The garden's iconic glass house was designed by Sir Norman Foster

The attraction has been short listed for the Best Environment Project, the winner of which will be decided by a public vote and announced in September.

The Gardens are the only representative from Wales through to the finals in all seven categories of the awards.

The winners will each receive �2,000 to spend on their project.

Bird haven Slimbridge in Gloucestershire, which is also the headquarters of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, and the Dunes Coastal Park in the Outer Hebrides have also been short listed for the Best Environment Project award.

The shortlist was also decided by a pubic vote.

People can vote online or on the phone for their favourites in each of the seven categories until the end of August before the winners are revealed in a BBC television programme.

Director of the National Botanic Garden of Wales, Kevin Lamb said he was delighted the gardens had received enough votes to make it through to the final and urged supporters to keep on voting.

"We have until the end of August to get enough votes to top the poll so, get behind the only remaining finalist from Wales and the most visited garden in the Principality, then get on line or call the vote line," he said.

The �43m National Botanic Garden of Wales was built with the help of �22m of lottery funding and was opened seven years ago by Prince Charles.

The tropical house was opened in July

Four years ago the tourist attraction was within hours of having to call in the administrators.

But at the last minute, a �1.5m rescue package of public funding was put together by the Welsh Assembly Government, Carmarthenshire Council and the Millennium Commission as part of a five-year recovery strategy.

In 2006, 120,000 people visited the gardens at Llanarthne and these figures are forecast to increase further with the opening in July of a tropical house designed by Welsh Architect John Belle.

The garden was set up to restore a rundown 500-acre Regency estate, and develop it into a viable botanic garden dedicated to the research and conservation of biodiversity.

The National Lottery Awards were established to celebrate and recognise the difference that Lottery-funded projects have made to communities across the UK.

Since The National Lottery began in 1994, more than �20 billion has been raised and over 250,000 grants given out across charities, arts, sport, environmental, health and educational initiatives, said a spokeswoman.