Hermann Seidel (gardener)

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Seidel's gravestone in the Striesen cemetery

Traugott Jacob Hermann Seidel (born December 26, 1833 in Dresden ; † April 28, 1896 there ) was a German gardener and plant breeder. He came from a traditional Saxon gardening family . He achieved international renown with the breeding of hardy rhododendrons .

family

Hermann Seidel's grandfather was Johann Heinrich Seidel , who became known as the “father of Dresden horticulture” for his plant collection in the Duchess Garden in Dresden. Hermann's father Friedrich Jakob Seidel and his brother Traugott Leberecht founded the Seidelsche Gärtnerei , which existed under the direction of Hermann and his descendants until the end of the Second World War . Another son of Hermann Seidel, Rudolf Seidel, relocated part of the family business to Grüngräbchen near Kamenz , where it is still today (as of January 2017) as T. J. Rud. Seidel Rhododendron Cultures is family owned. Hermann Seidel was married to Minna Sidonie Seidel (née Hoffmann, 1836–1917). His daughter Rosalie married the gardening architect Friedrich Bouché and thus connected the two gardening dynasties Seidel and Bouché .

Life

Hermann Seidel took over his father's gardening business in 1860. During his apprenticeship and traveling years , he came to France and England , where he worked with the gardener and plant breeder John Standish . He encountered the first attempts at breeding hardy rhododendrons . Seidel picked up on this idea, as previously only rhododendrons were known in Germany that could not overwinter outdoors. In 1867, Seidelsche Gärtnerei launched its own azalea cultivation , the second in Germany. Seidel's breeds and a form of refinement introduced from 1884 were able to displace the previously economically leading competition from Belgium.

Seidel's nursery in Striesen

Due to the steadily increasing space requirements of his nursery, he moved the business to Striesen in 1865, which was largely undeveloped at the time . He started growing plants in 18 greenhouses on an area of ​​over 6 hectares near the Great Garden . A little later, Seidel expanded the grounds of the nursery to include land on what is now Pohlandstrasse and Schandauer Strasse. There he erected two greenhouses on rails that could be placed over the plant cultures using a crank mechanism. Visitors to his nursery also included the then Saxon King Albert , who personally operated the cranks in the greenhouses when he visited the company. Seidel's technique served as the idea for the camellia house in Pillnitz, which was also mounted on rails . A pine forest immediately adjacent to the nursery was also acquired by Seidel in order to primarily plant rhododendrons. He called this area " Zanzibar " because of its location at the time on the edge of the populated area . His numerous new hybrids of hardy and other rhododendron species, bred from 1877 onwards, made him and the Striesen nursery well known nationwide. In addition to the rhododendrons, Seidel mainly cultivated azaleas (around 400 varieties) and camellias (around 1100 varieties) in his gardens . Seidel's breeds were presented at international exhibitions, for example at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago . Thanks to this international recognition of Seidel's plant breeding, Striesen advanced to become one of the most important horticultural locations in the German-speaking area, where up to 50 horticultural companies temporarily settled.

Hermann Seidel played a key role in the organization of the International Horticultural Exhibitions in Dresden, the first of which was held in the Great Garden in 1887 ; his sons Rudolf and Heinrich were responsible for organizing the exhibitions in 1896 and 1907.

His sons got into their father's business at the end of the 1880s and took it over in 1891. Hermann Seidel died in 1896 and was buried in the cemetery in Striesen. A street in the then still independent community of Laubegast was named after Hermann Seidel in 1897. The area of ​​Seidel's nursery known as “Sansibar” was redesigned after its move to Laubegast in the Hermann Seidel Park .

Seidel died at the age of 63 and was buried in the Striesen cemetery . His grave is a listed building.

Villa "Zanzibar"

At the edge of the pine forest Seidel had acquired in Striesen, which he called " Sansibar " because of its secluded location at the time , he had a villa built as his home in 1895 on today's Augsburger Strasse. This house was named "Villa Zanzibar". After Hermann's death in 1896, his wife Minna lived in the building. When parts of the nursery became the property of the city of Dresden in 1920/21, a nursery with a children's home was set up in the villa. The building was partially destroyed in the Second World War. After it was rebuilt in 1950, the villa was used as a kindergarten until 2008. The building was then torn down and replaced by a new building, which has again housed a daycare center since 2011.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Saxon biography. Retrieved January 30, 2014 .
  2. ^ History of the TJ Rud. Seidel rhododendron cultures. Retrieved January 25, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Stefanie Krihning: Friedrich Bouché . In: Institute for Saxon History and Folklore (Ed.): Saxon Biography .
  4. ↑ a b Lars Herrmann: Seidelsche Gärtnerei. In: www.dresdner-stadtteile.de. Retrieved February 5, 2014 .
  5. ^ A b Journal American Rhododendron Society: The Seidel Rhododendrons - Origins and Types. Retrieved February 13, 2014 .
  6. Jump up ↑ Camel Castle, Zusendorf - History of the Azalea Collection. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 20, 2017 ; accessed on February 1, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kamelienschloss.de
  7. ↑ Mustafa Haikal: The camellia forest. P. 78 ff.
  8. ↑ a b 200 years of ornamental plant cultivation in Saxony. P. 51 ff.
  9. ↑ Marion and Matthias Riedel: The "Kamellien-Seidel" was clever and original . In: Dresden University Journal . No. 5/2010 , March 16, 2010, p. 4 ( online as PDF; 1.8 MB).
  10. ↑ Dresdner Geschichtsblätter 1897, No. 1, page 23. ( online ).
  11. ^ Street directory Dresden-Laubegast. Retrieved January 30, 2014 .
  12. ↑ Kay Haufe: The gardener who grew the hardy rhododendron. In: Sächsische Zeitung , edition of August 13, 2016.
  13. ^ Lars Herrmann: Augsburger Strasse. In: www.dresdner-stadtteile.de. Retrieved February 28, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Seidel, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German gardener and plant breeder
DATE OF BIRTH December 26, 1833
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden , Germany
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1896
Place of death Dresden , Germany