Weigela florida (Bunge) A.DC.

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘A charming hardy shrub, for such it has proved to be in the Royal Gardens of Kew, where it flowers in the open air in May, even as a standard.  It is also very ornamental, trained against a wall. […] Mr. Fortune has the merit of introducing this shrub to the gardens of the Horticultural Society, from China, in 1845, and it is now pretty widely dispersed.  The corolla is remarkable for the change of colour, rose and white, hence Dr. Lindley aptly compares the colour of the flowers to those of the Chinese Crab, Pyrus spectabilis.’  [BM t.4396/1848].  Figured in Paxton’s Magazine of Botany who reported that Fortune found it ‘growing in a Mandarin’s garden, in the island of Chuson.’  [MB p.247/1847].  Flore des Serres figured a number of varieties of Weigela florida under the name of W. amabilis, W. rosea and Diervilla amabilis.  [FS pl.IX 3e Liv./1847.  FS f.855/1852.  FS f.1445-1447/1859].  FC p.145/1847.  

History at Camden Park

Listed in the 1850 and 1857 catalogues [T.1004/1850].  Obtained from a number of sources including the London Horticultural Society and Kew Gardens.  It was listed in desiderata in a letter to John Lindley in a letter dated 15th Feb. 1848 [MP A2933-1, p.157] and to Kew at about the same time [MP A2933-1, p.165] and marked ‘arrived’ on Macarthur’s copies.  The Kew plant was brought out from England by Captain P. P. King in 1849.  Macarthur indicated that it was not then new to the colony.  [ML A1980-3].  It was also requested of Loddiges’ Nursery on 13th February, 1848 [MP A2933-1, p.172] and appears to have been received from them as Macarthur wrote in a letter dated 1st February, 1849 ‘the Weigela [ … ] doing perfectly well’.  [MP A2933-1, p.185].

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