Garden Tool Set

Five Fact Friday: Plant Hunters - Robert Fortune

1. Robert Fortune was born in 1912 at Kelloe, Berwickshire. Little is known about his early life as his journals have been lost. That which is known of his life is detailed in the four books that describe his 19 years travelling through China. He died in1880.
2. After an apprenticeship at nearby garden, in 1842 he applied for the post of Superintendent of the Hothouse Department at the Horticultural Society's Chiswick garden. After just a few months working there, he was chosen to spend a year gathering information about Chinese gardening and collecting new seeds and plants. He was told that 'the value of plants diminishes as the heat required to cultivate them is increased', but orchids, aquatics and plants with 'very handsome flowers' were exceptions to this rule.
3. Fortune left Britain aboard the Emu, bound for Hong Kong, on the 26 February 1843. He took plants with him for delivery to the colony in Wardian cases. He had some adventure in China, including what seems to be an epic fight with a crowd that liberated him of his letters and other valuables.
4. During his time in China, he found that strangers were distrusted and disliked. They would deny that nurseries existed or claim that they were very far away. Nevertheless he purchased and found many lovely plants. He had many trips to China before retiring back in Britain in 1862.
5. Fortune is credited with discovering 120 new species, including: Weigela florida, Mahonia japonica, and Rhododendron fortunei.


Resources:
Musgrave, T. (1998) The Plant Hunters, London, The Orion Publishing Group