Alexander von Humboldt

History.

Our gardens are always good for a surprise. For many plants in our gardens which are so common today originally come from different regions of the world and were already imported some hundred years ago. Their history is associated with names like Alexander von Humboldt, Adalbert von Chamisso or Phillip Franz von Siebold. The enquiring mind of those scientists was limitless and they started to explore continents like America or Asia. To measure out and to specify almost everything they saw.
We can hardly comprehend the enthusiasm of the people when new and by then unknown species of plants arrived in Europe for the first time. Botany became popular and botanic gardens started to boom.
Many of the new plants found fast spreading in the gardens. Thus we owe to the Japan traveller Philipp Franz von Siebold (doctor and plant hunter, 1796 - 1866) many plants which are not to be imagined as not existing in our gardens today. E.g. Hydrangeas (Hydrangea), Funkia (Hosta), Clematis, Magnolias (Magnolia sieboldii), to different Lilies (Lilium), or the Japanese Anemone belong to it.