Best gardens and parks in Oceania

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Oceania's garden culture is shaped by isolation and biodiversity. Many of the plants growing in botanical collections here are found nowhere else in the world, and several of the institutions on this page were founded specifically to document and preserve them. Australia and New Zealand both developed colonial-era botanic gardens in the 19th century that have matured into serious scientific institutions, while also functioning as well-used public parks.

The range across the region reflects how different the climates are. Cool temperate gardens in Dunedin and Hobart grow things that wouldn't survive in tropical Queensland, and the highland gardens of the Blue Mountains operate in conditions closer to northern Europe than to coastal Sydney. Some of the most interesting plant collections are in places that don't advertise themselves as garden destinations at all.

Native flora is a recurring theme in a way that sets Oceania apart from other regions. Australian wildflowers, New Zealand ferns and forest trees, Pacific island endemics. A lot of what's worth seeing here isn't ornamental planting in the European sense but ecosystems that happen to be accessible. That shifts what you're looking for and makes timing and location matter in different ways than they do elsewhere.