At the height of the Chinoiserie craze, great varieties of exotic plants and seeds were being imported from China and Japan. According to Alexandra Loske, Art Historian and Curator –
“In the very early 1800s, when the Pavilion interiors received their first oriental make-over, newly-arrived Chinese plants were being successfully propagated at Kew. By 1813 the Royal Gardener at Kew, William Townsend Aiton, recorded a total of 120 species that had recently been introduced from China. In the same year Aiton planted the garden at Carlton House for the Prince Regent. Two years later the Brighton gardener John Furner met with the architect John Nash and Aiton in London to discuss the new planting of the Pavilion gardens, which included many of the newly imported and propagated Chinese plants”
“In his beautifully illustrated and researched book Set for a King (2005) Mike Jones describes the challenges of importing live plants and seeds… Many of them could be found in the Pavilion gardens in the early nineteenth century, for example the Hydrangea, now common in British gardens, but first brought to Kew only in 1789. Others are autumn-flowering chrysanthemums (1795), the tree peony (Paeonia suffruticosa, 1787) and several types of camellia (mid to late 18th century), while the Chinese Lantern (Physalis alkekengi) had been known in Britain since the 16th century.”
Jones’ book also mentions that the Pavilion’s flora and fauna were included and identifiable in the Chinese wallpaper inside the palace, perhaps a deliberate decision so that guests could wonder at the floral wallpaper and visit the rooms that . It is easy to imagine Regency guests marvelling at the flowery wallpaper or walking through rooms that mimicked Chinese courtyards later trying to spot the same exotic flowers in the garden.
First of all, thank you for using quotation marks!
You seem to have found a wonderful book!
Yes, it must have been something like a treasure hunt: to find the flowers on one’s wall paper in the real gardens!