Friedrich Hans Paul Ruschpler (1832-1888), nurseryman
[From Rosen-Zeitung, 1894, p. 107:] One hardly remembers seeing really beautiful standard trees grown from seeds anywhere in Germany 15 years ago, with the exception of Paul Ruschpler-Dresden. Now, however, these are used exclusively in some businesses...
[From Sitzungsberiche und Abhandlungen - Flora, 1909, p. 5:] The name Ruschpler was represented at the time by a med. Dr. The owner of the previously famous Rose garden with the same name joined [the society Flora] only in 1857.
[From Rosen-Zeitung, 1926, p. 31 ff.:] Paul Ruschpler in Dresden, the old master of Dresden's rose culture...Often 'Ruschpler told how one day, in... July, standing in front of his field of wild roses, silent with joy and grateful, thousands and but thousands of strong young shoots rose above the bushes.....After 1½ years, the first crop of standards on seedling canes was ready for sale. Beautifully rooted, flexible and smooth canes with round crowns and ripe wood; can one believe that these were rejected by some buyers? One was too much used to thick stems from the forest, which back then came from Holstein, Lübeck, Köstritz and France. But finally the good prevailed and the economic upswing after 1870 increased demand.....At that time, Ruschpler only sold to private individuals, at higher prices. The decisive incentive to buy was large range that Ruschpler had been offering for years, and in those early times probably was the largest in Germany. In 1875 his Catalog counted 1200, a few years later already 2200 varieties.....At the end of the 70s a change took place; it subsided slowly, then rapidly. There were numerous new nurseries and from all sides there were old and new colleagues flocked to Ruschpler's grandiose rosarium, and since he was no secretive and always pleasant, it was not difficult for them to grasp the method of cultivation and become themselves competitors of Ruschpler....
Ruschpler continued to grow roses commercially only until the end of the 1870s, and then until his death in 1888 as a hobby. Old damask, Provins roses and Hybrid varieties enjoyed his special affection, among the latter Princesse impériale Clotilde, Virginale, Mme Liabaud, Mme Nomann, Louise Magnan, Jeanne d'Arc, roses, which are unfortunately all considered lost. Then came tea roses with particularly delicate colours .....Such favorites were Souvenir d'un ami, Homere, Mme Charles, Louise de Savoie, Jean Pernet, Laure Fontaine, Alba rosea, Comtesse (Ducher 1873), Reine de Portugal, Hippolyte Jamain, Ma Capucine, Le Nankin, Belle Cuivree, Souv. de Paul Neyron, Mélanie Willermoz etc....
Ruschpler purchased the annual novelties in herb-like winter graftings from Soupert and Notting At that time thew were seen as a central point for innovations. Soupert himself, who visited him often, was one of the first to say this without reservation recognized Ruschpler's great contribution to seedling culture.....
Paul Ruschpler Sr born in Dresden in 1832 as the son of ...court councillor Dr. med. Heinrich Ruschpler, one of his 18 children [Dr. Heinrich Conrad Ruschpler, dentist]..... completed his apprenticeship in the local botanical garden, which was then under Head of Privy Councillor Prof. Dr. Reichenbach and Inspector Maeser. After a temporary job at the castle nursery of Count Thun at Tetschen on the Elbe he soon came to Herrenhausen in Hanover, where he gained special interest in roses from Wendtland. There he got engaged with the daughter of a domain tenant, returned 1857 back to Dresden, made himself independent at the Chemnitzer Strasse, with mixed cultures of Roses, tall Fuchsias, heliotrope and pelargoniums, married 1858 and soon enlarged his little business with asparagus, especially roses....In 1873 he sold his property and settled along the Zella road where he established his Rose garden on 3000 m2...When he succeeded in growing rose understocks and standards from seeds of Canina he added 60'000 m2 of leased land. ...He died 1888 in his 57th year.
