Camellia Festival To Open Earlier This Year At Chiswick House & Gardens

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Highlights include the Camellia competition and a prize for naming a bloom

Chiswick House Camellia Show will start earlier than usual this year as the Camellias have started to bloom due to the mild weather. The Festival will run from Thursday 27 February – Sunday 22 March.

The rare and historic Camellias are located in the Grade 1 listed Conservatory, a gorgeous array of blooms; pink, red, white and striped. The collection consists of 33 different varieties, many of which are descended from the original planting in 1828.

The exhibition will be open every day 10.00am until 3.00pm – Last entry 2.45pm.

A Pop-up shop selling Camellia plants will be for sale throughout the show. Heritage and modern varieties available.

And the International Camellia Society and Chiswick House Camellia Competition will also be held, for the second year, on Saturday 21st March 2020.

Free to enter your Camellia, just pick a bloom from your garden and bring along to the conservatory on Friday 20 March between 2.00pm – 4.00pm and from 7.30am - 9.45am on Saturday 21 March.

Exciting prizes to be won with a Plate awarded to the best bloom. You do not need to know the name of your Camellia. The team will help you with which class your bloom can enter.

Judging will take place from 10.00am – 11.00am on Saturday 21 March. Presentation of awards 12.00 Midday.

CHGT have an unregistered camellia with a beautiful bell-shaped pale satiny pink flower that needs a name! Grown from seed by Pat and Herb Short (camellia experts and past chairman of the International Camellia Society). The winning ticket will have the Camellia registered under their chosen name by the International Camilla Society and the winner also gets to plant the camellia in their own garden.

Tickets are £5.00 with all proceeds going to the upkeep of the Historic Camellia collection. Tickets can be purchased in the shop at weekends.

The donation of a daughter plant of the original Campo Bello (Portugal) single red, one of the three historic camellias of Europe (the other two – Caserta, in Italy, and Pillnitz, in Germany) from the late 18th Century. This plant was presented to Herb Short during the 2014 pre-congress tour in Portugal by the owner of the Campo Bello estate, as a thank you for all the work that Herb has done on behalf of the International camellia world. The Campo Bello camellia was uprooted in a severe windstorm about three years ago; attempts to recover it failed and the camellia died. The owner of Campo Bello, a direct descendent of the Counts of Campo Bello, says he would be greatly honoured for the camellia to be gifted to Chiswick House.

Captain Richard Rawes of the East India Shipping Company brought the camellia back for his friend Thomas Carey Palmer of Bromley in 1820. It is the first reticulata to be introduced into Europe. John Damper Parks on behalf of the Horticultural Society imported more specimens in 1824 which grew at the Horticultural Garden in Chiswick (Where the car park is now.) It’s first recording of flowering was in 1829 in the Chiswick Garden. In Chandler and Booth “Illustrations and Descriptions of the plants which compose the natural order Camelliae and of the varieties of Camellia japonica published in 1831” states ‘ It seems to be more difficult to propagate than any of the other Camellias’ That said our gardeners are going to have a go here at Chiswick.

Sir Joseph Banks introduced Camellia reticulata ‘Captain Rawes’ to the gardens at Chatsworth possibly having obtained it from the Horticultural society. One also existed in this glass house. The camellia at Chatsworth died and so we at Chiswick House sent a replacement. Then the Camellia at Chiswick died and the one you are viewing today is a replacement from Chatsworth which arrived this year. AKA. Captain Roars! (The gardeners nickname for the plant) has returned.

· There are 27 different Camellia japonicas in the collection.

· The Gardens Manager’s favourite Camellia is ‘Camellia japonica ‘Parksii’ – brought from China in 1824 by John Damper Parks for the Horticultural Society of London. Now known as the RHS. It is a red bloom and is slightly fragrant.

· The Goosefoot volunteers spend a month cleaning the Camellia leaves. This also helps control pests on the plants.

· Three of our Camellia japonica ‘Elegans’ are moving from outside the conservatory to the National Trust Claremont Landscape Gardens in March 2019.

· We propagate Camellias on the estate in July from the Conservatory Camellias. It takes 4 years for the plant to reach 40cm.

· Camellia japonica ‘Chandleri’ is the largest in the collection with a girth of 53 inches. We believe this was planted in 1825.

· Camellias are famous for their flowers and for drinking. Camellia sinensis produces tea from its tips and our Camellia japonicas produce beautiful flowers.

· It costs the Trust £4200 to clean the windows in the conservatory!

· Camellia japonica ‘Angel’ is the youngest in the collection first flowering in 1951. It is probably planted in the conservatory in the 1970’s.

· Camellia japonica Rubra – Known as the single red – Been in existence over 5000 years in China. The was the only Camellia available for purchase in the UK before 1792.

· Camellia japonica ‘Rubra Plena’ – One of the largest in the collection 41.5inch sized trunk and one of the earliest planted in the Conservatory. First introduced into the UK in 1794 in the County of Essex.

· Camellia japonica ‘Corallina’ Introduced in 1819 by the Vauxhall Nursery of Chandler and Son this Camellia was first offered for sale in 1825 at £3/3 equivalent to £180 today. Or 3 stones of wool in 1820.

· Camellia japonica ‘Chandleri’ originated from the Vauxhall nursery of Chandler and Son. It was first offered for sale in 1825 at £5/5s – the equivalent of half a year’s wages for a maidservant.

· In the year 1801 you could only purchase 4 Camellias. (C.j. Alba Plena, C.j Variegata, C.j. Rubra and C.j. Rubra Plena) All 4 are in the collection at Chiswick. Now there are 20,000 varieties from 260 species available.

· There are 3 white varieties in the collection two were introduced pre 1820 C.j. Alba Plena and C.j. Welbankiana.

· The newest Camellia in the collection is Camellia japonica ‘Splendens’ has been added to the collection this year. Believed to be one of the first Camellias in the UK to be obtained from seed. It was raised by John Allnutt of Clapham Common pre 1831.

· There is a duplicate collection of our Camellias at Tregothnan Estate

Among them is the unique Middlemist’s red, originally brought from China in 1804 by Londoner John Middlemist, a nurseryman from Shepherd's Bush. The collection is thought to be the oldest under glass in the Western world and includes rare and historically important examples, many believed to be descended from the original planting in 1828.

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February 22, 2020