This section is from the book "The Gardener's Monthly And Horticulturist V29", by Thomas Meehan. See also: Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long.
In one way or another this eminent Belgian florist was well known in America. A recent Gardener's Chronicle says:
"We greatly regret to have to announce the death of one of the famous horticulturists of Ghent, Auguste van Geert, who died, somewhat suddenly, on November 24, at the age of 68. M. van Geert was one of the founders of Ghent horticulture. He was the son of Jean van Geert, the associate of Verschaffelt and van Houtte. Auguste van Geert at the early age of twelve years entered the establishment of Messrs. Knight & Perry at Chelsea, the predecessors of the Messrs. Veitch, and soon entered into relations with the Loddiges, the Rollissons, the Lows, and other famous English horticulturists of the day. Scarcely more than a fortnight since Auguste van Geert took part, in apparently good health, in the jubillee festival of his son-in-law, Edouard Pynaert. M. Auguste van Geert had been ailing for some years, but his sudden death has come as a surprise and a profound grief to his friends. Of late years M. van Geert took great interest in the culture of orchids, of which he had a large private collection. M. van Geert occupied a foremost place in Belgian horticulture, and received many testimonies from his friends and from the Government which evinced the esteem in which he was held.
We were ourselves witnesses, on one occasion, of a touching scene, in which his daughter, Madame Pynaert van Geert, offered her congratulations to her father on an occasion when her father was the recipient of some state honor, and which made a great impression on us at the time, as being so very un-English, and yet so thoroughly appropriate on both sides".
 
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