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In their 70 million years on earth, hydrangeas have been both reviled and revered, but they have never been ignored. Magically able to change colour from pink to blue and back again, the bold and beautiful hydrangea was once a botanical Holy Grail that men risked their lives to
obtain.
News of a chameleon-like flower native to Japan reached the west in the early 17th century. Unfortunately, the Emperor had closed his country’s borders, making it impossible to obtain – at least for a while. Not that he or any of his lords would allow the flower through their garden gates: their ability to change colours was seen as deceptive, even immoral, by the loyal-unto-death Samurai culture of the day.
Keeping Westerners at bay was a tough job, but threats of torture and execution helped. The first plant hunter to find a loophole was Carl Peter Thuneberg, a physician for the Dutch East India Company. In 1776 he set himself up as a gentleman farmer on a small island off the coast of Japan.
On the pretext of needing to fill his goats’ hungry bellies, he sent his servants by boat to the mainland for foliage. His instructions were clear: look for greenery with flowers and/or seeds on it. He soon hit the jackpot and returned to Holland with two excellent Japanese hydrangeas that took the gardening world by storm.
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Excitement about Japanese flowers and plants peaked in the early 1800’s and another Dutchman, Philippe Franz von Siebold, managed to secure a position as the only western doctor in Japan.
He resided in Nagasaki, eventually married a Japanese woman and fathered a little girl. An avid botanist, he collected and identified hundreds of plants, shrubs and flowers, and named the beautiful hydrangea otaksa after his wife.
He was so well accepted that he participated in one of the great rituals of the time: the demanding cross-country “court journey” to Edo.
His luck ran out when he was found to have a map of Japan in his possession – a capitol offence for a foreigner. He was imprisoned to await execution for a year, but his death sentence was commuted at the eleventh hour.
In one of the most audacious feats of plant hunting daring, Siebold grabbed several
hydrangeas and smuggled them out of the country with him in the few short hours he was granted to get on a ship and leave the country.
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And speaking of daring, there’s a terrific story behind the European common name for hydrangea:
Hortensia. It seems the great plant hunter, Louis de Bougainville, had a young valet called Jean on board his ship in 1768. When they arrived in Tahiti and a group of local men started making passes at the boy – they suddenly learned that he was actually a she.
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