The botanical garden of the University of Joensuu was first established in 1955. To the location of Botania, in 1985. The area of their five greenhouses imitating the two major climatic regions, the tropic and the desert, was altogether 570m2. They had approximately 1000 species, almost all of them were grown from seeds that they received from botanical gardens, research centres and seed banks. They exchanged seeds and plants with about 900 gardens in 113 countries. The priority then was to promote research in the fields of biology and forestry as well as benefit education. The garden also offered nice experiences and knowledge of plants to other visitors.

In 2012 the university decided to give up the garden after which the maintenance and taking care of the plants was left to the Friends of Botania Association and some volunteers. The repairments of the infrastructure weren’t done and Friends of Botania didn’t have the possibility to invest on the infrastructure. The garden faced permanent closing and immidiate demolishing of the plants at the beginning of 2018.

In 2018 Kari Kola, an international light artist from Joensuu, prevented this from happening by buying the garden together with Teemu Purmonen and Markku Pesonen. On the end of 2018 Kola bought the whole share and is nowadays the only owner of Botania.

The start of the project has been very challenging as the area was in poor condition due to a lack of resources. Through vigorous measures, the area has been rehabilitated and cleared in recent years with the help of the entire Botania team. The Friends of Botania Association continues to help with activities such as with the help of annual spring campaigns where people in the area who see the value of the place can come to help with the renovation work.