Brilliant Flight. Lychnis chalcedonica in the Prinsentuin, Groningen, The Netherlands
Walking in the pretty little renaissance garden, the Prinsentuin (1626) of the Prinsenhof, in central Groningen yesterday to disintegrate my jetlag, I saw this wonderfully Brilliant Campion, Burning Love, Brandende Liefde just beginning to bloom. A whole family of Firebrand Jewels - if Lychnis chalcedonica might be translated a bit freely, perhaps - lit up the edges squaring off the large hedgical intitials A(lbertine Agnes, 1634-1696) and W(illem Frederik, 1613-1664, of Nassau-Dietz, Stadtholder of Frisia, Groningen and Drenthe, who once lived here part of the year).
Our Lychnis and its close relations Fulgens, Coronata, Cognata hail from European and Asiatic Russia, from Mongolia, northern China, Korea and Japan. (In fact, more or less the shallow swath of my plane from Seoul to Amsterdam the other day.)
Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828), a brilliant student of Carolus Linnaeus, often called after his preceptor the 'Japanese Linnaeus', says that our Chalcedonica is frequently grown in Japanese gardens. The medical doctor and naturalist Philip Franz von Siebold (1795-1866), a real 'Japan-hand', tried making money by importing Lychnis to Europe. David Mabberley has written brilliantly (1999) and with much enthusiasm about this history. My Korean flora by Kim Tae Jeong doesn't mention Chalcedonica but only Cognata, Fulgens and Wifordii. Still it wouldn't surprise me if our particular Chalcedonica can be found in Korea as well.
Brilliant Flight. Lychnis chalcedonica in the Prinsentuin, Groningen, The Netherlands
Walking in the pretty little renaissance garden, the Prinsentuin (1626) of the Prinsenhof, in central Groningen yesterday to disintegrate my jetlag, I saw this wonderfully Brilliant Campion, Burning Love, Brandende Liefde just beginning to bloom. A whole family of Firebrand Jewels - if Lychnis chalcedonica might be translated a bit freely, perhaps - lit up the edges squaring off the large hedgical intitials A(lbertine Agnes, 1634-1696) and W(illem Frederik, 1613-1664, of Nassau-Dietz, Stadtholder of Frisia, Groningen and Drenthe, who once lived here part of the year).
Our Lychnis and its close relations Fulgens, Coronata, Cognata hail from European and Asiatic Russia, from Mongolia, northern China, Korea and Japan. (In fact, more or less the shallow swath of my plane from Seoul to Amsterdam the other day.)
Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828), a brilliant student of Carolus Linnaeus, often called after his preceptor the 'Japanese Linnaeus', says that our Chalcedonica is frequently grown in Japanese gardens. The medical doctor and naturalist Philip Franz von Siebold (1795-1866), a real 'Japan-hand', tried making money by importing Lychnis to Europe. David Mabberley has written brilliantly (1999) and with much enthusiasm about this history. My Korean flora by Kim Tae Jeong doesn't mention Chalcedonica but only Cognata, Fulgens and Wifordii. Still it wouldn't surprise me if our particular Chalcedonica can be found in Korea as well.