sugar mill botanical gardens

Beautiful park with dinosaurs and history! I'm from Indiana and really enjoyed being able to walk around and take in the Florida flora in this lovely park.

This was great, we just wanted to check out something cool and free. Great botanical garden to stroll though, there is a small library and plenty of benches to stop and soak in the lush gardens. The history of this site is educational and fun, great for all kinds! Sugar mill history and concrete Dino's to gaze at. Not far from highway at all, worth stopping! Donations are accepted and encouraged.

The stars of Sugar Mill Botanical Gardens are the recently covered and interpreted ruins of the historic Dunlawton Sugar Mill; the gardens with their magnificent live oaks; and the half-dozen concrete dinosaurs of Bongoland, a roadside attraction once set in the gardens. It's a place where young and old can be surprised and delighted. There's even an outdoors "chapel" for weddings. Parking is usually ample, bathrooms less so, and it's real live Florida so pack water and bug spray in the summer.

It is just beautiful and lush in these gardens! Nice walking trail and so close to everything. Some interesting history and lots of beauty!

This is not some over produced production. Just stop in and take a walk and just work your way thru the park. It is a very interesting trip and you just may learn some information about the plants and the history of the area. It has been a couple of years since I was there, but I am going to go back and see what is new since the last time I visited.

This is a place my husband and I visit every year in January. It's come a long way in being cared for. There is a donation box at the entrance and we always put something in. Please do this as it really helps to keep this place a beautiful, quiet sanctuary. The trails and flowers are my favorite. There are a ton of photo options here.

The weather while I was there was not conducive to a real enjoyable time. But we saw enough to know that we would return.

Great little Botanical Gardens in Port Orange, FL... off the beaten path on Herbert St. Site of a former sugar plantation, Sugar Mills is a nice little visit with about 1/2 mile of nature trails and a number of interesting plants and the like. Some of the buildings from the original mill are preserved, and there is a "prehistoric" theme as well with stone dinosaurs and exotic tropical plants. Young kids will love this! A pleasant afternoon's walk in nature! No fee for admissions but they take donations to maintain the grounds. Parking and restrooms on-site.

I am so glad that someone felt that this was worth taking care of. This historical sugar mill is very well cared for, the history is very interesting to read. The botanical gardens were very nice. We were there on the off season, but still enjoyed the local plants and trees. This was a really nice garden to visit.

Loved this historical site. While the gardens were not blooming and birds were rare, (due to the time of year), this is still a lovely place to stroll through. Loved the layout of the gardens. It obviously has volunteers who have spent time enhancing the walking paths. The sugar mill historical markers and equipment were very interesting. Restoration should continue in this lovely historical site.

When you go here, you get to visit a Historical Site (sugar mill), see old statues (left from Bongoland Amusement park) and see flora and fauna from Florida. I only got to see part of it due to the rain, but I saw most of it. Enjoyed seeing the dinosaurs left from Bongo land and the sugar mill in particular. Was fascinated by the "human sundial". Being there in the winter, meant there were not a lot of flowers blooming, but it made it look like you were walking down roads in the distant past in Florida. Worth going to and great that it costs nothing!

I found the ruins of the old sugar mill to be pretty impressive with the enormous machinery and vats still there that they used to process the sugar cane way back then. You can then walk the grounds of the gardens and check out all the different kinds of plants and also the dinosaur statues that are still there from the 1940's/50's amusement park called Bongoland. You can take lots of great pictures and there is no admission charge, although they do accept donations. If you still want to do more sightseeing after this, there is the Ponce De Leon Lighthouse which is not far from here and is another excellent sight to see.

Take your time strolling through this peaceful (hidden) paradise of Floridian indigenous plants that surround the remains of an old sugar mill. Learn a bit about how the ownership changed hands (quite a few times,) as well as the many changes for the intended use of the property. It's a worth while stop to see if you are in the area. And although it's free to park and walk through through the property, I didn't mind putting a donation in the box at the entrance. The volunteers really do a great job of keeping the bathrooms and the grounds clean and well-maintained. (No food, no drinks, no trash, no animals, no smoking and no loud and rude behavior allowed)

Even in the winter, worth a stop. Beautiful twisted oaks and Spanish moss, lots of 'surprises' in the way of hidden dinosaur statues, great photo ops. Definitely worth a look and is free.

These free gardens are well worth seeing. They have beautiful palm trees, exotic flowers and nice walk ways. They also have statues of dinasaurs. You can tour an exhibition of the old sugar milk where they actually made the sugar from sugar cane.