Abstract: China has initiated the construction of a national botanical garden system, explicitly stating that national botanical gardens serve the dual functions of plant protection research and social services. However, at present, little attention has been paid to research on tourists' needs and cognition of the social service functions of recreation and education. We analyze the differences in visitor perceptions of recreational and educational functions in domestic and foreign botanical gardens in terms of tourists' perceptive value, to provide a scientific basis for the implementation of recreational and educational functions in the planning and design management. Firstly, we selected Beijing National Botanical Garden and Kew Gardens as examples, nationally representative and comprehensive, using online reviews and visitor travel notes from visitors as samples. Then, we performed a series of sample analysis, including word frequency, qualitative analysis and sentiment analysis. We conclude that the perceptive values of visitors to botanical gardens include resources, services, experience, emotion, cognition, image, cost and other dimensions. Visitors express diverse needs for recreational and educational experiences, such as a desire to connect with nature, seek relaxation, engage in rich experiences, acquire knowledge, and appreciate aesthetics. Accordingly, botanical gardens are suggested to incorporate functions such as exhibitions, recreational spaces, educational outreach, and natural aesthetic education. However, our investigation also unveiled certain challenges within botanical gardens, such as traffic congestion, parking difficulties, disorderly ticket management, and restricted activity spaces. Finally, in response to these challenges, we propose some practical suggestions for improvement.