The URI Botanical Gardens encompasses 4.5 acres behind the greenhouse complex and beside the Mallon Outreach Center. The gardens are maintained by the Rhode Island Master Gardeners and URI faculty and staff and are open year-round to visitors. The Botanic Gardens are available to be rented for weddings. Visit https://web.uri.edu/conferences/gardens/ for more information on rental options.

The University of Rhode Island has a long and distinguished history as Rhode Island’s agricultural and Land Grant institution. An important part of this history over the past 100 years has included teaching Horticultural Science and planting trees on the Kingston campus. Formal Gardens were created here over 50 years ago. They are now known as the URI Botanical Gardens, started in 1991 with a donation from the Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association. The Botanical Gardens and Horridge Conservatory now rank among the most beautiful places on the URI campus, frequented and treasured by URI faculty, staff, and students. The Gardens are also a valuable teaching and research tool and a model of sustainable landscaping for URI students and faculty from many departments, as well as appreciative visitors from all over New England. Along with the contiguous 1,200 acres of the Everett P. Christopher Arboretum, the URI Botanical Gardens have become a horticultural gem in southern New England.