Durban Botanic Gardens

Description

Developed in 1849, the Durban Botanic Gardens is the oldest surviving botanical garden in Africa and Durban’s first public institution. Visitors can enjoy picnics surrounded by collections of indigenous and exotic plants including cycads, orchids, bromeliads, and palms. The Garden also has a unique selection of trees from all over the world as well as 80 heritage trees which, in many cases, are over 100 years old.

The Durban Botanic Gardens is host to a number of social events, including the popular Old Mutual Music at the Lake events, Victorian-style tea parties, and the annual indigenous plant fair in September.

Attractions

• Visitors Complex & Information Centre
• Tea garden
• Reservoir
• Lake
• Indigenous Grasslands
• Palm Walk
• Fern Dell
• Herb Garden
• Wood’s Cycad
• Amphitheatre
• Japanese Garden
• Garden of the Senses
• Sunken Gardens
• Alien Alley
• Bromeliad Garden
• Permaculture Garden
• Bee Hive: Unveiled in December 2011, the “living bee hive” is based on the design of Zulu beehive huts, with the walls and roof made of living indigenous plants.
• Orchid House
• Discovery Room
• Display House
• Curries Fountain

Education

• Education programmes include school programmes, permaculture courses, schools greening, a public lecture series, and an alien invasive plant garden.
• Trained Environmental Education Guides
• Permaculture food garden
• Theme-based garden tours with topics like Heritage Trees, Botanical WOW, and People & Plants.
• The William Poulton Library is a specialist horticultural collection.