1893 was a successful year for Abutilon Souvenir de Bonn. At the meeting of the RHS Floral Committee on the 25th of April of that year, an Award of Merit was presented to B S Williams for this then new plant, described as ‘leaves green with a deep irregular silver bordering on the edges’. Less than a month later, on May 9th, the Committee awarded a silver gilt medal to Messrs Barr and Son for a display including Abutilon Souvenir de Bonn, and then, at the meeting of 25th July, J D Laing of Forest Hill made it a hat trick for Souvenir de Bonn, winning a Silver Flora medal for their display in which it featured. So an auspicious start for the new variegated abutilon cultivar, which was to go on to become one of the best known varieties, remaining popular right up to the present day.
FROM THE JOURNAL OF THE RHS VOL XVI PUBLISHED 1894
But Souvenir de Bonn was also causing a stir across the channel. At the 1893 exhibition of the French National Horticultural Society, a nurseryman called Sallier had a display of notable new plants including, you’ve guessed it, Abutilon Souvenir de Bonn. And, what’s more, in the apparently very impressive display garden designed by the head of parks for the city of Lille for the exhibition held there in September 1893, Souvenir de Bonn is listed as item 42 on the plan of the garden as published in the Revue Horticole of that year.
However, the earliest reference to Abutilon Souvenir de Bonn that we know of is in the previous year’s edition of the Revue Horticole, when our friend J Sallier (who in or around 1890 took over a famous nursery in Sceaux run by Thibaut & Keteleer, moving operations to Neuilly sur Seine the following year) is mentioned, albeit briefly, as displaying Souvenir de Bonn along with other novelties at the national exhibition of 1892. Held following months of searing drought in France and other European countries, for those interested in climate, changing or otherwise.
FROM 1895 CATALOGUE OF COTTAGE ROSE GARDEN (G DROBISCH, COLUMBUS, OHIO)
So, if indeed Abutilon Souvenir de Bonn started life in France sometime around 1892 (and it seems likely, given the name - though why it’s the city of Bonn that is honoured, we can’t say), it clearly didn’t take it long to make the short crossing to England, as we have seen above. The rather longer voyage to the United States market was undertaken with similar expediency, as by the mid 1890s it was popping up in nursery catalogues all over the place.
The extract above is from a catalogue of 1895, but we have also seen it in the Nanz and Neuner (of Louisville, Kentucky) catalogue for 1894, where it is listed among their novelties for that year. Another (we are pretty sure) 1894 reference is to be found in the catalogue of Siebrecht and Wadley, where it is among the ‘new plants of merit’ introduced to commerce by themselves (see photo below). There is a (mis)translation of the name into German, but attempts to follow that up don’t lead anywhere in our experience. This is an interesting company, as it had nurseries both on the US mainland, in New Rochelle in New York state, and in Trinidad in the West Indies, thus giving them the opportunity to raise tender exotic plants in natural climatic conditions.
FROM THE 1894(?) CATALOGUE OF SIEBRECHT & WADLEY (LA ROCHELLE, NY)
If we are right in thinking that Abutilon Souvenir de Bonn was a novelty first presented to public view in France in 1892, it’s a quite extraordinary rise to fame to go from that to being a widely and internationally available variety within the space of three years. Its fame and popularity have, as we’ve remarked already, continued over the past 130 years since its introduction and, providing nurseries keep propagating it, there’s no reason why that shouldn’t continue.
ABUTILON SOUVENIR DE BONN IN OUR GREENHOUSE
The above represents our best efforts to trace the history of Abutilon Souvenir de Bonn. If you think you can add to, or correct, anything we have said, do please let us know!
Rob and Joanna