Franz Boos
Franz Boos ( born December 23, 1753 Frauenalb; † February 9, 1832 in Vienna ) was a head gardener, animal and plant collectors of the 18th century and director of the Imperial and Royal courtyard gardens in Vienna.
Life
Boos came from a resident in the Grand Duchy of Baden gardener family, his father was a gardener in Oberhof Rastatt. Franz Boos began his career in 1771 as a gardener of Prince Leopold of Dietrichsteinplatz in Seelowitz ( Moravia ). From 1774 to 1775 he was in the famous gardens of Prince Johann I Josef of Liechtenstein in Lednice ( also Moravia ) operates. 1776 Franz Boos found a job as an assistant to the KuK Courtyard gardens at Schonbrunn in Vienna.
On behalf of Emperor Joseph II sent Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin (Director of the Botanical Garden of the University of Vienna and the Imperial Gardens of Schonbrunn Palace, and traveled in the 1750s, even after the West Indies ) Franz Boos on two expeditions to the Hofgarten and the Hofmenagerie collect rare plants and animals. The plants should increase in 1780 partly frozen by a heating failure renowned collection of exotic plants and expand again.
The first (of Jacquin and Ignaz von Born with the Emperor requested ) trip took Boos, who was charged in particular with the collection of live animals, from the spring of 1783 under the direction of the botanist Franz Joseph Märter and accompanied by the botanist Mathias Leopold Stupicz, the gardener agents Brede Franz Meyer and the painter Adam Moll. in the Southeastern United States, where he was in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, New jersey and the eastern Florida
Brede Meyer brought mid- 1784 the first transport of live plants to Vienna. Even the end of the year he was sent a second time, traveled to Haiti on Martinique, where he met Maerter. From August 1785 to February 1786 he collected in Puerto Rico. After returning to Haiti, he was sent to Venezuela, where he arrived on Curacao on September 12, 1788 in Vienna again. 1793 Brede Meyer was appointed head gardener and overseer of the fruit and parks of Schönbrunn, 1827 until his death in 1839 as the successor of Boos Director of the courtyard gardens and the menagerie at Schönbrunn.
With Märter and Johann David Schoepf Boos made in March 1784 to the Bahamas Island Providence and made from there bus tours on Guanahani and other islands. On September 9, he left the island group, returned to Charleston in South Carolina and sent his collections (mostly live plants ) in May 1785 in Vienna. In September 1785, he returned to Vienna via Holland.
On his return, he was sent under the impression its yield on a second journey that took him from October 1785 to South Africa. It was this time directed by him, where he was accompanied by his assistant, the gardener Georg Scholl from Weil Bach. Boos visited from May 1786 to February 1787, often accompanied by the Scots Francis Masson, the Cape until after Swartland and the semi-desert Karoo, collecting live plants, bulbs, seeds, birds, insects and other things. From the beginning of 1787 he traveled to the foothills of the Cape of Good Hope and from April 1787 several islands, including Ile- de -France ( Mauritius) and Bourbon ( Réunion). Georg Scholl remained until 1798 site and only came back in Vienna at the end of 1799, while Franz Boos over Cape Town in August 1788 more than three hundred boxes of plants for the herbarium of the Imperial and Royal Courtyard Natural History Cabinet (today's Museum of Natural History ) returned to Vienna. Among them were some copies of the Kaplilie ( Veltheimia capensis ), which were propagated by bulblets and their descendants today in the " Desert House ( Sundial House ) " Schönbrunn Zoo are seen. Also a Fockea capensis ( family of milkweed family) to come from this expedition. The now 800 -year-old copy is considered the oldest cultivated in a pot succulent plant in the world. Boos also brought twelve living mammals ( including primates) and around 250 birds. Many of the species were subsequently described by Jacquin and illustrated.
Due to his achievements Franz Boos in 1790 appointed director of the Schönbrunn Menagerie and the so-called " Dutch Hofgarten " ( after the death of Richard van der Schoot ) by Emperor Leopold, 1807 Director of all Hofgärten, 1810 Imperial Council. In 1827 he retired. Together with his son Joseph Boos, who succeeded the father, he published in 1816 a compilation of the time in the courtyard of Schönbrunn cultivated and wild plants ( Schönbrunn 's flora or systematically arranged directory of the His Imperial royal. Dutch - botanical courtyard garden at Schonbrunn cultivated plants, published by Geistinger, Vienna and Trieste ).
By Franz Boos is also a plan of the courtyard gardens of Schönbrunn in 1780, shortly after their completion is obtained.
The later Düsseldorf garden artist Maximilian Friedrich Weyhe completed at the beginning of his gardener training, among other things to study with Franz Boos in Vienna. Boos was a childhood friend of Peter Joseph the Elder. ( Lenne Elder. Was in 1788 a senior royal gardener in Brühl ( Rhineland ) and Head of the Botanical Garden of the University of Bonn) and gave his son, the later famous landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenne, a job at Schönbrunn.
1905 Franz Boos Lane was named in Vienna Hietzing after him.