Garden established in 1861 as an experimental cultivation of Cinchona, a commercial crop thriving at the time. Once after the Tea replace the Cinchona, it was turned into an experimental Tea cultivation. In 1884 it transformed to a garden since then many sub tropical and some temperate plants were planted in the gardens.
The Hakgala Gardens was first set up in 1861 under the curatorship of three British nationals of the same name - William Nock, JK Nock and JJ Nock. It lies under the Hakgala Peak, between 5000 - 6000 feet in elevation - the highest set Botanical Gardens in the world. It boasts of 100-year-old Monetary Cypress trees from California, Japanese Cedars, Himalayan Pines and English Oak.
In the folklores, it says Sri Lankan demon King Ravana after abducting Sita, kept her hidden in this area and area was offered to Sita as a pleasure garden, the place finds mention in the Ramayana as Ashok Vatika. The area was named as "Sita Eliya" and "Sita Amman Temple" was built on the site.
Hakgala Botanical Garden is situated on the Nuwara Eliya- Badulla main road, 16 km from Nuwara Eliya. The garden has a cool temperate climate because of altitude is 5,400 feet above the sea level. The mean annual temperature ranges between 16°C to 30°C during course of a year.From December to February it has a cold climate, while the warm climate persists from April to August.
There are over 10,000 species of flora planted here and during the Spring season in Nuwara Eliya thousands of visitors come to see the blooms here. Number of annual visitors is around 500,000. The garden is famous for number of species of Orchids and Roses are planted there.
Source - http://medlibrary.org/medwiki/Hakgala_Botanical_Garden
