Jardin Etnobotanico, Oaxaca de Juárez

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Oaxaca's Ethnobotanical Gardens are located right behind the Church of Santo Domingo, just north of the Zocalo. Visits are by guided tour only, and I was not able to bring myself to pay $100 pesos (about ten dollars at the time) for a ninety-minute tour of cactii. While this garden may be of interest to plant fanatics, it would be nice if they offered a thirty-minute stroll, or other shorter, less expensive visit, for those who would like to see the gardens without the lecture. Before you make up your mind as to whether or not you'll pay to enter, walk around the perimeter of the gardens, as there are a number of viewpoints from the street that will give you an idea of what you'll see on the tour.

I think it is a scam but maybe people who have a lot of intrest dont find it.
i took pictures of the botanica garden from the balconies at the cultural centre. from there i walked to the entrance of botanica and found out you can only go there by a guide.
information i wrote down

VISITS ONLY WITH GUIDE
in english only on tuesday, thursday and saturday at 11 am costs 100 pesos for 2 hours
in spanish monday a saturday at 10,12 and 17 hours 50 pesos 1 hour.

Look at the pics in my travelogue

Visits only with guide
spanish
monday to saturday 10,12,17 hours takes 1 hour 50 pesos free for nationales
english
tuesday thursday saturday 11 am 100 pesos.
when i was taking notes lot of people came for closed door. i adviced them to go into the cultural santo domingo centre (cloister). from the balconies you have a good few.
so i didnot went inside because it was closed but had already nice pics made from the balcony at cloister

This large garden contains a multitude of plants from the state of Oaxaca, including many different types of cacti.

You can only visit it on a 2-hour guided tour. There are only 3 tours in English on Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday 11:00 am, and they fill up fast, so sign up as early as you can. If a tour is full and you're desperate, you might try showing up anyways, since they don't seem to check the people in the group against the names on the list!

Very interesting. Bring water and a hat as the gardens are mostly in the open sun which gets quite hot at midday. You'll hear not only about the plants themselves, but the use local people make of them.

A tour to the Jardin Etnobotanico (Ethno-botanical Garden) is available by request at the front desk of the Centro Cultural Santo Domingo. The tour to the garden is amazing! The guide was very knowledgeable about plants. She told us and showed us samples distinguish the smell and taste of half a dozen native plants. The garden itself has an example of every plant known to exist in the state of Oaxaca. It's simply amazing.

... it's not finished yet, but still growing. You can do guided tours or look at it from the museum.

In the back of the convent and museum is a beautiful garden that is full of native plants from Oaxaca. Take time to go through this garden as it is facinating. I wish that I had more pictures of it!