Charles Huber
Charles Gottlieb Huber (1818 – 20 August 1907[1]) was a French horticulturist, founder in 1856 of Charles Huber Brothers & Co.[2] He was one of the leading promoters in the 19th century of exotic plant acclimatization on the French Riviera.[3] His nursery achieved international renown.
Biography
Huber studied in Heidelberg and later worked in the town administration of Hyères under Mayor Alphonse Denis, who commissioned him to design his park. He became head gardener of the municipality. A Protestant, he was active in the Reformed Church of Hyères and naturalized as French in 1870.
Acclimatization of Exotic Plants
Huber was a pioneer in acclimatizing palms and other exotic species in Provence. He and his brothers introduced yucca, Chilean palms and numerous tropical plants, supplying public parks and private gardens across Europe. In 1878 his firm exhibited at the Paris Universal Exhibition and opened a branch in Nice.
He hired the young German landscaper Ludwig Winter, who later designed the Hanbury Botanical Gardens at La Mortola and established his own palm nursery at Bordighera. Huber collaborated scientifically and commercially with Winter, the Hanbury brothers and botanist Charles Naudin.
Charles Huber Brothers & Co.
The nursery’s 1867 seed catalogue offered new Mexican squash Cucurbita argyrosperma C.Huber and rare tomato varieties long since lost. It specialized in palms (Canary date, European fan), eucalypts, agaves, cannas, dahlias, statices and many other ornamentals.
Huber also worked on squash and nightshade breeding with Naudin, introducing Lotus australis from Australia and Cuphea galeottiana from Mexico. He supplied Covent Garden and London parks with daily shipments of mature plants and trees carefully packed for long-distance transport.
Selected Publications
- Charles Naudin, Journal of Practical Horticulture, Librairie Agricole de la Maison Rustique, Paris, various issues.
References
External links
- Article on Charles Huber, head gardener at Château Denis in Revue Horticole.
- Exotic plants with commercial potential in Hortus Mortolensis.