior/Military); $20 (3-12); Free (Children 2 and under)
Parking: Free
Gardens
- Mountain Woodland
- Desert Grasslands
- Desert Garden
- Agave Garden
- Tropical Deciduous Forest
- Pollination Gardens
Other Attractions & Amenities
(Botanical garden is part of a larger complex, including a zoo.)
- Live Animal Presentations
- Earth Science Center
- Aquarium
- Museums
Botanical Gardens & Arboretums FAQ
Getting jonesed up for your trip to a local botanical garden or arboretum?
Here are some cool questions and answers about botanic gardens to help get you in the mood.
Does botanic and botanical mean the same thing?
Yup. You will see some gardens use “botanic” and some gardens use “botanical,” but they have the exact same meaning –
“involving or relating to plants”
The term is derived from “botany,” which is biology’s branch for plant life.
Is there a difference between a botanical garden and an arboretum?
Yes.
There is some crossover between the two, and their missions of preserving, cataloguing and studying plant life is largely the same, but there is a difference between a botanical garden and an arboretum.
That difference is in the plants that they grow and study.
A botanical garden has specialized areas (greenhouses, conservatories, gardens) in which they typically grow non-native plants or collections of plants.
An arboretum is focused on native trees and wood plants (though, they may grow other trees and plants), which are generally grown outdoors in their natural environments.
While there are some arboretums that stand alone, many are found within the grounds of botanical gardens.
What is the largest botanical garden in the world?
Kew Gardens, officially named Royal Botanic Gardens, just outside of London, England is considered the world’s biggest botanical garden.
At 320 acres, it’s not the largest in size, but at 30,000 species, it has the most diverse collection of living plants in the world.
What is the largest botanical garden in the U.S.?
Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania (just outside of Wilmington, Delaware) is the largest botanical garden in the United States by size.
It sits on nearly 1,100 acres, though not all of that is devoted to the gardens themselves.
But if we’re talking species, the largest U.S. botanical garden is New York Botanical Garden.
At 250 acres, it’s only a fourth the size of Longwood Gardens, but houses 12,000 different species of plants.
Could I just grow a bunch of plants and call it a botanical garden?
You could, but you wouldn’t be meeting the official definition or criteria for a botanical garden.
A botanic garden, as defined by the International Association of Botanic Gardens, must be open to the public and its plants must be labeled.
But that is the most general definition.
Botanic Gardens Conservation International, an organization which counts most of the world’s most important botanic gardens amongst its membership, have expanded the definition to include additional criteria.
Some of these criteria are:
- Being largely permanent
- Keeping proper documentation of all plant species
- Maintaining proper labeling of plant species
- Having a scientific basis for collections
- Doing on-site study/research
Basically, if you don’t have a scientific explanation for why you have certain plants and why you have them in certain groupings and you aren’t actively studying them, you don’t really have a botanical garden.
After all, the study of plants – botany – is right there in the name.
