Who made history in the Brazilian orchidophilia
Aniel Carnier
Aniel Carnier, an icon in our orchidophilia, said that she has already gone through many difficulties, but never gave up on orchids side.
'' When he was 16, his father became blind. His brothers were already married and I had to manage the family bakery''. Before, Aniel worked as a mechanic at the old Companhia Paulista. ''I had to stop working and take over the family, but never my plants. Any free time I had was for them''. He claims that fanaticism was so great that he kept a catalog of flowers in the drawer of the lathe he operated. ''While the machine made the cut pass, I studied''.
Por volta de 1950, he saw a dendrobrium for the first time, brought by a family from Santa Catarina who had moved to Rio Claro. '' From then on, I began to try to learn what an orchid was and how to cultivate it''. The difficulties were great because, at that time, there was nowhere to look for information. ''Circulo Orquidófilo de Rio Claro was founded four years later, in 1954''.
Com a inauguração do espaço, it was the first orchid exhibition in the city, in partnership with Esalq and a merchant from Piracicaba. ''I saw for the first time a white flower, the Cattleya Júlio Conceição. I was desperate to have it in my small collection and from there I never stopped'', explains Aniel. He defines the love for orchids as a virus. ''It's a contamination that we get and can no longer stop, often becoming a bit fanatical about plants''. Following the exposition,
Evaldo Wenzel, Aniel's cousin, founded the Orquidáriio Rioclarense, now managed by Evaldo's son, Cesar Wenzel. ''I learned from them, I joined the circle and I've been president five times,'' he says. With his cousin, Aniel learned to sow, a process done at that time in small boxes.
_cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58 anielton considers a valuable job with amilton esalton Bicalho. ''I worked there on the weekends, from 8am to 5pm sowing seeds for the students to learn''. For him, the advantage of the job was being able to talk to Bicalho, who he considers ''an expert in orchidophilia''. Aniel also attended Dr. Gurgel, a geneticist at the university. ''He gave a lot of tips on orchid crossings''. However, the great help in orchidophilia came from Rolf Altenburg, owner of Florália, from Niterói, RJ. Aniel already bought plants from the company and when Rolf came to an exhibition in Rio Claro, in 1967, he wanted to meet him. From then on, the bonds of friendship grew closer and, every year, the two met again in the city in the interior of São Paulo.
''When Rolf found my little orchid house, he told his friends that he was going to give me a little push' because I was doing well. I think he gave me a kick, because he helped me a lot'', he says with emotion. According to Aniel, Rolf Altembug often bought breeders outside Brazil and gave them to his friend from Rio Claro as a gift. ''He invited me to go work with him, but I couldn't leave my father''. The owner of Florália asked Aniel to go to exhibitions and observe the plants. When he saw something exceptional, Rolf's order was that the orchid be bought. ''He relied on my knowledge''. In the early 70s, Aniel went to an exhibition in
Piracanjuba, GO. ''There I saw a Cattleya semi-alba, a rare plant even today. He went crazy, but the woodsman wanted 500 cruzeiros for the orchid. I didn't earn that much money in a month!'' exclaimed Aniel. However, he asked the seller for a period of 15 days to speak with Rolf. He returned to Rio Claro and contacted his friend. ''He asked me to go get the plant and take it to Niterói for him''. Arriving there, Aniel says that Rolf placed the plant on the table, propped it up and admired its beauty. ''It's been more than 40 years since this happened, but I remember it with a lot of nostalgia''.
_cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d On another occasion, an account Andiel managed to negotiate with a collector_ Japanese from Araçatuba who was very difficult to deal with. ''I only got the plant in exchange for a Laelia tenebrosa from my collection, with yellowish petals and a very dark lip, different from the ones you see nowadays''. Rolf wanted to pay for the blueprint that Aniel had given him, but he wouldn't take it. ''Days later, I received a vehicle from Florália with 200 Cattleya “Sônia Altenburg”. He called me later asking if the debt was paid” the orchidist has fun.
Aniel, like Rolf, ended up specializing in hybridization. "When I got it into my head to make a painted flower, Rolf advised me to start right away while I was still young." It took 17 years crossing plants to reach the current pattern of Cattleya Pão de Açúcar and Cattleya Corcovado. The names honor two of the main points of Rio de Janeiro, where the first Cattleya guttata used in crossings were taken. Plants have a very strong representation outside Brazil and are Aniel's favorite. “Probably because of the incentive Rolf gave me to make the plans”, he says. He only has one regret about hybrids: not being able to show them to Rolf. When the first bloom came out, the orchidist had already died. “It was a beautiful friendship, I suffered a lot when we lost him, because it didn't get into our heads. In orchidophilia he was everything to me”.
Uma grande emoção na vida de Aniel happened in 1961, when he had a hybrid registered with his name. It is the Brassocattleya Pastoral semi-alba “Aniel Carnier”, registered by Rolf Altenburg. “He justified himself by saying that the plant and I were similar: big and flashy”. Another homage that touched his heart was given in 1999 by the city of Guaxupé, MG. After giving lectures in the orchidophile circle and creating a children's orchid cultivation group, Aniel Carnier received the title of “honorary citizen”.
Atualmente, Aniel continua cultivando suas orquídeas em uma chácara afastada do centro de Rio Clear. His orchid garden was included in the city's tourist route and several schools visit it to find out how orchids were sown in the old days. The love for plants remains. “Everything I achieved in life was because of them. Today I live for the plants”, he concludes. Aniel Carnier passed away on April 27, 2008 at the age of 74.
Credits: Valdemir de Oliveira Ricci
Haruzi Iwasita
In 1940, the producer left for Brazil with his devoted wife, Fusae Iwasita, with whom he had been married for a long time year, and had three children: Jorge, Julieta and Antônia.
In 1969, he received his first orchid, since then, the love for these plants has only grown and become a motivation for life.
As a producer, Iwasita started his work in 1977, together with his son Jorge. In the same year, he was awarded for his orchids cultivated during an exhibition at Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP). With dedication and effort, Iwasita helped spread Brazilian orchids in Japan in 1987 during the 12th World Exhibition in Tokyo. He represented Brazil with several species of orchids and was awarded gold, silver and bronze medals.
Three years later, in 1990, Iwasita returned to Japan and held an exhibition composed only of Brazilian orchids. On the occasion, he received another prize for his creation from the Japanese princess Mikasa Nomiya.
Currently, his son Jorge continues his father's knowledge and work.
Credits: Valdemir de Oliveira Ricci
Jean Baptiste Binot
At the end of the middle of the last century, in a small French home, a couple was in the grip of terrible suffering. His beloved daughter died, and suddenly life lost all its charm for him. The head of the couple, Jean Baptiste Binot, decided that he could no longer continue to live in France. She adored her daughter, and that unexpected and cruel blow was too strong and only oblivion could soften her pain. But how could I forget, if I still had the music of the dead daughter's laughter in my ears?
_cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d completely impossible for him, because friends, relatives, other children's songs, heard in his own language, everything reminded him at every moment of his tragedy.
In this way, oblivion would only be possible by fleeing your land, emigrating far away, where not even the echo of the their sad recollections could be heard.
And unknown Brazil, with the spell of the tropics, was the land that he chose for his second homeland, arriving here in 1840.
He first settled in Niterói, from where, after staying for some time, he moved to the place called Retiro, in the city of Petrópolis, where, in 1870, almost a century ago, therefore, he started a horticultural establishment. In the meantime, he had won the personal friendship of Emperor D. Pedro II, who made him a gift of five slaves and who would later be the godfather of his son Pedro Maria Binot.
_cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58 Not much clear information about Jean Baptiste's life is found_ Binot. However, there is no doubt that since his arrival in Brazil he has shown a great interest in things of our nature, particularly in our Flora, and even before setting up his commercial establishment, he already took care of organizing private gardens, having even been in charge of the execution of the garden of the Imperial Palace, today Imperial Museum of Petrópolis.
And D. Pedro II, who was a well-traveled and cultured man, certainly would not have entrusted him with this task, if did not recognize in the French gardener the qualities required for a work of this magnitude.
In 1861, the trade of Rio de Janeiro offered him a beautiful gift, consisting of a very rich silver platter, for notable services rendered.
Ten years earlier, that is, in 1851, he had a son, Pedro Maria Binot, who grew up and did his studies in the city of Petrópolis.
_cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58-nature-created in the midst of plants Maria_Pedro-d your father.
In 1870, in the same year that his father founded the orchid farm that still bears his name, the young man Pedro Maria went to Europe, where he stayed for three years at the School of Horticulture in Ghent, Belgium. There, in contact with the old Belgian masters, he acquired a solid specialized knowledge, becoming completely master of the most modern aspects of floriculture at that time.
On his return to Brazil he began to export palm tree seeds, ornamental plants, and orchids, mainly to Belgium and France.
At that time, he spent 6 months in Brazil, collecting and preparing the shipment of thousands of plants, which he accompanied to Europe, where he delivered those that had been ordered and sold the others. At that time, he received new orders.
I left here in April or May and returned in September. He took orchids in wooden boxes, often 300 boxes. These plants came from all parts of Brazil and were our ambassadors of American beauty in European greenhouses. Labiatas, from Pernambuco, Aclandiae and Amethystoglossa, from Bahia; Warneri, from Espírito Santo. From S. Paulo, the varicosum Rogersii, From the State of Rio, the crispum, the Marshallianum, the Forbesii and the Sophronitis. From Minas, a variety of crispum. From Santa Catarina, purpuratas. There were tens of thousands of plants that left Brazil, many of which were used to obtain the first hybrids.
_cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58 introduces some new species today your name.
In Brussels, he acquired a greenhouse, which was a kind of redistribution warehouse, and where the plants he exported from Brazil and received from Colombia, Venezuela, Central America and the Indies converged.
Many of the plants from these countries he sent to Brazil, as well as several Belgian and French hybrids, whose cut flowers were sent to florists in Rio, so that the public would get used to buying orchids. And in this way, until 1911, the date of his death, Pedro Maria Binot, tirelessly, flooded European greenhouses with our beautiful orchids, and sent many exotic species, in an organized and permanent exchange, whose benefits we are still reaping.
Our labiates, purpurata and certain species of Oncidium caused the greatest success, and still today in: veins from many famous hybrids we see the blood of our wild species.
Credits: Valdemir de Oliveira Ricci
Francisco Cava Cano
_cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d Julio Vendramel, in the replanting of his orchids, and in return, he started to advise him on the cultivation of these plants and became one of the most important orchidophiles in the introduction of the species South American in particular from Colombia e Venezuela. Many collections of C. trianaei, C. quadricolor, C. gaskeliana, C. mendelli, C mossiae, C. lueddemannianas, and many other species that are scattered throughout Brazil today, owe a lot to this man._cc781905-5cde-3194-bb3b -136bad5cf58d_