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I had a packet arrive this morning from a friend in Scotland who works for the RHS with a the original 'Victorian' Morning Glory brought into England in 1844, this one has the original candy pink colour rather than a washed out colour, it also came with the original 'single' version of Calystegia hederacea brought at the same time. It is self-sterile so does not set seed but it 'clonal' meaning it grows from the rhizomes.
There are 'washed out forms in a link pink' of this variety however this form apparently has retained it's original colour.
Calystegia hederacea flore-pleno was hidden in a pot of peony roots smuggled by Robert Fortune from Ningbo, China for the RHS into the UK in 1844 and at the same time grown by Kew next to the Great Pagoda.
A water color painting held by the RHS from the 18th century depicts it growing in an emperor's garden in Ningbo, China.
Apparently in the year of the collection Robert Fortune,was captured by ruffians in Canton, disguised himself as a Chinese man to get into a 'forbidden city', and was attacked by Chinese pirates.
Fortune's overseas adventures included investigations into the commercial opportunities in growing tea. Commissioned by the British East India Company, he disguised himself as a Chinese peasant as he smuggled out cuttings of the tea plant Camellia sinensis from China into India. These cuttings enabled India and Ceylon to become established as major growers and exporters of tea so when you sit down with your cup of tea you can think about the way the original plants had been smuggled!
When he set out Fortune had no knowledge of Chinese and during the course of the tour was several times attacked by bands of brigands and a junk on which he was travelling was attacked by pirates. Additionally he had to battle against severe attacks of fever and tropical storms and typhoons.
On one occasion he managed almost personally to see off an attack by two pirate junks, by lying hidden on deck until the pirate junk were at very close quarters, jumping up firing at the helmsmen and warding them off.
Somehow he managed to acquire a passing knowledge of Chinese and took to wearing Chinese attire and by shaving off his hair and growing a pony tail he was able to enter the forbidden City of Souchow. Known by the Chinese by the name Sing Wah he was in this way able to travel quite extensively, a hazardous undertaking as at that time no foreigner was permitted to travel more than thirty mile from any port.
I will let you know how I get on with the "single version" and the "double version" a nice story that can be verified and shows the extreme nature of the eccentric plant hunters!
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