EG WATERHOUSE National Camellia Gardens – home to Australia’s largest and most diverse collection of camellias – is sharing rare camellia specimens with public gardens as part of its ‘Camellia Ark’ project.
The project is propagating some of the gardens rarer and most beautiful specimens to ensure the ongoing viability of the plants.
The ark contains 107 plants of 40 different varieties and this is set to grow to up to 75 different varieties.
Camellia growing in Australia reached its peak in the mid 19th century with the boom ending in the late 1880s.
Sydney’s leading nursery at the time listed 160 varieties in 1883 which had dropped off to 53 in 1891 and to 16 in 1916.
The Australian and New Zealand Camellia Research Society (ANZCRS) was established with five members in 1952 of which one was Professor EG Waterhouse, after whom the gardens are named.
The national camellia gardens has a collection of some 1150 camellias including 850 different varieties, a number of which are rare cultivars not found anywhere else in Australia with varieties originally cultivated in Europe, Japan, China and the United States.
