Page:Charles von Hügel (1903 memoir).djvu/49



Hoibrenk, whose education as a gardener had been received in Holland, left the post he then held at Paris and entered Hügel's service. He was principally active in that part of the Hietzing property which served as a nursery. By setting apart a portion of the Hietzing estate for commercial gardening Hügel perfumed a service of no small importance. He was not of course thinking of the profits, these fell to the share of his zealous coadjutor Hoibrenk: what he cared for was the opportunity which his nursery garden gave him of promoting Austrian horticulture, both by making it easy for gardeners and amateurs to acquire recently discovered or rare plants, and by shewing practically what nursery gardening on rational principles should be. Hoibrenk exerted himself in Hügel's service in yet other ways: thus, commissioned by Hügel, he undertook travels in Russia, Turkey, Asia Minor, and Egypt, for objects connected with the rearing of flowers and landscape gardening.

Hügel's gardens became a veritable school of floriculture; but it was not specialists only and the learned men who were admitted to them. With a view to the diffusion far and wide of the delights of flower culture, Hügel not only arranged special exhibitions, but also, three times a week, opened his conservatories and his grounds to the public. The Hügel gardens enjoyed an extraordinary popularity, and his Majesty our Emperor in his early youth, before his accession to the throne [with his brother, Maximilian, the late Emperor of Mexico], and other Princes and Princesses of the Imperial house, were frequent visitors to these justly famous gardens.

I have already mentioned the transformation the Demidoff gardens in Florence experienced under Hügel's influence and with his co-operation. Many other pleasure-grounds in Austria, Germany, and other countries, owe their