The 39-acre (16 ha) site features rose, bee, herb, wedding, and perennial gardens; an arboretum; an art gallery; and a LEED-certified Visitor & Administration Building.

Queens Botanical Garden is located on property owned by the City of New York, and is funded from several public and private sources.

It moved to its current location, a landfilled area east of Flushing Meadows Park, in 1963 in preparation for the 1964 New York World's Fair.

Several improvements were made over the following years, including the construction of a new environmentally friendly parking lot and administration building.

[2] A New York City Department of Sanitation garage at Dahlia Avenue was located west of Main Street, in the modern Queens Botanical Garden.

[3] A playground located at Elder Avenue and 135th Street in what in now the Queens Botanical Garden, was originally set to be complete by March 1957.

However, by March 11, only a comfort station and lights were constructed, while the site required significant filling before development could occur.

[7] Prior to the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair, the western portion of Kissena Corridor Park between Lawrence Street / College Point Boulevard and Main Street adjacent to Flushing Meadows Park was leased to the World's Fair Corporation, along with most of Flushing Meadows.

The project included a new administration building, to cost $150,000, and a pedestrian overpass over Lawrence Street leading to Flushing Meadows.

[21][22]: 42 Following Queens Botanical Garden's completion, New York City Parks commissioner Robert Moses unveiled an expanded plan for Kissena Corridor.

In 1977, the garden hired a few dozen teenagers from schools in Queens to help plant trees, build a path, and restore part of an adjoining city park that had been vandalized.

[32] The city took control of Queens Botanical Garden in 1992 after the previous director and twenty board members were ousted due to a dereliction of duties.

[33][34] Shortly afterward, the Queens Botanical Garden Society began offering programs to the substantial Chinese, Korean, and Latin American populations of Flushing.

[48] In March 2024, the office of U.S. Representative Grace Meng allocated $500,000 in federal funds for two new greenhouses at Queens Botanical Garden.

[52] The visitor building and the gift shop and gallery are located on the north side of the Queens Botanical Garden.

Various educational buildings, non-public structures, and the Compost Project Demonstration Site are located on the garden's north side.

[37] The 2001 master plan called for redesigning the garden around the dip, and included five "systems" with a total of 27 water features.

[1]: 40  As part of the master plan, a "cleansing biotope" was built across the northern side of the Queens Botanical Garden.

It includes a compost bin display, one-acre farm, and pollinator habitat, that demonstrate how people can divert organic waste and improve urban soils.

Vegetables grown on the farm are shared with intern and volunteers, and donated to emergency food relief programs.

Crops include heirloom tomatoes, beans, turnips, and a variety of kale, lettuces, peppers, and radishes.

[58] Queens Botanical Garden includes the Fragrance Walk, an outdoor walkway lined with flowers[59][60] that is located near the Main Street entrance.

[74] In 2005, Queens Botanical Garden was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation.

The Q20A/B and Q44 Select Bus Service routes run on Main Street at west end of the park, serving the Queens Botanical Garden.

Long Island Rail Road service on the Port Washington Branch is available at the LIRR station of the same name farther south on Main Street at Kissena Boulevard and 41st Avenue.