Louis Benoit Van Houtte Biography

By Melanie | August 27, 2013

Louis Van Houtte Portrait (1810 – 1876)

Louis Benoit Van Houtte was born July 1*, 1810 in Ypres and died on May 9, 1876 in Gentbrugge in the arms of his wife and children. Over 2,000 people attended his funeral at 10am on May 12.

He was the only son of his mother Isabelle Van Houtte (born De Witte) and his father Timothee Van Houtte who died March 2, 1821 at about 54 years of age. In December 1831, he married Clemence Boutez who died within a year of the marriage. In July 1836, he married Wilhelmine Lefebvre and they had several children including a son Louis A. Van Houtte who took over the business after his father’s death.

Louis Benoit Van Houtte liked flowers at an early age and was given part of the family’s garden so he could grow his favorite plants. At the age of 15, he was sent to Paris to study at Ecole superieure de commerce. He was studious but enjoyed visiting the Jardin des Plantes on his days off of school. At about the age 18, his family’s fortune changed requiring him to leave school and take a job in Clermont-Ferrand where he lived, with his mother, for about two years.

In 1830, he departed for Belgium and fought for Belgium’s independence. After the country achieved its independence, he took a position at the Ministry of Finance. He found that the position did not suit him and asked for an unlimited leave from his post which was granted on Feb 1, 1833. He dedicated himself to the study of plants both at the Botanical Garden of Brussels as well as private greenhouses and gardens. He published his observations in the journal l’Emancipation. In 1833, he founded the journal l’Horticulteur belge with botanist Charles Morren as a collaborator. He also established a garden center of sorts that offered plants, onions, grains and gardening tools.

On January 5, 1834 he left Anvers for an expedition to Rio-de-Janeiro. The passage was difficult and took about four months. He spent over a year in Brazil, leaving the country at the end of November 1835 and landing in Brussels in the first few months of 1836. July of that same year, he married Wilhelmine Lefebvre. He soon became the Director of the Botanical Garden of Brussels but left this post after two years because conflicts with the administration.

He met Adolf Papeleu and the two formed a partnership, first setting their sights on London but they soon abandoning that plan for their nursery for another, Gentbrugge. Alex Verschaffelt offered the two partners a long-term lease (32 years) on a property in Gentbrugge, Ghent. The lease also included a purchase clause which Van Houtte exercised in 1872 and became the sole owner, the partnership having dissolved within five years of the beginning of the lease. The property had over 50 greenhouses and an estimated 30 hectares under cultivation.

In January 1845, he began publishing the Flore des serres et des jardins de l’Europe. Each volume had over 100 plates and about 1,600 copies were printed of each volume. He also published Hortus Van Houtteanus and opened a horticultural school on April 30, 1849. Some of the students became botanical garden directors, professors and leaders of expeditions. He also built a church as well a road in Gentbrugge. Over 35 years, he participated in competitions and won thousands of medals.

He was a perfectionist whose mind was always active. He believed he had accomplished nothing if there was still something left to do. He perfected his collections and gardens by keeping in touch with garden directors, horticulturalists and amateurs from around the world as well as funding expeditions around the world which resulted in new plants for his collection. He was also a member of many botanical/scientific societies, both in Belgium and around the world. Lastly, he was honored with many royal orders.

*Source: A detailed biography, in French, can be found in an 1877 edition of Flore des serres et des jardins de l’Europe. The above text is summarized from the text in the volume.