A car was driven from Lovelock Ave several hundred metres into the garden, hitting a wooden garden seat in the rhododendron dell, before it did a U-turn, smashing a rhododendron, tearing up parts of the garden and flattening a sign.
Workers at the garden hoped someone might have witnessed the incident.
''It's really frustrating and disappointing, but there's not a lot you can say to people that are as mind-bogglingly dim as that to change their ways, because who would take a car through a track like that?'' Dunedin Botanic Garden plant collections curator Doug Thomson said.
A barrier pole was uprooted - complete with its concrete base - as the car was driven into the garden.
Mr Thomson said damage in the weekend incident totalled more than $1000, but more upsetting was the mindlessness of the vandalism.
''Our job here is to create something beautiful for the citizens of Dunedin and people like that come in here and set us back and create something quite ugly instead,'' he said.
The vandalism was ''the worst I have seen in a long time''.
''I can't really remember anything like this,'' he said.
''We have had plants stolen in the past, but wanton vandalism is more disheartening.''
The only saving grace was the damage was not worse.
A plastic part of the car's mudguard was left behind but nothing that would readily identify the vehicle.
No security cameras operated in the area and garden staff were reliant on the public to catch the offender.
The vandalism had been reported to police.
Anyone with information that could help should contact Dunedin police on 471-4800, or anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555-111.
Information could also be given to garden staff on 477-4000.
