We can not talk about Jorge Verboonen without talk about "Orquidário Binot" (Binot Nurseries), founded in l870, by Pedro Maria Binot, with the name of "Etablissement P. M. Binot".
The story of the foundation started in Europe, when Jean Baptiste Binot, landscape-gardener of profession, extremely sorrowful over his only daughter's death, decided to leave Europe and chose, by chance, the first ship leaving the quay to go away with his family. It was his destiny that this ship came to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In l845, he settled in Petrópolis, as a gardener-horticulturist selling plants and fruits trees.

He made his work stand out in a such way that, in l854, he has been charged by the Emperor Dom Pedro II, to project and execute the gardens of the Summer Imperial Palace, in Petrópolis (nowadays Imperial Museum) to detriment of a project created by Glaziou. As an award for the work done in the palace, the Emperor gave him 6 slaves to help him cultivating the lands he owned in Retiro, a district of Petrópolis City (those lands would also be given by the Emperor). The close relationship between them made the Emperor the godfather of his son, Pedro Maria Binot, whose name was chosen probably to homage him.
Pedro did not show any interest for gardening and showed an adventurous and independent temperament. His father complained with his godfather who decided put the rebel in jail in order to impose discipline to him. As soon as it came to his ears, he run away to Rio de Janeiro and stayed hiding until his father and godfather's rage calmed down. For raisons not very cleared up, perhaps to appease the rage of both, he accepted to study horticulture in Gand, Belgium, where he has been graduated in the "École d'Horticulture Van Houte", however, as a matter of fact, the gardening did not attract him. In an age that the interest in our orchids and our plants in general effervesced in Europe, Pedro, who was not 20 years old, succeeded in foreseeing the excellent commercial perspectives that would guide and make him rich. He returned to Brazil and started to collect orchids and other tropical plants to export. As he did not get any help from his father, he loaned money to a Belgian friend of his family and left Rio de Janeiro's port, with his first plants cargo straight to Belgium which was, by this time, one of the most interested country in orchids and, in that way, the Etablissement P.M. Binot was founded.
It has been a success. With the result of this first travel, he paid the loan and got enough money to provide capital for the next. He did not less than 76 journeys over the Atlantic Ocean. He spent 6 months in Brazil and 6 months in Europe, carrying and bringing plants. Here, he was always collecting and packing plants. In the evening of the travels, he sat up all night, working under the light of small oil night lamp or candles. He introduced the palm Coco weddeliana in Belgium, a first sight European passion. Two specimens did such a great success that there were sold by 500 Belgian Francs, enough, nowadays to buy a second hand car. Pedro Binot succeeded in getting fantastic things such as bring a palm tree of 4 meters height to a show. On one occasion, he carried a Samambaia arborescente which clump weighed 1.500 kilograms. Nobody knows how he could do that because, by this time, animals did the traction, horses pulled the coaches and the transport to the seaport was made in the loin of donkeys. In l871, he started the exportation of palm's seeds which would only be interrupted by the two world wars. The list of new plants introduced by him to Europe is long. He also supplied Brussels Botanical Garden with an entire collection of botanical values. He was made a knight of Leopold Order in recognition of his valuable contribution.
In spite of the great number of hybrids, which started to be made in Europe, the interest in native plants did not cooled down and, as a matter of fact, they were the components for the hybridization. At the end of his life, Pedro started the construction of the first nurseries and introduced, in Brazil, some of South-American Cattleya species: such as trianae, perciviliana, mossiae, some divisions of them are still cultivated nowadays.
To pay homage of him, species from orchidaceae family and others have been named: such as Marantha binotii, Lc binotii (natural hybrid between Laelia pumila and Cattleya bicolor, Miltonia binotii, natural hybrid between Miltonia candida and Miltonia regnellii.
He was always busy doing something, sometimes with a hammer, a watering pot or a pen. With his adventurous and speculative sprit he could not or he does not allowed himself to stay doing nothing. He was known by his affability and honesty. Always showing happiness and sympathy to his customers, he was extremely severe with his family as well as with his employees. His outbursts of rage were famous but momentary. In despite of his temperament, he found time to marry a widow cousin who has already a boy named Georges J. A. Verboonen. From this marriage, the couple had a son and a daughter. Paradoxically, considered as a very good person for who knew him, he did not succeed in having a good relationship with his children and, alive, did not allow their participation in the nursery. He died in l911.
Georges H. A. Verboonen who would be Jorge Verboonen's father went as an apprenticeship in Germany, Italy and England. With the death of Pedro Maria Binot, he returned to Brazil and took the direction of the nursery, with his brother and sister and alternated the representation of the nursery in Brussels. Overtaken by the explosion of the 1st World War when he was there, he succeeded in getting the last train of passengers before the Germany occupation and went to England where he stayed for many years in Stuart Low. In this country, he met Elizabeth May Robinson, his future wife. Tired of waiting for the end of the war, he returned to Brazil in l915. The outbreak of the 1st World War affected the exportation because as the fuel to heat the greenhouses was stinted, many of them have been closed and many collections were lost. As a result the exportations stopped. A radical metamorphosis occurred in "Etablissement P. M. Binot", its main activity became the supplying of flowers to be sold in the shops in Rio de Janeiro, "Casa Flora" took in almost the entirely production. By this time, Cattleya warneri flowering, for example, was very expensive. Slowly and calmly, things made progress and more greenhouses were built
Since l921, the production of the first hybrids by symbiotic methods started although just some specimens were cultivated because the number of the amateur growers was still very small. From this time, Bc Maronae, Lc. Bletchleyensis, C. Marielli, C. Mimoso and C. Minucia between others.
Just before the Second World War, the first modern hybrids were imported and they charmed the visitors of the first orchids shows, which took place in São Paulo. The most famous has been Brassocattleya Bambino nº 1. Nowadays is quite common to see "albas" in any collection but by this time they were the sensation and were very expensive. Only after the 2nº World War, BC Ann Sladden, BC Francinette, BC Laure Sladden have appeared and made an enormous success.
In l945, the name of the firm changed to Orquidário Binot Ltd. and the production of the flowers increased in order to answer the increasing request of the specialized trade. In spite of giving to his son Jorge Verboonen a rigid European education, when he showed his interest in working at the nurseries, Georges Verboonen put him to execute the most humble tasks such as uprooting weeds of the pots and clean the nurseries. Little by little, Jorge absorbed all the secrets of orchids cultivation and when his father begin to became blind, he practically took over the command the establishment, where he was since l940. The end of his father's like was very painful. To someone who spent his life to produce the beauty, the blindness was a real torment. When he died, Jorge Verboonen was charged with the direction of the Orquidário. He started a program of extension of the installations and the cultivation of new series of hybrids.
In l960, Orquidário Binot started a new age when Rolf Altenburg, a dynamic and innovator person, with whom Jorge had a strong affinity and considered him a very close friend, became a partner and gave an upswing in the trade. Jorge Verboonen considered that partnership a happy association that honored him a lot. Still recently, he became deeply affected when he talked about his friend. With the continuity of the expansion, the nursery began again to export to Europe and continued until 1994, when those activities stopped.
In l980, Rolf Altenburg, spontaneously, left the society because he thought that the "Orquidário Binot" should be stayed with Verboonen family, showing the nobility of his character.
Rolf Altenburg paid homage to his friend when, in 1955, he produced a hybrid (Potinara Creole x Lc. Gothaurea), and called it Potinara Jorge Verboonen. A natural hybrid has been also named in his homage, a crossing of Oncidium crispum X marshallianum - Oncidium Jorge Verboonen as well as Binotia verboonenii. It is interesting to remark that, in the spite of the appearance, the name Binotia has not been given in homage to Binot as explains to us Father José Gonzáles Raposo, in his "Dicionário Etimológico das orquídeas do Brasil". To him, Binotia Rolfe, is a little bit strange name because, first of all, gives the impression that it is formed by Binot and after, because it is a compound hybrid name formed by: Latin bin (two) + Greg ûs, otós (ear). The name would be an allusion to the form of the lip which medial lobo, from the half to the base, showing two prominences, which can give the impression of two ears. However, some authors considered that the name was given in honor of Binot.
With the development of the orchidophilie in Brazil, Jorge Verboonen has done his contribution encouraging the societies, being present with his plants to the orchids shows in big or small towns. As an old associate to SBO, in l999, agreed to the fusion with OrquidaRio, allowing the society to having its headquarters.
In l963, attended to IGA (International Gartenbau-Austellung) in Hamburg, Germany, brought with him a selection of Brazilian species which awarded the the first place with an outstanding Sophronitis coccinea. Hamburg Botanical Garden bought all plants exhibited.
Going on with of the tradition of the pioneer Binot, he introduced, in Brazil, Cattleya aurea and botanical species of Masdevallia that he loved so much.
He participated as a registrant and/or lecturer to many World Orchids Conferences in London , Long Beach, Frankfurt, Meddlin, Bangkok, Durban and Miami. He went to USA and Canada to give lectures about Brazilian species answering a request of the local societies.
During his frequent travels, he attached a great importance to visit orchid nurseries and in one of those travels, in 40 days, he visited 37 nurseries as reported by his wife. If the nursery was too much big, sometimes, he spent all day to see every thing, if it was small, he could visit some two or three in the same day.
He spent part of his time to study and often he could be found absorbed studying in his library, entirely took by the reading.
Under his direction, Orquidário Binot became a national and international reference. In spite of being introspective, he received everyone who looked for him. He cooperated to many Brazilian and foreigner researchers (German, American, finally every nationality). Many books, Brazilian or foreigner had his cooperation. He fluently spoke French and English and this made easy his contact with orchidophiles from all around the world, he made a lot of friends among them. Reserved, when the subject was orchids, he transformed himself and could spend hours talking about them, always interested in exchange experiences, in collaborating with taxonomists and researchers in their discovery and identification of new species. Many researchers went to Orquidário Binot to study species; Campacci, Denis Duveen, J.A.Fowlie, Lou Menezes, Francisco Miranda, Guido Pabst, Vitorino Paiva, Carl L. Withner, among many others.
His son Maurício Ferreira Verboonen, an agronomist engineer, actively participating in the nurseries since l979, gave a new impulse to trade. The installations have been renewed, new concepts of watering have been adopted and researches have been done on searching for new substrate options as tree fern is threatened by extinction. He fit up a modern laboratory to propagate orchids by sowing. Many hybrids have been produced as well the reproduction of a great number of Brazilian species mainly those , which are threatened of extinction. His father was proud of this work.
Under Maurício direction, Orquidário Binot will keep on being the granary for the researchers of our species mainly those which have botanical interests as it always was.
He is the fourth generation of this family who works with orchids , which started in l870, in the District of Retiro, in Petrópolis. This is an unusual fact in our country.