Weigela florida (weigela)
Weigela is a shrub that produces huge numbers of flowers in midsummer but is still putting out some new blooms in October. Florida is Latin for 'many flowered' and this species is the base for most of the hybrids you see growing in temperate gardens worldwide. Weigela florida is native to northern China, Korea and Japan but it was introduced to Europe in 1845 by the English flower hunter, Robert Fortune.
Robert Fortune was the first plant collector to enter China after the Treaty of Nanking. He didn't trek up mountainsides to find exotic flowers, he simply bought them from Chinese merchants. The Treaty of Nanking ended the (disgraceful) first Opium War and started what the Chinese call the Century of Humiliation. China was forced to pay a huge indemnity, cede the island of Hong Kong and allow foreign traders access to China's interior.
As you can see, this common garden shrub has quite a lot of questionable history sticking to it's roots. For example, how did a country (Britain) which in 1845 had a population of 6.5 million beat a country (China) with a population of 340 million at the time? The Brits thought that simply God was on their side but, unfortunately, the verdict of history is in - better guns.
