A Winemaker's Glass. Schomburgk's Palm House, Adelaide Botanic Garden, Adelaide, SA, Australia
The name of Moritz Richard Schomburgk (1811-1891) is rightly familiar to many in Adelaide. In great part that city's fine green-lined streets are due to his efforts. In the footsteps of Colonel William Light (1786-1839) who had planned 'a city within the setting of a park', Schomburgk put great effort into expanding that vision for healthy air in the new city. And he did his utmost, too, in putting his knowledge of botany and horticulture to practical use in advising on suitable crops for the area.
Schomburgk - among many other things also an intrepid naturalist of South America - emigrated from Germany to southern Australia in the wake of the European convulsions of 1848. Together with his brother - the founder of the Sud-Australische Zeitung - Schomburgk settled at first near Gawler. Immediately he planted a vineyard with verdelho and mataro grapes. He made wine and also sold table grapes. Not a man to rest easy, he quickly became involved in agronomy, and was soon the curator (1865) of the young Adelaide Botanic Garden. He turned its bad fortune around and under his leadership it began to thrive not only in the area of 'crop studies' but also in that of tropical plants in general.
Schomburgk kept abreast of his field through botanical and horticultural journals, and when it became necessary to construct a glass house for plants not used to the climate of Adelaide, he followed their lead. Schomburgk learned of a glass house constructed for Alexander Wilhelm Rothermundt of Bremen, Germany. It had been designed by the German neo-gothic architect Gustav Runge (1822-1900).
In short, a glass house of that kind was commissioned and built in Germany - at great cost, it might be added. And it was reconstructed in the Adelaide Botanic Garden in 1875 and opened in 1877.
It's truly a magnificent building, and I understand it is the only one of its kind in the world still in existence. This alone is worth a detour - as they say - to Adelaide if not all her other marvels.
You might learn more about Schomburgk by going to:
adb.anu.edu.au/biography/schomburgk-moritz-richard-4543
PS My internet connection is a bit flaky again... Sorry...
A Winemaker's Glass. Schomburgk's Palm House, Adelaide Botanic Garden, Adelaide, SA, Australia
The name of Moritz Richard Schomburgk (1811-1891) is rightly familiar to many in Adelaide. In great part that city's fine green-lined streets are due to his efforts. In the footsteps of Colonel William Light (1786-1839) who had planned 'a city within the setting of a park', Schomburgk put great effort into expanding that vision for healthy air in the new city. And he did his utmost, too, in putting his knowledge of botany and horticulture to practical use in advising on suitable crops for the area.
Schomburgk - among many other things also an intrepid naturalist of South America - emigrated from Germany to southern Australia in the wake of the European convulsions of 1848. Together with his brother - the founder of the Sud-Australische Zeitung - Schomburgk settled at first near Gawler. Immediately he planted a vineyard with verdelho and mataro grapes. He made wine and also sold table grapes. Not a man to rest easy, he quickly became involved in agronomy, and was soon the curator (1865) of the young Adelaide Botanic Garden. He turned its bad fortune around and under his leadership it began to thrive not only in the area of 'crop studies' but also in that of tropical plants in general.
Schomburgk kept abreast of his field through botanical and horticultural journals, and when it became necessary to construct a glass house for plants not used to the climate of Adelaide, he followed their lead. Schomburgk learned of a glass house constructed for Alexander Wilhelm Rothermundt of Bremen, Germany. It had been designed by the German neo-gothic architect Gustav Runge (1822-1900).
In short, a glass house of that kind was commissioned and built in Germany - at great cost, it might be added. And it was reconstructed in the Adelaide Botanic Garden in 1875 and opened in 1877.
It's truly a magnificent building, and I understand it is the only one of its kind in the world still in existence. This alone is worth a detour - as they say - to Adelaide if not all her other marvels.
You might learn more about Schomburgk by going to:
adb.anu.edu.au/biography/schomburgk-moritz-richard-4543
PS My internet connection is a bit flaky again... Sorry...