This 60-acre Tropical Botanic Garden and Everglades Wildlife Sanctuary, aviary and zoo, was originally the property of Floyd L. and Jane Wray, who in 1927 built a weekend home, citrus grove and laboratory on what was then the edge of the Everglades. Here they started a botanical collection of rare and unusual tropicals and subtropical exotics, fruit trees and specimens collected from around the world.
The Wray Home Museum is nestled in the botanical garden. It was built in 1933 by Floyd L. and Jane Wray as a weekend residence and is the oldest residence in Broward County west of University Drive. It has been restored to provide visitors to Flamingo Gardens a glimpse of life in South Florida in the 1930's.
The grounds contain more than 3,000 species of tropical and subtropical plants, including 200-year-old Southern live oaks, and 300 plus species of palms. A narrated tram ride leads through the site's tropical rainforest, native hammock, wetland areas and exotic flora. The gardens are home to nationally noted collections of heliconias, gingers, calatheas, bromeliads, flowering trees, palms, crotons, aroids, succulents, orchids, ferns and cycads as well as a mango orchard, and pollinator's garden.
On the grounds is a jungle-like arboretum featuring 16 Champion trees, many the largest in the state or the country including a massive Enterlobium cyclocarpum (Ear Tree). The arboretum contains one of the largest collection of non-indigenous champion trees in the region. The aviary houses one of the largest collection of wading birds in the United States.