The garden is ranked third on the list of Alabama's top paid tourist attractions, receiving 353,841 visitors in 2018.

In January 1980, the Huntsville-Madison County Botanical Garden Society was founded and held its first official meeting.

[4][5] In January 1983, it was decided that the gardens would be built on property leased to the city from the Alabama Space Science Commission.

[5] In 2017, the Huntsville Botanical Garden formally unveiled its new $16 million, 30,000 square-foot guest center.

[6] The Huntsville Botanical Garden has twenty Classical Doric columns from the 1914 Madison County Courthouse that was demolished in 1964.