At the beginning of the XIX-th century, the physician of the Sukhumi military garrison, Vladislav Bagrinovsky, established a garden near his home, where he cultivated medicinal plants to treat sick soldiers suffering from fever.
The garden attracted the attention of General-Lieutenant Nikolai Nikolaevich Rayevskiy (1801–1843), the commander of defences on the Black Sea.
With his support, the garden was placed under state care in 1840, and Bagrinovsky became its first curator.
Initially, the botanical garden covered an area of 0.5 desyatinas (approximately 0.55 hectares), but by 1841, an additional 3 desyatinas were allocated, and in 1847, a new section was cleared at the foot of Trapezia Mountain.
By that time, the number of plant species cultivated in the garden had reached 64.
The garden is also notable for being the site where the first tea bush in Abkhazia was planted in 1848.
Additionally, a 250-year-old linden tree, which predates the founding of the garden, continues to grow there.
In 1877, the tree was cut down by the Turks, but it survived and eventually grew to a height of 20 meters.
The Sukhumi Botanical Garden is also home to the oldest sequoia in the former USSR, planted in 1848.
Today, the botanical garden hosts approximately 5,000 plant species.