During the 19th century, the central part of the Bois de Vincennes was cleared to create a military training ground with barracks, maneuvering range and shooting hills. In 1860, Napoleon III ceded the wood to the city of Paris so that it could be transformed into a symmetrical park of the Bois de Boulogne.

The west of the woods, its north-eastern part around Lac des Minimes and its southern edge around Avenue de Gravelle are developed into a public park but the center remains a military zone until its gradual evacuation by the army in during the 1950s and 1960s.

At the end of the 1960s and on the occasion of the Third International Floralies, a site was sought in the woods by the City of Paris to host the event. The design and construction of the Park are entrusted to landscape architect Daniel Collin.

The chosen site — the former disused military grounds of La Cartoucherie and de la Pyramide — is completely remodeled. Only the existing pine forest and its Corsican pines are preserved.

The Floral Park will be inaugurated in 1969. With its 35 hectares, it will be the largest green space created in Paris since the end of the Second Empire. Fifteen months of work were necessary before carrying out the first plantings.