On June 10, 1811, with the active participation of the famous botanist, sericulture inspector of the south of Russia M. Biberstein, the "Decree on the establishment of the Imperial State Botanical Garden in the Crimea" was signed in St. Petersburg. In the same year, 375 acres of land were bought from the local landowner Smirnov near the village of Nikita (now the village of Botanicheskoe). M. Bieberstein offered the post of director of the garden to his assistant, 30-year-old scientist H.H. Steven. Already in September 1812, the first landings were made. This was the beginning of the modern State Nikitsky Botanical Garden. For 14 years of tireless activity, H.H. Steven, later nicknamed "Nestor of Russian botanists", collected more than 450 species of exotic plants.
Today, the living collection of the garden includes 30 thousand species, hybrids and varieties of plants from almost all countries of the world. California oak grows in the Lower Park of the garden (it is not found anywhere else in our country), and in Primorsky there are the most heat-loving trees and shrubs: myrtle, feijoa, orchid tree, hamerops (dwarf palm). There are Aleppo pine, Numidian (Algerian) fir, grass-leaved oak (California) and Arizona cypress, virginian juniper and the only instance of the "iron tree" in the Nikitsky Garden - Persian parottia. The tree reaches 6 m in height, has a crown of broad oval leaves, which take on a pink-orange color in autumn.

A tour of the Nikitsky Garden starts from the Upper Park, where along the skillfully designed alleys you can find plantings of plants brought from all continents of the Earth: bamboo from Northern China, evergreen holm oak, powerful fir trees, plane tree, giant sequoiadendron (mammoth tree). In this part of the Garden, yew berry grows, reaching 500 years of age, reminiscent of the local former relict forests.
The Lower Park is the oldest part of the Nikitsky Garden, created in the first half of the 19th century. The olive grove, founded more than 160 years ago, and other heat-loving crops: figs, medlar, persimmon, attract attention here. Particularly interesting are the old trees of small-fruited strawberry (red strawberry tree), listed in the International Red Book. The next, Primorsky Park, is better protected than others by the surrounding mountain ridges, the climate is milder here, and therefore the most heat-loving evergreen forms of plants are represented in this part of the Nikitsky Garden: a variety of palm trees, cryptomeria and osmanthus, mastic pistachio, numerous brightly flowering subtropical shrubs.
On both sides of Primorsky Park there are two more interesting objects of the Nikitsky Garden. In the east there is the Cape Martyan reserve, where the most valuable corner of the relic sub-Mediterranean forest is preserved, in which rare trees, shrubs and herbs grow in virgin conditions - about 500 species in total - and all this wealth on 120 hectares of protected land! The reserve is a natural laboratory for garden scientists, so it is closed for public excursions.

To the west of Primorsky Park, closer to Yalta, there is a park on Cape Montador, where, along with native species - downy oak, high juniper - a number of relict coniferous exotic species grow: many species of pine from around the world, metasequoia with tender, falling needles for the winter. Here you can also admire the plantings of Pitsunda pine, whose natural plantations in the Crimea have been preserved on the Southern coast only on Cape Aya in the west and in the New World in the east. Visitors are also surprised by the old grove of mammoth trees, plantings of Mexican cypress, gutta-percha tree and other exotics.
Nikitsky Garden is a place where you want to visit more than once. And every time you will discover new and new details. As in a museum that stores the work of great masters. Here, nature itself acted as such a brilliant master. And a man made this beauty accessible to everyone, gave it a worthy frame, planted a tree that suddenly smells like a spring honey aroma on you in November, threw bridges over streams, built pools and charming viewing platforms ...