On the site of the current National Botanical Garden of Georgia, there were three small gardens belonging to Georgian rulers. Established in the early 17th century, they were documented by the French explorer Jean Chardin (1643-1713) and Vakhushti Bagrationi (in his maps, in 1735). This layout of the gardens was preserved until the Persian invasion of 1795.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the garden was managed by the treasury of the Russian Empire. In 1845, by decree of Governor Mikhail Vorontsov, it was officially renamed the Tiflis Botanical Garden (formerly known as the Royal Garden). In 1872, the first two greenhouses for tropical and subtropical plants were built on its territory. In 1888, a plant nursery was established, and at the same time, the Floristics Center was founded.
Between 1886 and 1904, the Botanical Garden was expanded to the west, and by the middle of the last century, the old Muslim cemetery on the right bank of the Tsavkisiskali River and the northeastern slope of Mount Tabor were added to it. From 1910 to 1914, the Russian botanist and archaeologist F. I. Gorepekin made a significant contribution to the development of the garden – about 1,500 plants were transported by him from the Caucasus Mountains. Under his leadership, an area dedicated to the flora of the Caucasus was established.
Currently, the Botanical Garden covers an area of 128 hectares. It features more than 4,500 species of flora from around the world, about 700 of which are endemic to the Caucasus, and 370 of these are included in the List of Threatened Species.