08-05-2025
Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne and Sydney's Royal Botanic Garden named top 25 in the world by The New York Times
Two Australian botanical gardens have been named in a list of the top 25 'must-see' gardens in the world.
Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne, in Melbourne's southeast, and Sydney's Royal Botanic Garden feature on the list compiled by The New York Times' Style Magazine.
Each entry was chosen by a team of six horticultural experts, who initially nominated 10 gardens of their own before coming together as a group and whittling the list down to 25.
The award-winning garden in Cranbourne, which was opened in 2012, is surrounded by 300 hectares of native bushland, walking tracks, cycling tracks and a lookout tower.
The bushland is made up of hundreds of indigenous plant species and over 215 animal species, including kangaroos and koalas, call the area home.
Tim Richardson and Deborah Needleman, two of the horticultural experts, said the garden was more like a zoo.
'It's more like visiting a zoological garden than a botanical garden because some of the plants are the size of large animals — they're massive,' Richardson said.
'It's a bit like the High Line (in New York City) in that you walk around this circle and there are different zones and areas you pass through. It's episodic.'
Situated in the middle of the city, Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens offers visitors views of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House and is home to 28,000 types of plants.
There's something for everyone, with multiple different gardens on offer such as the Oriental Garden which showcases plants from several Asian countries.
'I wanted to have at least one garden that's part of the life of a city and this one is right on the harbour, connecting the Opera House and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, so you can just stroll through on your way to work,' horticultural expert Toshiko Mori said.
While the gardens are numbered on the list from one to 25, they are not ranked.
Others on the list include New York City's The High Line, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in Cape Town and Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto.
