It’s only in recent years that the label “Made in China” has begun to appear on virtually every consumer product we buy in the UK. But when it comes to horticulture, the Far East invasion is of much older provenance.

While British visitors to local parks and gardens during next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing may find the designs and decorative features exotic, they will no doubt be surprised to recognise many of the plants from their own gardens. Magnolias, forsythias, repeat-flowering roses, weigelas, hydrangeas, kerria and wisteria, as well as familiar perennials such as peonies, Japanese anemones, chrysanthemums and tiger lilies all hail from the ancient gardens of imperial China. So, too, do winter flowerers such as mahonias, winter jasmine, wintersweet, shrubby honeysuckles, daphne and camellias.

Just how did these plants find their way to Britain? They first came to the attention of European botanists in the 17th century, in accounts written by Jesuit priests based in Beijing. But they needed an expert on the ground. Fortunately, Dr James Cuninghame, the surgeon who, in 1698, accompanied one of the earliest British trading missions to China, was a keen plantsman.

He commissioned local artists to paint the traditional ornamental plants.

Along with dried specimens sent back by Cuninghame, these pictures caused great excitement. People realised that the extraordinary flowers they had seen decorating Chinese porcelain and painted wallpaper were not imaginary, as had been thought, but portraits of living plants.

Botanists might have been content with dried specimens and descriptions, but gardeners – then as now – wanted to grow these novelties. Their opportunity to do so came when the Jesuit priests began sending seeds back to Europe in the early 18th century. The first to arrive were the Chinese pink (Dianthus chinensis) and the China aster (Callistephus chinensis), colourful annuals that are still grown.

Various ornamental trees were also raised from seed, including the ginkgo and the Chinese thuja (Platycladus orien-talis), the dwarf cultivars of which – ‘Aurea Nana’ and ‘Elegantissima’ – are some of the most popular conifers for small gardens.

For much of the 18th century, these plants could be acquired only as seeds, as it was difficult to get living plants back to Britain. The Chinese did not welcome foreigners – as European merchants persisted in trying to set up trading posts, the emperor eventually confined them all to the Portuguese enclave of Macao.

Europeans were allowed to visit the city of Canton (now Guangzhou) only during the short winter tea-trading season; and, once they were there, their movements were restricted. They were not allowed to travel out of the city; even walking in the suburbs was dangerous, as gangs attacked unwary stragglers. Almost the only way to acquire plants was through the Fa Tee nursery, which limited the range available.

Once they had bought whatever plants they could find, the traders had to get them back to Britain alive. Before the Suez Canal was built, the voyage could take up to eight months, as ships had to sail round South Africa, crossing the equator twice. Dozens of plants were loaded up every year in Canton, but most were killed by the rapid changes of climate. The few that survived were usually finished off by being soaked in sea water or spray, or eaten by the rodents that infested the ships.

Remarkably, some did make it back to Britain alive, fuelling the enthusiasm of English plantsmen who had connections in the East India Company. One of the most single-minded was a shipowner called Gilbert Slater, who encouraged his captains to bring back plants on each return voyage.

In 1792, a variegated Camellia japonica variety survived the voyage, together with the exquisite double white ‘Alba Plena’, still one of the most popular camellias in our gardens. Camellias had first flowered here in 1739, but Slater’s introductions started their commercial success. He also introduced Rosa chinensis ‘ Semperflorens’, the first of the four Chinese roses that revolutionised rose-breeding in Europe. With the introduction of the repeat-flowering gene, nurserymen were able to develop hundreds of new varieties that would flower all summer.

In the 1780s, tree peonies began to survive the voyage, as shippers got the hang of transporting them. Sir Joseph Banks, who masterminded plant-collecting operations for the Royal Gardens at Kew, was delighted to receive Magnolia denudata, then M liliiflora, from Dr Alexander Duncan, a surgeon in Canton. These beautiful trees were hybridised in France in 1820 to give us Magnolia x soulangeana, today one of the most widely planted magnolias.

It was Banks who arranged for William Kerr, a Scottish gardener, to go out to China in 1803 to collect plants for Kew. The first consignment, in 1804, contained tiger lilies (Lilium lanci-folium), heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica) and Chinese juniper ( Juni-perus chinensis), but it was only by the greatest good fortune that it arrived here unscathed, as the French – who were at war with Britain at the time – attacked the convoy on the way back.

Kerr also sent back the charming double white banksiae rose, as well as the well-known yellow flowering shrub, Kerria japonica, which is named after him. At the same time – it is unclear whether Kerr had a hand in its collection – the first ornamental Chinese herbaceous peony arrived in this country. The huge number of Paeonia lactiflora varieties available today are descended from those introduced from China at the beginning of the 19th century.

John Reeves, a tea-taster at Canton from 1813, was instrumental in the introduction of several important garden plants, including Wisteria sinen-sis, which he first saw flowering on a visit to a Chinese tea merchant. He also encouraged the Horticultural Society of London (precursor to the Royal Horticultural Society) to send Robert Fortune to collect in mainland China after Britain’s victory in the first opium war (183942).

Among Fortune’s introductions were winter-flowering jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) and a lovely herbaceous perennial that we call the Japanese anemone (Anemone hupehensis var japonica), even though it is a Chinese native that he found decorating Chinese graves. He also introduced a miniature chrysanthemum that European nurserymen used, along with some of the varieties introduced earlier in the century, to develop the range of modern chrysanthemums we grow today.

Fortune’s success was due largely to the invention of the Wardian case in 1829. This sealed, glazed container provided a suitable microclimate to protect plants from the hazards of long-distance transport. At a stroke, the difficulties of sending plants home by sea had been solved .

Gifts from the Gardens of China by Jane Kilpatrick (Frances Lincoln £35), is available from The Sunday Times BooksFirst for £31.50 (inc p&p). Call 0870 165 8585 or visit timesonline.co.uk/booksfirst

Early arrivals

- The first Chinese plants to arrive in the west appear to have drifted towards Asia Minor via the Silk Road before Christian times. They included peaches and apricots, which had been cultivated in China for 3,000 years.

- Rhubarb and daylilies had been grown for centuries in China, for their medicinal properties, and were brought west as important articles of trade. The roots of medicinal rhubarb (Rheum palmatum) were used by the Romans to produce a drug with mild purgative qualities that was still being recommended in the 17th century by the English herbalist Nicholas Culpeper.

- The Chinese had discovered that the leaves and roots of daylilies could be used as painkillers and to purify the blood. The dried roots were mentioned in a first-century AD herbal (plant encyclopedia) by the Greek physician Dioscorides.

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