With the founding of the new town of Karlsruhe with its residential palace on 17 June 1715 in the midst of the Hardt forest, not only a new town was built, the century-old gardening tradition at court of Baden also rose to new glory. The "royal pleasure garden" of the palace's builder Margrave Karl Wilhelm of Baden-Durlach (1679-1738) consisted of the magnificent Orangery, gardens, flower houses and greenhouses, aviaries and grottos located between the two side wings of the palace.
Karl Wilhelm's successor, his grandson Karl Friedrich, also continued the garden tradition. He was supported by his wife Caroline Luise, who among other things had contact with the famous Swedish naturalist Carl von Linné.
The Margrave appointed so-called garden inspectors, who were placed under the court gardener, to the top positions of the garden administration. For example, the botanist Dr. Joseph Gottlieb Kölreuter from St. Petersburg was at the head of this elaborate system from 1764 to 1769. In addition, he was also councilor and professor of natural history in Karlsruhe. He was assigned the task of specifying all plants of the palace garden and classifying them according to Linné's system. In 1784 the Privy Councilor Professor Carl Christian Gmelin assumed the direction of the Botanical Garden. He was assisted by the court gardener Michael Schweyckert. Both brought back plants and seeds to Karlsruhe from numerous journeys and increased the stock of plants many times over.
Around 1800 Margrave Karl Friedrich had the pleasure garden in front of the palace and the palace park converted to the English style. As a result, the decision was made to lay out a new Botanical Garden to the west of the palace on what was then the "Holzplatz" (wood area). The existing buildings, Quarter-Circle Orangery (Zirkelorangerie) and greenhouses were sold and the proceeds used to build new plant houses.
Beginning in 1808 the Grand Duke realized a substantial garden with an orangery, warm, cold and propagation houses and a corresponding outdoor area. As the greenhouses had still been built of wood, they were already heavily damaged during the reign of his successor, Grand Duke Friedrich I (1826-1907). Friedrich therefore carried out a complete restructuring of the garden and rebuilding of all plant houses in the 1850's. The buildings were executed according to drafts of the architect Heinrich Hübsch. The Botanical Garden now consisted, among other things, of the approx. 285 foot (87 meter) long Orangery, the Camellia and Flower House (Kamelien- und Blumenhaus), the Palm House (Palmenhaus), the Water Plant House (Wasserpflanzenhaus) and the Warm House (Warmhaus). A pavilion with a passageway to the palace garden, an arch-shaped gallery with a winter garden located before it and a "Cape House" ("Kaphaus") are adjacent. The load-bearing sections of the greenhouses were replaced between 1863 and 1871 with a structure of the at that time modern material cast iron.
The Botanical Garden experienced a heyday under Garden Inspector Leopold Graebener. He also succeeded in cross-breeding plants like the Yucca x karlsruhensis. Its offspring and other old trees from this time can still be viewed in the Botanical Garden today.
After World War I the palace garden was for the most part dismantled. Many plants either ended up on the compost pile, were sold or were brought to Mainau Island, the Schwetzingen Palace Garden or the Botanical Garden in Heidelberg and Freiburg. The greenhouses were turned over to the teaching activities of the technical college, which stocked the plant houses with plants again and tended to the outdoor area. The entire garden was opened to the general public.
The entire complex was heavily damaged by bombs and fires in World War II. In 1948 the master gardener Anton Kutscher assumed the direction of the Botanical Garden and began to replant the outdoor area. However, the former scientific Botanical Garden was now to become a landscaped und horticultural garden, as it is still presented today. It features large lawn areas with numerous old deciduous and coniferous trees and bushes, rare trees and shrubs, two round pools with lush water lilies, large carp and goldfish.
Gradually the buildings were also rebuilt. Exhibition houses were erected with plants that fascinate plant lovers due to their rarity, growth rate, magnificent colors or age.