A New Study Just Ranked the 10 Best Botanical Gardens in America – and the Winner Is in Indiana

Researchers analyzed visitor reviews from 407 botanical gardens across the country. The top-rated one isn’t in New York, California, or Chicago.

If you asked most people to guess America’s highest-rated botanical garden, the answer would probably be somewhere in New York, Chicago, or the Pacific Northwest…but it’s none of those.

A new analysis by KÜHL recently looked at visitor reviews from 407 public gardens across the country – not just star ratings, but what people said in their reviews. The top ten ended up being mostly smaller, regional gardens that fly under the radar.

10. Sherman Library and Gardens – Corona del Mar, California

Score: 85.0 | Rating: 4.84/5 | 67.2% positive

The smallest garden on the list at just 2.2 acres, but it logged the highest individual star rating of any entry. Over 100 palm species, 130 begonia varieties, a tropical conservatory with koi ponds and carnivorous plants, and formal tea gardens. The pairing with a research library gives it a different character entirely.

9. Norfolk Botanical Garden – Norfolk, Virginia

Score: 86.6 | Rating: 4.82/5 | 74.5% positive

Norfolk Botanical Garden has over 60 themed gardens spread across a waterfront setting surrounded by water on three sides. Birdwatching is a real draw here with over 175 species recorded on site. You can explore parts of the garden by boat or tram – how fun is that?

8. Tucson Botanical Gardens – Tucson, Arizona

Score: 87.2 | Rating: 4.67/5 | 81% positive

This compact 5.5-acre desert oasis is in urban Tucson with over 20 curated spaces. The Cox Butterfly & Orchid Pavilion brings tropical contrast to the cactus and succulent collections, and the Zen Garden and mosaic art benches are consistent visitor highlights.

7. Magnolia Plantation and Gardens – Charleston, South Carolina

Score: 87.3 | Rating: 4.55/5 | 90.2% positive

The highest positive sentiment percentage of any garden outside the top spot – 90.2%. It has nearly 900 camellia varieties, ancient live oaks draped in Spanish moss, and the Audubon Swamp Garden. It blends horticulture with history and wildlife in a way a standard botanical garden can’t.

6. Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens – Buffalo, New York

Score: 87.3 | Rating: 4.64/5 | 85.2% positive

A historic conservatory complex with a towering palm dome, a rainforest room with a waterfall, koi ponds, and butterfly exhibits. Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens works especially well as a winter escape – you get tropical warmth behind Victorian glass while Buffalo does its thing outside.

5. Reiman Gardens – Ames, Iowa

Score: 88.0 | Rating: 4.83/5 | 76.6% positive

The Christina Reiman Butterfly Wing (where hundreds of live butterflies fly around you!) is the signature experience here. The Hughes Conservatory and rotating sculpture exhibits round it out. It’s seventeen acres at Iowa State University with a year-round appeal and the third-highest star rating in the top ten.

4. Fullerton Arboretum – Fullerton, California

Score: 88.6 | Rating: 4.73/5 | 81.4% positive

The largest botanical garden in Orange County at 26 acres, and it has four major biome collections (cultivated, woodlands, Mediterranean, desert), a rare fruit grove, historic citrus and avocado plantings, and a strong conservation focus on rare and endangered species.

3. Dawes Arboretum – Newark, Ohio

Score: 88.7 | Rating: 4.71/5 | 83.5% positive

Nearly 2,000 acres in central Ohio – the largest site on this list by a wide margin. Bald-cypress swamps, Japanese bonsai gardens, restored wetlands, and hedge lettering that spells out “Dawes Arboretum” from the air. There’s also a driving tour route, which is worth knowing if mobility is a consideration.

2. Yampa River Botanic Park – Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Score: 92.1 | Rating: 4.89/5 | 84.1% positive

Sitting at an elevation of 6,800 feet with over 60 distinct gardens showcasing everything from alpine natives to desert species, Yampa River Botanic Park lands the second spot on the list. It’s free to visit, but the near-perfect 4.89 star rating suggests people would pay anyway. A butterfly garden, a hummingbird garden, and a Japanese-style reflecting garden are among the highlights.

1. Wellfield Botanic Gardens – Elkhart, Indiana

Score: 95.9 | Rating: 4.79/5 | 96.6% positive reviews

The highest-scoring botanical garden in America is a 20-themed garden space built on historic artesian wells in Elkhart, Indiana. The waterfall garden, Swan Pond, English-style garden, and children’s Adventure Path are all consistently praised. A 96.6% positive sentiment rating across 1,000 reviews is hard to argue with.

If there’s one takeaway from the data, it’s that the gardens people love most aren’t the famous ones – they’re the smaller spots that keep things simple, peaceful, and well looked after.

If you’re planning a visit, timing matters. Reviews mentioning “out of season” were a recurring theme in the broader data. Go during peak bloom and the experience is a different thing entirely.

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