Port St. Lucie Botanical Gardens

The Port St. Lucie Botanical Gardens is a City of Port St. Lucie park on the North Fork of the St. Lucie River, classed as a special purpose park, whose first phase opened in March 2010.

The city's Botanical Gardens park page describes a lake with a fountain, paved paths, several themed gardens, a pavilion, a gift shop and a wedding venue, and names a butterfly garden, an orchid room and a rose garden as highlights. The Recreation and Open Space Element of the city's 2020 to 2040 comprehensive plan calls it the City's first public garden (Recreation and Open Space Element), and the 2025 parks master plan update files it under the Special Purpose class with a year of 2010 (Parks and Recreation Master Plan Update, 2025).

The city carries the site in its park inventory and staffs it through a Botanical Gardens line in the general fund budget (FY 2023-24 adopted budget book). The city park page says a nonprofit, the Friends of the Port St. Lucie Botanical Gardens, supports daily operations, provides tours and hosts events (city park page).

City documents list the Botanical Gardens at 20, 20.19, 21 and 22.8 acres, and none of them explains the difference.

The two park page figures appear on the same city park page, which also sizes the lake at 2 acres with a depth of 12 feet. The redevelopment agency repeats the 21-acre figure on The Port District page. Table 7-1 of the comprehensive plan element lists 20.19 acres under the SF-P designation at the Westmoreland address (Recreation and Open Space Element), while the master plan inventory table lists 22.8 acres (master plan update inventory).

Another number belongs to the larger tract. The comprehensive plan element says Florida Forever funds bought approximately 32 acres along the east shoreline of the North Fork, and that this site includes the garden (Recreation and Open Space Element).

Inside the Port St. Lucie garden are a 4,100 square foot pavilion, an amphitheater, 0.91 miles of six-foot sidewalks, a two-acre lake and a multipurpose building with a gift shop and meeting space.

The key details list on the Botanical Gardens park page sizes the pavilion for up to 375 people in regular seating or 100 at tables, and puts amphitheater seating at 140 to 160, with standing room on Pavilion Plaza. It counts 13 park benches, two picnic tables and cafe tables on the veranda. The same page lists free WiFi, public art across the grounds and inside the pavilion, and fishing, catch and release only.

Accessibility is covered in one line of that page: the Port St. Lucie Botanical Gardens is ADA compliant, does not rent wheelchairs or scooters, and welcomes visitors who bring their own standard wheelchair or scooter (city park page). The amenities block also names restrooms with ADA access, meeting rooms, a stage and parking.

The first phase that opened in March 2010 consisted of walkways and native habitat, according to the facts list on the Botanical Gardens page. The comprehensive plan element says the gardens include a pond with a fountain, paved public paths and a pavilion, as well as ample public parking (Recreation and Open Space Element).

The Port St. Lucie Botanical Gardens sits at 2410 SE Westmoreland Blvd., Port St. Lucie 34952, with 126 parking spaces split between 41 paved and 85 stabilized spaces.

The address, the parking count and a contact number, 772-337-1959, all appear on the Botanical Gardens park page. Under a connecting parks heading, that page links the Gardens to six other parks and facilities, among them Pioneer Park, The Boardwalk and the History Museum and Education Center.

Those neighbors form The Port District, which the Community Redevelopment Agency describes as stretching 1.5 miles along the North Fork with an anchor address of 2454 SE Westmoreland Blvd. (The Port District page). The agency's feature list presents the Gardens with themed landscapes, a butterfly garden, a gift shop and event spaces for weddings and meetings, and adds a 4,300-foot boardwalk along the river. A separate Port District guide on this site describes those riverfront pieces one by one.

City documents credit different partners for the land: the park page names the City, St. Lucie County and the Florida Trust for Public Lands, and the comprehensive plan element names Florida Forever and city conservation funds.

The Botanical Gardens park page says the Gardens was acquired through efforts by the City, St. Lucie County, and the Florida Trust for Public Lands. The Recreation and Open Space Element gives a fuller funding trail. It says the Conservation Trust Fund, which collects mitigation fees developers pay instead of preserving part of a site under the Land Development Code, has been used for city parks such as the Port St. Lucie Botanical Garden, and that Florida Forever funds bought the roughly 32-acre riverfront tract that includes the garden (Recreation and Open Space Element).

The same element notes that conservation land has also come through the Florida Communities Trust program, and it closes by listing the Botanical Gardens, with the MidFlorida Event Center and the city's park facilities, as a quality of life investment (Recreation and Open Space Element).

The Botanical Gardens has its own line in the Port St. Lucie general fund: $674,480 adopted for fiscal 2024, with 6.45 budgeted positions, and the 2025 master plan update singles it out in several park evaluations.

The figures come from the general fund expenditure summary in the FY 2023-24 adopted budget book, which also lists the Botanical Gardens staffing at 6.45 positions for 2024, against 5.45 the year before, with a second Park Leader added. The budget narrative says capital funding is available to upgrade the restrooms at the Botanical Gardens.

The 2025 master plan update singles out the Botanical Gardens several times in its park evaluations. It names the Gardens, with Woodland Trails Park, as offering a strong first impression and overall attractiveness, lists it among parks with high levels of activity and a mix of things to do for children, adults and seniors, and cites it as a notable example of exemplary signage. In the Figure 2.26 evaluation table the Gardens scores 3.0 for site amenities, the mark the legend labels excellent on the site scale.

Last verified: October 22, 2026, with a fresh read of the city's Botanical Gardens page, the 2025 parks master plan inventory, Table 7-1 of the open space element, the FY 2023-24 budget book and The Port District page, comparing every acreage figure side by side.