Camden’s purple haze

Walking around Camden streets, you will see the current flush of purples, mauves, lilac and lavender along Argyle Street, Broughton Street, John Street, and Macarthur Park.

People are entranced by the magic of the town’s ‘sea of lavender’ as Peter Butler from Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens has described the lavender haze at the Sydney gardens.

Blooming jacarandas are regularly featured on the front page of local newspapers. (Macarthur Chronicle (Camden Edition), 5 November 2013)

Blooming jacarandas provide a purple carpet after a November shower and, in 2006, caused an unholy fuss in the local press.

What is all the fuss about?

 The Camden Chamber of Commerce proposed removing and replacing 33 jacaranda trees in Argyle Street with Manchurian pear trees in 2006. The chamber suggested that shopkeepers ‘take responsibility for their maintenance’. (Macarthur Chronicle, 24  October 2006)

The Argyle Street jacarandas, planted in 1927, showed the effects of age, pollution, compaction and other problems.

The Camden mayor, Chris Patterson and Deputy Mayor David Funnell wanted to know if the community supported their replacement. He posed the question in the press: Should Camden Council replace Argyle Street’s jacaranda trees?

The answer was loud and swift.

Mayor Patterson said, ‘People stopped me on the street, rang the council and my mobile phone, to give me their views’.

‘The overwhelming response has been the jacarandas should stay, but people want the council to give them some more love and care’.

A flood of letters

The Camden press was ‘flooded with letters’, and 90% of ‘our internet poll’ wanted to trees to stay.

Letter writer M Goodwin felt the removal of the trees was ‘frivolous and unnecessary’, and Ian Turner did approve of their removal. Bob Lester had mixed views; Mrs B Thompson said the council should attend to their health, and Kylie Lyons agreed. The sentiment of many was best summarised by L Jones of Cobbitty, who said, ‘The jacaranda trees are stunning in full bloom and should not be replaced’. (Macarthur Chronicle, 31 October 2006)

Camden resident Irene Simms started a petition, and the council commissioned a report on the state of the trees by arborist David Potts. Maryann Strickling felt that the trees were part of the town’s cultural heritage and wrote, ‘The jacarandas in Argyle Street are integral to retaining the heritage of Camden’s landscape’ (Camden Advertiser, 7 November 2006).

The letters in the local press kept coming, and a letter from Elizabeth Paparo was headed ‘Purple rain is a part of our history’ and felt ‘When the bloom of the Jacaranda tree is here, Christmas time is near!’. (Macarthur Chronicle, 14 November 2006)

The Potts report was presented to the council in 2007 and stated that the trees were ‘expected to live long and healthy lives’. (Camden Advertiser, 15 August 2007)

The fuss over the trees has continued on and off, and in 2018 several local business people organised the Jacaranda Festival, which has gained considerable attention in the media.

What is the appeal of jacarandas?

The appeal of the mauve-coloured jacaranda was best summarised by the 1868 correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald.

This most beautiful flowering tree is a native of Brazil, and no garden of any pretensions can be said to be complete without a plant of it. The specimen in the Botanic garden is well worth a journey of 50 miles to see. Its beautiful rich lavender blossoms, and its light feathery foliage, render it the gem of the season. (SMH 5 December 1868)

SMH 5 December 1868

The jacaranda first appeared in Sydney around the mid-1860s. The Guardian newspaper has provided a quote from the Sydney Morning Herald of 1865

An account of the Prince of Wales’ birthday celebrations in the Sydney Morning Herald from 10 November 1865 describes admirers observing well-established trees: “Many enjoyed a stroll through the botanic gardens, which show the beneficial effects of the late rain; some of the most beautiful trees are now in luxuriant blossom, in particular the lilac flower of the Jacaranda mimosifolia is an object of much admiration.”

theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/22/jacarandas-in-bloom-a-purple-lining-to-2020-share-your-pictures

Sydney’s love of Jacaranda mimosifolia

Sydney Living Museum curator Helen Curran writes that the specimens of Jacaranda mimosifolia, the most common variety in Sydney,

was collected and returned to the Royal Gardens at Kew, England, in about 1818. One early source gives the credit to plant hunter Allan Cunningham, who was sent on from Rio de Janiero to NSW, where he would later serve, briefly, as colonial botanist.

sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/stories/dream-tree-jacaranda-sydney-icon

Sydney Living Museum curator Helen Curran writes that the popularity of the jacaranda in the Sydney area owes much to the success of landscape designer Michael Guilfoyle ‘solved the problem of propagation’. He gave a paper at the Horticultural Society in 1868 and outlined the lengths he went to solve the problems around growing trees in Sydney. Guilfoyle’s Exotic Nursery at Double Bay supplied jacarandas to the ‘city’s most fashionable gardens’ and ‘many gardens in the Eastern Suburbs’. The trees became particularly popular during the Interwar period and flourished in harbourside gardens across Sydney.

The hospital matron

Curator Helen Curran says that the tree’s popularity is partly explained by Sydney Living Museums

One story credits November’s purple haze to the efforts of a hospital matron who sent each newborn home with a jacaranda seedling. A less romantic explanation lies in the fact the trees were a popular civic planting in the beautification programs of the early 20th century and interwar years, right up to the 1950s and 1960s. 

sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/stories/dream-tree-jacaranda-sydney-icon

A host of Sydney Living Museum properties featured a purple and lilac haze in November, including Vaucluse House, Elizabeth Farm and Nowra, Meroogal.

Parts of Sydney attract considerable visitors when the local jacarandas are in bloom.

The Guardian claims Australia’s love of the jacaranda was unlikely. The ultimate expression of love for the jacaranda is in Grafton NSW and the annual Jacaranda Festival.  

Australia’s first jacarandas

The first jacarandas planted in Australia were grown in Brisbane. Dale Arvidsson from the Brisbane Botanic Garden’s states

the first jacaranda was planted in the city gardens in 1864 by Walter Hill. He says, ‘Plants grown from seeds [or] seedlings from this tree were later sent to Rockhampton and Maryborough Botanic Gardens (Queens Park).  

secretbrisbane.com.au/home/2017/9/21/a-very-botanical-state-of-origin

Cultivation

Cultivation of the jacaranda is relatively easy in the climate of Eastern Australia. Wikipedia states

Jacaranda can be propagated from grafting, cuttings and seeds, though plants grown from seeds take a long time to bloom. Jacaranda grows in well-drained soil and tolerates drought and brief spells of frost and freeze.

This genus thrives in full sun and sandy soils, which explains their abundance in warmer climates. Mature plants can survive in colder climates down to −7 °C (19 °F); however, they may not bloom as profusely. Younger plants are more fragile and may not survive in colder climates when temperatures drop below freezing.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacaranda

Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens states:

Jacarandas (Jacaranda mimosifolia) species is native to Argentina and Bolivia but can survive and perform well in most temperate parts of Australia. Jacarandas are readily grown from freshly fallen seed and can be considered weedy in some areas.

rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/Stories/2018/Sydney-s-sea-of-lavender

Not so friendly

Yet a word of warning about the lovely and famous purple tree.

In Queensland, the jacaranda can escape into the bush and become a weed. It out-competes local native plants and forms thickets below planted species.

Brisbane City Council has listed Jacaranda mimosifolia as one of the top 200 weeds in the city area. In Queensland, it was considered naturalised in 1987, escaping domestic gardens.

Jacaranda mimosifolia is considered a weed in many parts of New South Wales and is hard to eradicate once established in an area.

The future of the Jacaranda

University of Melbourne botanist Gregory Moore argues that the Jacaranda has a rosy bluey, indigo, or purple future in urban Australia. Jacaranda mimosifolia is likely to do particularly under the influence of climate change as it gets ‘warmer and drier in place’. He just urges a little caution in rural areas where they have the potential to become ‘weedy’.

Updated 6 June 2023. Originally posted on 18 November 2020 as ‘Camden’s purple haze’