Blossom

In January I described my search of a tree planted by famous Polish pianist I. Paderewski in Royal Botanic Garden in Melbourne. Now was the time for a visit in the spring...

It blossomed so nicely. I wonder what will happen with all these flowers. Last Autumn I checked the fruits - there was only one - dried and dead.

Paderewski's tree

At the end of January, I reported here my search for a tree planted by Ignace Paderewski in Royal Botanic Garden in Melbourne.

As Autumn arrived, I visited it to see if it produced any chestnuts, buckeye chestnuts. I found the tree, but it looked very, very poorly....

Leaves yellowing at the edges, and just a single fruit, which looked dry, empty and dead. I hurried to the visitor's centre and explained my concern to the same lady, who helped me so patiently and kindly in January. She called a horticulturalist for assistance.

He checked some botanical data and explained to me, that this type of chestnut, does not produce actual chestnuts. Chestnuts, which you could eat - he said.

It amused me a bit. I do not come to botanic garden to feed myself. For this purpose, my little secret forest full of mushrooms, will do quite nicely.

But I did not mention it to the horticulturalist. He might have called the ambulance :))))

Paderewski in Melbourne

I have known for a long time, that one of most distinguished Polish citizens - Ignacy J. Paderewski visited Australia and gave concerts in Melbourne and Sydney. No wonder, I looked for some Australian memories of this visit. I found quite a few.

Firstly, there was a story of a postcard mailed from Melbourne to Guernsey Island on 12 July 1904. It contains a report from Paderewski's performances in Melbourne and Sydney and an interesting cartoon showing I.J. Paderewski shaking hand with some representative of "Socialist Melbourne". This person was much, much later identified as Sir Malcolm Donald McEacharn, who in 1904 was Mayor of Melbourne.

Quoted report from The Bulletin is quite interesting too. It describes quite different reaction of Melbourne and Sydney audience. In Melbourne it was: "... crowds which thronged the building, applauding till their hands were sore and shrieking until they were hoarse".

In Sydney: "..the artist left the platform in a towering rage...During the performance some non-musical members of the audience drifted out of the hall as soon as their curiosity was satisfied. ... M. Paderewski played, as he stated later, with genuine pleasure to those whose appreciation had led them to remain. But he resented the lack of honour shown to a visiting artist by something like 500 people in hurrying away at such juncture. They are nothing but savages - said the irate artist. In Melbourne no one went out, and I played a longer programme. I have never had an audience behave like that - even in the Wild West”.

Here you are.

Secondly, I found a number of newspaper reports in The Argus ( here is a later one about a concert in October ) and in The Age.

Thirdly, I learned about some diplomatic scandal, which happened during second visit of Paderewski in Melbourne in 1927.

Luckily, I.J. Paderewski left in Melbourne a tangible sign of his visit. Wikipedia says, He planted a tree in the Melbourne Royal Botanic Garden. What tree? Where?

From the biography of the founder of Royal Botanic Garden, William Robert Guilfoyle, I learned, that it was an American red chestnut.

Equipped with such knowledge, I came on Australia Day 2011 to RBM Visitor Centre to find an exact location of the tree. The person at information desk searched diligently through some files and catalogues but in vain. Lastly, she looked at some printed document, which listed in alphabetical order all plants growing in the Garden. And there it was - at the very first position - aesculus x hybrida, planted by Ignace Paderewski!!!

Aesculus x hybrida?? What is it? What's it English name? It was not so easy to find. In the meantime we found, that it belonged to sub-family of chestnuts, namely horse chestnuts - hippocastaneae. And finally, we got it's English name - buckeye!! And it came from the state of Ohio, USA. So it was an American chestnut.

I received a map with a marking of the tree location ...




.. and here it was...





.. the tree is quite majestic..





I will have to visit it in Autumn to see it's fruits, whether they are red, or whether they remind buck eyes.