Like the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew outside London, founded in 1759, the botanic garden in Oxford from 1621 has a long history that pre-dates the time during which the British Empire was the largest the world has ever seen. Despite their age, and the fact that the colonial era significantly transformed the specific organisational forms and roles of both gardens, their imperial legacies may not be immediately visible to their visitors. However, as this article demonstrates, both botanical gardens have deep roots in European colonialism – a legacy that nevertheless is only superficially communicated to the visiting public. Furthermore, Eurocentric naming traditions that celebrates “discoveries” made by white explorers are still part of the botanic practice although researchers in the field have become more aware about the importance of honouring indigenous places and people in their name-giving of new-found species. This article argues that botanic gardens, like other museum institutions open to the public, ought to be more aware of how they communicate the imperial legacies of their collections to their visitors. As it is now, the communication provided in both botanical gardens, through signs presenting the cultural history of selected plants and guided tours, partly reproduces excluding and Eurocentric celebrations of London and Oxford as the obvious epicentres of the world.