Great Gardens of America Preservation Alliance

“The Old Ones”
by Bobby Green

“Alongside (an American Camellia Society exhibit) sat W. W. Hunt, curator of Bellingrath Gardens, looking tired and worn from two days of answering visitors’ questions.  Apparently what was an old Mobile acquaintance stopped to visit for a moment.  He said, ”Mr. Hunt, this show has me dizzy, there are so many wonderful blooms, what are the really rare and scarce ones?”   Without the least hesitation came the reply, ‘the old ones.’  The Camellian, September 1952

Here we are  fifty six years removed from  that time and “the old ones” are more rare and more scarce. 

The camellia was introduced into western civilization around 300 years ago when plants of Camellia japonica were mistakenly substituted for Camellia sinensis (tea plants) in an order bound for Great Britain.  The boldly flowering “tree of shining leaves” created a widespread sensation, quickly becoming the rage in European gardens, art, and fashion.

Arriving in America just over 200 years ago, the camellia quickly became a naturalized citizen, settling primarily in the coastal areas of the Deep South.  Here a friendly climate and the hospitality of excited gardeners welcomed the discovery like a lost child returning to its rightful home. The wondrously flowering evergreen became an anchor of Southern gardens, proudly representing the grace and charm associated with the Old South.

Camellias, like so many other plants, went in and out of fashion until the mid 1940s when ever-unpredictable public interest spurred a resurrection in popularity. The renewed excitement created greater demands for camellia growers to develop new and different flowers.  Hybridizers fed hungry appetites with dozens of introductions each year. New species of camellia were discovered and crossed with familiar japonicas to produce blooms of expanded size, different color, or sweet fragrance.

Meanwhile, in the venerable old gardens of Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and across Louisiana, those antebellum-era camellias were still thriving, albeit many blooming now without audience.

In the early 1990's I often felt like an army of one, searching the south for these veteran camellias of earlier days that had survived hurricanes, drought, floods, and often decades of benign neglect.  Many carry historic significance, having been hybridized by early American horticulturists such as Drayton, Hovey, Wilder.  Still others carry romantic European names, ‘Coletti’, ‘Ville de Nantes’.  Some had been renamed in the West from their earlier  fluid Asian  names of ‘Hagoroma’ (Feathered Robe) ‘Hikarugenji ‘ (A Prince).  Imagine growing in your garden the same camellia Teddy Roosevelt wore on his lapel, or the camellias Queen Victoria displayed in her palace.  And not a seedling descendent of them but an actual clone carrying the identical DNA-a living antique!  Camellias can live for centuries and therein lies our opportunity to restore these ancient plants to their prominence as “The Queen of the Winter Garden”. 

It is indeed possible to save and catalog a significant portion of these Southern garden icons.