The lovely and peaceful Natal Botanical Garden specializes in the conservation of plants indigenous to the province of KwaZulu- Natal, as well as in rare and endangered species found in other parts of the country. The Garden was established in 1874, and the magnificent specimens of northern hemisphere plants such as swamp cypress, tulip trees, camphor trees, plane trees, giant figs and magnolias planted in the Garden, date back to this Victorian era.
Among the finest features of the Garden is the avenue of London plane trees, which have attracted visitors from as long ago as 1908. A deliberate effort has been made to conserve plants of the eastern grasslands, namely the genera Kniphofia, Watsonia and Dierama. A section of the Garden has been specifically designed to attract birds, populating the Garden with a rich variety of some 120 recorded species.