Historical background

The creation of the Batumi Botanical Garden can be traced to the several factors, the climatic conditions of the Black sea littoral and great interest in this region. First introduction activities started along the Black Sea from 1870s. The first Pioneer holiday makers like Mecheslav D’ Alphonse and a geographer and botanist Pavel Tatarinow were one of the initiators of plant introduction along the Black Sea.

Their acclimatization gardens, present territories of the “Lower Park” and “Upper Park” of the Garden used to be the first units for spreading and wide implementation of subtropical plants. Later, in 1893 the founder of the Batumi Botanical Garden, botanist, soil expert, geographer, Andrey Nickolaevich Krasnov, Professor of Kharkov University visited Batumi for the first time. He was well aware of the subtropical zone plants throughout the world.

So, after studying the researches of Batumi microclimate by Voyevikkov-Klingen, he concluded that the climatic conditions in Batumi were the most favorable for the growth and cultivation of subtropical and some tropical plants. In accordance with the Russian Imperial Order at that time and with the supporting of the Batumi Agricultural Society, the directors of the Tbilisi and Sokhumi Botanical Gardens, members of the Department of Agriculture and Land Surveying in Leningrad and others, the Batumi Botanical Garden were founded on 3 November, 1912.