It is located at Universitätsstraße 150, Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and open daily without charge.

The garden was founded in 1968 and subsequently has been continuously expanded and improved.

The garden's fenced, outdoors area (13,000 m2) cultivates plants organized into geobotanical regions, including forests, coasts, meadows, prairies, and marshes from the Americas, Asia, and Europe.

Its Chinese garden (1000 m2) was created from 1986 to 1990, and renovated in 2001, by skilled gardeners donated by the Tongji University in Shanghai as a sign of friendship.

The garden's greenhouses (total area 3,500 m2) contain collections of succulent Euphorbia (350 species), other succulents, Cycadaceae, Canary Island plants, Eriocaulaceae (5 species), and alpine plants.