Van Hoorde was born in Gentbrugge on 13 September 1818, the son of a gardener.
[1] In 1837 a horticultural society was founded in Mechelen, which in 1839 was granted the use of the garden of the former commandery of Pitzemburg.
[1] He died in Mechelen on 12 February 1853, holding a white camellia japonica that he had bred and with which he asked to be buried.
[1] A white marble plaque in the main greenhouse of the garden is engraved with a camellia in his memory.
By crossing strains he bred a dwarf araucaria imbricata.