Places of acclimatisation of species, scientific research, a space of pleasure for colonial urban societies, colonial botanical gardens are also nurseries intended to provide colony and the world with diverse seeds, trees, useful and ornamental plants. This paper examines the nursery functions of colonial botanical gardens in the 19th century and how the trade in plants was organized through these institutions. The analysis of the modalities of distribution and sale of plants, the role of scientific productions and directors in the organization of this trade, as well as the recurrent debates on the market value of these plants, reveal a little-known aspect of colonial governmentality in its relationship to the control of nature.