Zugdidi Botanical Garden

Zugdidi, Georgia, Georgia

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The Zugdidi Botanical Garden is one of Georgia's oldest and largest botanical gardens, located in Zugdidi in the Samegrelo region of western Georgia. Founded in 1840 by Prince David Dadiani of Samegrelo for his wife Princess Ekaterine Chavchavadze-Dadiani, who personally supervised all aspects of the planting, the garden covers 52 hectares and was designed by Italian landscape architect Joseph Babin in a French symmetrical style. The garden is renowned for its collection of over 500 to 1,000 species of trees, shrubs, flowers, and medicinal plants, including eight hundred-year-old specimens, exotic plants from southeast Asia, India, Japan, the Mediterranean, and the Americas, six species of magnolia, various oaks, Atlas and Himalayan cedar, rare Ginkgo biloba trees, and one of the world's finest rose collections. The garden features a picturesque man-made lake, streams, waterfalls, an orangery, a plant nursery, a labyrinth, and a hothouse, along with historic buildings including the Dadiani Palace. It serves as an important research base for introducing and acclimatizing valuable subtropical plants and contains plants listed in Georgia's "Red Book" and the Global Red List. Visitors can enjoy guided tours, picnics, camping, boat rentals, and serene natural surroundings, making it an ideal destination for families and nature enthusiasts to escape the heat and relax.