Eduard Ortgies

Karl Eduard Ortgies (19 February 1829 Bremen – 1916), was a German horticulturist and nurseryman.

His father was a noted plant enthusiast and owned an extensive garden, so that Eduard was encouraged to choose the same career and accordingly began as apprentice at the market garden of Herr Böckmann in Hamburg on 1 May 1844. Here he served out 3 years of apprenticeship until December 1847. To round off his education he visited the renowned nurseries of Berlin, Potsdam, Magdeburg, Leipzig, Dresden, Erfurt and Hanover, and on 1 March 1848 started as assistant at Andrew Henderson & Co., Pineapple Place Nursery in London.

In May 1849 he joined the staff at Chatsworth House, country seat of the Duke of Devonshire, boasting a famous garden of great splendour, with elaborate water works, a giant fountain, an enormous conservatory and an important collection of orchids and other botanical treasures. William Cavendish, the incumbent Duke, was a passionate gardener and collector who had inherited the title in 1811.

The designer of the sumptuous grounds and residence was gardener and architect Joseph Paxton, who entrusted young Eduard with the care of Victoria regia which in 1849 existed in England only as a few seedlings raised by the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew. Three of the seedlings were donated to Chatsworth, Syon House and Regent's Park, and competition was intense for the honour of coaxing from this waterlily the first blossom in Europe. On the evening of 8 November 1849, Ortgies could report to the Duke that the first bud was about to open. The news was wired to Queen Victoria and to the botanists Hooker, John Lindley, George Bentham who were invited to Chatsworth. This illustrious gathering attended the opening of the second bud.

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