Who was Carl Ludwig Sprenger?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
September 1, 2006
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In 1938, David Fairchild wrote, "Possibly a million people have grown pots of it on their window-sills, but it is doubtful if a dozen or more have ever wondered about the man who introduced it into cultivation and after whom it was named." Easy to cultivate, tolerant of sun and neglect, with graceful arching stems, how many millions more have grown it since then? It softens the edges of window boxes and dramatically fills hanging baskets. Eduard August von Regel named it, Asparagus Sprengeri in 1890.
But this decorative asparagus was already named Asparagus aethiopicus by Linnaeus. It was forgotten; a dusty herbarium specimen for 123 years when Carl Ludwig Sprenger rediscovered the plant and made it popular.
Sprenger was born on the 30th of November, 1846 in Güstrow, Germany. He was a botanist who loved to garden. Sometime around 1877, he went to work in Naples.
"NOTES" in the December 25, 1895 issue of Garden and Forest stated, "...still another race...Italian Cannas, [are] produced by Messrs. Dammann & Co. at their grounds, near Naples. Monsieur Sprenger, a member of this firm...has been experimenting with some new blood, employing for this purpose the Canna flaccida, a species of the southern United States...." Sprenger introduced the 'orchid-flowered' cannas with names like Italia, Austria, Atalanta, America, Burgundia, and Allemaniana--special ones he carefully selected from thousands of seedlings.
Fairchild met Sprenger in October 1902. By then, Sprenger had moved onto hybridizing Yucca and he created 122 beautiful hybrids. Fairchild praised Sprenger, "a brilliant botanist who had established a nursery...he was one of those real plantsmen who both know the names of plants and how to grow them....
"Many letters passed between us in later years....His most dramatic epistle described the appearance of his Naples garden after an eruption of Vesuvius [April 4, 1906] had buried his plants under volcanic ash, destroying hundreds of his best specimens."
Sprenger was known to roam mountain sides and meadows. He enthusiastically collected seeds for botanical gardens and gave of his knowledge to others.
In 1907, Kaiser Wilhelm (William II) purchased Achilleion, a garden with a palace on Corfu (Kerkyra). Sprenger became supervisor of the Kaiser's garden. After his move to Corfu, letters from Sprenger came less often. After the events of 1914, the letters ceased. Fairchild wrote, "I lost track of him completely during the war...." Corfu changed; Serbian soldiers, broken and defeated, sought refuge there.
No one alive today knows what really happened. The Kaiser blamed the Italians. The man who surrounded himself with plants died December 13, 1917, a hostage of war.
Sprenger's life had had no sound; Fairchild wrote that he was "very deaf". Perhaps he loved plants so much because they spoke in colors, shapes, and scents. In the end, he did not even have flowers.
Benny Møller Jensen (Benny's Kaktus) has a page dedicated to Sprenger's Yucca hybrids. To view the many hybrids, click on the link:
http://www.bennyskaktus.dk/sprenger.htm
(Compiled from: The World was My Garden: Travels of a Plant Explorer, David Fairchild, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1938; "Notes", Garden and Forest, Vol. 8, Issue 409, December 25, 1895 Published to the internet by American Memory, the Nineteenth Century in Print, Library of Congress; The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland, Henry John Elwes and Augustine Henry, Privately Published, 1907, Published to the internet by University of Georgia Libraries; "William II, German Emperor", Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia )
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Suggested Reading:
Sprenger's Asparagus-fern (Asparagus aethiopicus) Plants of the Week - August 28, 2006
What butterfly never visits a flower? Renfield's Garden - May 29, 2002
How does the yucca protect its seeds? Renfield's Garden - June 12, 2002
How was widow spider silk vital to WWII? Renfield's Garden - August 27, 2003
Why are canna flowers so unusual? Weird Plants - September 26, 2002
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