Richard Ivanovich
Schroeder
1822-1903
Rikhard Ivanovich Schröder was the famous Russian breeder, publicist and horticulturist. He was born in 1822 in Denmark. He received his first specialized education at an institution attached to the Copenhagen Botanical Garden. He subsequently spent several years working as a teacher and gardener at the Jutland Horticultural Society. Schröder moved to Russia in the 1840s. In 1850, he was invited to serve as head gardener at the St. Petersburg Forestry and Surveying Institute. There, Rikhard Ivanovich undertook the creation of a dendrological garden, laying the foundation for his most important works on the acclimatization and naturalization of trees and shrubs. Through his scientific research, Schröder gained considerable renown among horticulturists both in Russia and abroad. In the late 1860-s, the Russian Horticultural Society was founded in St. Petersburg, and the scientist took a most active part in its work. The first issues of the society’s journal Vestnik Sadovodstva (Herald of Horticulture) featured articles on the cultivation of various plants authored by R.I. Schröder. In 1862, the scientist moved to Moscow and assumed the post of head gardener at the Petrovsky Agricultural and Forestry Academy. Schröder worked at the Academy for over forty years, leaving behind splendid collections of diverse plants and the Dendrological Garden that he created. Schröder earned his renown for his work in the naturalization and acclimatization of fruit and ornamental trees. The outcome of this work was a list he compiled of fruit tree varieties capable of withstanding the climate of the northern and central parts of Russia. Rikhard Ivanovich Schröder published extensively in specialist journals. Two of his works gained particular recognition: Living Hedges and Forest Edges and The Hop and Its Cultivation in Russia. His book The Russian Vegetable Garden, Nursery, and Orchard enjoyed immense popularity. Rikhard Ivanovich Schröder was a man of tremendous diligence and love for his work, and he labored at his beloved Academy until a very advanced age. In 2012, a bronze memorial bust of Rikhard Ivanovich Schröder was erected on Larch Alley on the grounds of the Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy.
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