Peter Friedrich Bouché

Peter Friedrich Bouché, usually only briefly Peter Bouché (* February 15, 1785 in Berlin, † April 3, 1856 in Berlin ) was a Prussian " artistic and commercial gardeners " garden writer and entomologist.

Life and work

Peter Friedrich Bouché was a scion of the Berlin gardener Dynasty Bouché; He was the youngest son of Jean Bouché.

Horticulture actuation

After his death, he led from 1812 onwards, together with his already own plant nursery senior brother Peter Carl Bouché, his father's trade successfully continued. Particularly well known were his roses, auricula or primroses, carnations, Erica and pomegranates. In 1834 he had more than 500 varieties of roses in his range. He cultivated various ornamental plants for the first time in Prussia, the most famous of these is probably the rubber tree.

Prior to the founding of the Botanical Garden of the University Peter Bouché supplied the local professors and students with material for their Herbare.

Garden Books

His treatise The treatment of the plants in the room and in small gardens is a precursor of today's widely used self-help literature for indoor and garden plants.

In 1837 /38 in three volumes appeared another work on floriculture, 1840 again appeared as a summary in one volume.

Even a band with garden poems he wrote, but for private use.

Activity in professional bodies

The Society for the Promotion of horticulture, who was co-founded by his brother Peter Carl, he worked from 1822, was chairman of the Committee on vegetables and in 1853 was elected second Vice-Chairman. He was further court expert and value determination in horticultural questions, as well as director of the "German Hail Insurance Company for crops " since its founding in 1847.

Insektenkundliche operation

Furthermore, collected, researched and classified Peter Bouché numerous insects that act as pests and beneficials in horticulture, and published these findings in two books (1833 for the target group of gardeners and 1834 for the entomologist ) and various articles in professional journals. In his view, the function of many animal species was still too little known as Gartennützlinge why he committed to the protection of frogs, toads, moles, birds, etc., due to their ecological importance. He writes: This police could leave the man to maintain the balance, if he had not bothered by his art the course of nature [ ... ].

He described 50 new aphid and as many Schildlausarten. With many contemporary professionals (eg Franz Julius Ferdinand Meyen, Christoph Friedrich Klug, Julius Theodor Ratzeburg ), he was also in contact and was also in the Society Nature Research- friends to Berlin Member.