Paulownia tomentosa (Thunb.) Steud.

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘A considerable quantity of this noble tree has lately been introduced to Britain from France and elsewhere; and the circulated accounts, with the likelihood of its proving hardy, have excited so much attention, that we are induced to publish a drawing of it, which was made for us last year in the Garden of Plants at Paris, even though the species has not yet flowered in our own country. […] It is one of the finest of Dr. Siebold’s many introductions from Japan, where it grows to the height of thirty or forty feet, with a trunk from two to three feet in diameter. […] Its leaves are excessively large and handsome, and the flowers are very like those of Catalpa syringaefolia in shape, besides being borne in similar panicles from the exteremities of the branches.’  [MB p.7/1843]. 

Introduced to Europe in 1834.  [Hilliers’].  ‘At last the Paulovnia has flowered in England, and its bloom is on our table – sweet as violets – large as a foxglove – tinted like a lilac.  Mr. Malleson, the Royal Gardener at Claremont, has had the honour of first compelling this plant to produce its charming flowers, which many have longed, and none been able to see.’  [Gard. Chron. 1849].  However, Edward Jesse of Richmond disagreed: ‘This is a mistake; the plant was blossomed 2-3 years ago by Mr. Johnson, the superintendent of the Royal Pleasure Gardens at Hampton Court.’  [Gard. Chron. 1849].  BM t.4666/1852.

History at Camden Park

Listed in the 1850 and 1857 catalogues [T.737/1850].  This plant seems to have been obtained from multiple sources.  It was included among desiderata to James Backhouse in a letter dated 10th April 1846 and recorded as arrived.  [MP A2933-1, p.136].  Plants were received from John Lindley at the London Horticultural Society in 1848 having been included among desiderata in a letter dated 15th February 1848.  [A2933-1, p.157].  It was also requested from Kew in 1848 and recorded as arrived.  [MP A2933-1, p.165].  It was requested of Loddiges’ on 13th February, 1848 [MP A2933-1, p.185] and appears to have been received as Macarthur wrote in a letter dated 1st February, 1849 ‘the Pawlonia [ … ] doing perfectly well’.  [A2933-1, p.185].  It is also listed as received from Veitch’s Nursery in 1849, although the record is somewhat ambiguous as the ‘o’ next to the name, indicating new to the colony, is crossed out.  [ML A1980-3].  

Notes