Sensory Garden

The Sensory Garden at Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mt Coot-tha contains culinary, fragrant and medicinal herbs from around the world, as well as flowers and aromatic foliage. You can smell the blooms in season and gently rub the leaves of assorted mints and lavender. For your safety, do not consume any plant material.

The first botanic gardens

Modern botanic gardens originated from physic (healing) gardens attached to medieval monasteries or hospitals. The monks grew herbs for their medicinal value to train apothecaries' (medical herbalists). They also grew them for the aesthetic enjoyment of visitors. It is thought that the first botanic gardens are these physics gardens from the 16th and 17th Centuries. Around 80% of the world's population uses herbal remedies prepared directly from plants.

Sensory Garden photo gallery

You can view the Sensory Garden photo gallery as a slideshow. Alternatively, view photos individually in the Sensory Garden set in Council's Flickr account.