While Michael d’Alfons contributed to building the foundation of Batumi’s Botanic Garden, the garden’s creation was a much more complex task and linked to attracting a lot of financing. It was Andrey Krasnov, a professor from Kharkiv University, who gave the impetus to gather support and by his intensive lobbying efforts launched the Botanic Garden at its present location. In 1909 he was instrumental in persuading the Russian Empire bureaucrats in charge of agriculture to launch the Botanic Garden in Chakvi.
The justification was that Chakvi, more than any other Black Sea Coast location of the Russian Empire, was fit to cultivate and possibly introduce plants from countries quite distant from Europe such as China, Japan, Chile, and Australia. Professor Krasnov’s efforts materialized and Imperial Russia allocated funds for the building and expansion of the area that was earlier cultivated by the French botanist d’Alfons. Krasnov did an amazingly good job and thanks to him Georgia has such a beautiful park not far from Batumi which otherwise may never have been constructed.
Two years later in 1914 when the Botanic Garden’s founder passed away, he was interred on the garden’s territory. His grave and statue can be visited on the way to the lower part of the garden where it’s possible to pay homage to this wonderful man.
