Royal Botanical Gardens - History, Timings & Entry Fee

At a distance of 5 km from Kandy Railway Station, Royal Botanical Gardens is a landscaped garden situated at Peradeniya, Kandy. Also known as Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, this is the finest Botanical Gardens in Asia and among the prime places to visit in Kandy as part of Sri Lanka Packages.

Spanning over 147 acres, Peradeniya Botanical Gardens is the largest landscaped gardens in Sri Lanka and attracts approximately 2 million local and foreign visitors annually. The Royal Botanical Gardens were created in 1371 after King Wickramabahu III ascended the throne and kept court at Peradeniya, near the Mahaweli River. King Kirti Sri, King Rajasinghe and King Vimala Dharma followed the reign and built several structures that were all destroyed during the colonial rule in Kandy. The British laid the groundwork for a botanical garden under the supervision of Alexandar Moon in 1821 for the cultivation of coffee and cinnamon plants. The Royal Botanical Garden at Peradeniya was formally established in 1843 with plants brought from Kew Garden in London, Slave Island, Colombo, and the Kalutara Garden in Kalutara. It was expanded by George Gardener and Henry Kendrick Thwaites and was finally taken over by the Department of Agriculture in 1912.

The garden has the most diverse botanical collection in the world. The garden includes more than 4000 species of plants, including orchids, spices, medicinal plants, and palm trees. The alluring garden is particularly famous for its variety of beautiful orchids, the Giant Bamboo of Burma, the century-old giant Javan fig tree, the Cannonball tree, and the Double Coconut Palm. The spice garden here is replete with exotic spices like Cardamom, Cloves, Pepper & Vanilla. In the center of the Gardens is an artificial lake with water plants including the giant water lily & papyrus reeds. Beside the lake is a white-domed rotunda commemorates George Gardener, the Superintendent of the park from 1844 to 1849. Over 80 recorded species of butterflies, 20 species of reptiles, 15 species of amphibians and 18 species of mammals can be found in these gardens.

The gardens also consist of a few historically prominent trees such as a massive Ceylon Ironwood tree planted by Nicholas II in 1894, a tea plant from China (1824) which is considered as the first-ever non-commercial tea plant in Sri Lanka, a big Amherstia planted by Prince Albert of Belgium, a camphor tree planted by First female prime minister of Sri Lanka - Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1972, a Baikea Insignis planted by the High Pontiff of the Muslim Dawoodi Bohra Community, Syedna Taher Saifuddin (RA) in 1941, a Yellow Trumpet tree planted by Crown Prince Akihito of Japan and his Crown Princess 1981, and the Sorrowless tree planted by Queen Elizabeth in 1981.

Timings: 8 AM - 6 PM

Entry: LKR. 1500 for Foreigners