Biography

English gardener and collector, the son of James Comber who was Head Gardener at Nymans and born at Nymans, Sussex. H.F. Comber was trained in horticulture at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh and was later employed by H.J. Elwes at Colesborne. At the invitation of H.D. McLaren (later Lord Aberconway) of Bodnant, Comber joined horticultural expeditions to the Andes (1925-1926, 1926-1927) during which many plants were collected and introduced to Britsih gardens. He collected with Lt. Col. Leonard Messel, owner of Nymans, though no specimens are known to be attributed to Messel. Desfontainia spinosa 'Harold Comber' is a cultivar named in his honour originating from the expedition. Specimens from the expedition include lichens which are at BM, some probably transferred from K under the terms of the Morton Agreement after 1961. Comber collected later in Tasmania (1929-1930) before emigrating to the United States where he hybridised lilies for the Jan de Graff nursery in Oregon and produced a reclassification of the genus Lilium (1949). The genus Combera Sandwith in the Solanaceae and species many such as Pterocactus comberi Britton & Rose were named in his honour.