The purpose and content of the Talbot Botanic Gardens was well described by Lord Milo Talbot in his introduction to The Endemic Flora of Tasmania. He said of himself that He inherited a house and with it a garden and more important still, they were in a climate favourable to growing many of the tenderer and less common plants. An interest in gardening developed and inevitably, led over the years, to the collecting of plants especially the rarer and more delicate kinds, with a particular emphasis on Southern Hemisphere plants.

The gardens now cover an area of just over 8 ha, with 7 ha of shrubbery and the remainder a walled garden. Because of the alkaline nature of the soil, Ericaceous plants do not do well here but this is in many ways an advantage because the gardens are not dependent on the more usual rhododendrons and other relatively showy plants seen so often elsewhere. Olearia, Hebe, Escallonia, Nothofagus, Syringia, Hypericum, Clematis species, Euphorbia, Eryngium, Hosta and Crocosmia spp all thrive here.

There are also some notable trees in the gardens including a large Cedar of Lebanon, and an Oak as well as many magnolia, pines, junipers and acers. Seven glasshouses, ranging from the large Victorian Conservatory to a small melon pit house, all have their own group of plants.