Coast to Coast Camellias

American Camellia Society100 Massee Lane, Fort Valley, Georgia 31030

(877) 422-6355 Toll Freeask@americancamellias.orgwww.americancamellias.org

Camellia TrailThe American Camelia Society created the

American Camellia Trail program to recognize and promote public gardens with significant camellia collections in the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific Coast Regions of the United States. To be included on the Trail, gardens must meet the following requirements:

• The garden is well established, and the ownership and management structures are stable.

• The garden is open regularly to the public.• Admission may be free, by donation or by

set fee as the garden determines for its needs.

• The garden need not be devoted com-pletely to camellias, but must feature them prominently, be accessible and maintained to a high standard in a man-ner suitable to the garden and its climate. A minimum collection of 50 cultivars and/or species is required and those of histor-ical significance will be eligible for recog-nition.

• The garden maintains a register of all its camellias, and their location in the garden.

• All cultivars and species have identifying labels.

• The garden will have camellia cultural in-formation along with other materials relat-ed to camellias available to visiting mem-bers of the public.

A M E R I C A N

Lan Su Chinese Garden, Portland, OR

Massee Lane Gardens, Fort Valley, GA

Longue Vue House & Gardens, New Orleans, LA

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Camellias are often called the winter rose be-cause they bloom in the cool months. The camellia was named by Carl Linnaeus in honor of a Jesu-it missionary and naturalist serving in the Philip-pines, Joseph Kamel.

Originally from China and Japan, camellias have been enjoyed in American gardens for nearly three hundred years. There are more than 200 differ-ent camellia species and well in excess of 25,000 named varieties, with new cultivars constantly un-der development.

Ornamental C. japonicas most likely arrived in Europe along with a shipment of Camellia sin-ensis plants, the camellia species known as the tea plant. Japonicas are by far the most important ornamental camellia. Japonica plants vary from small shrubs to small trees, and can reach 30 or more feet tall. In the wild, it grows as an understory plant on hillsides. Flowers vary in size and color, but generally are single with five to six petals.

Camellia sasanquas are fall blooming camel-lias, believed to be native to southern Japan. In the wild, sasanqua flowers are small with few petals and lightly fragrant. They are prized as landscape plants because they thrive in sun or shade.

Camellia reticulatas were only introduced to the western world in the 1940s and have been the fo-cus of many American hybridizers since then. The flowers range from large to very large, some even spanning eight or nine inches in diameter.

The American Camellia Trail will help you find camellia gardens to visit all over the United States. Each garden listed in this guide is fully described on the American Camellia Society website, with de-tails on the camellias featured in the collection and information on hours of operation and admission. No matter which species or variety is your favorite, it is certain to be thriving in many of these gardens.

The American Camellia TrailHighlighting Camellia Collections

Visit Camellia GardensWhen You Travel in the United States

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1. University of Washing-ton Botanical Gardens, Seattle, WA

2. Lan Su Chinese Gar-den, Portland, OR

3. Mendocino Coast Bo-tanical Gardens, Fort Bragg, CA

4. San Francisco Botani-cal Garden at Strysing Arboretum, San Fran-cisco, CA

5. Filoli Center, Woodside, CA

6. Elizabeth F. Gamble Garden, Palo Alto, CA

7. Hakone Estate and Gardens, Saratoga, CA

8. Descanso Gardens, La Canada Flintridge, CA

10. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO

11. Garvan Woodland Gar-dens, Hot Springs, AR

12. Aldridge Botanical Garden, Hoover, AL

13. Mobile Botanical Gar-dens, Mobile, AL

14. Bellingrath Botanical Garden, Theodore, AL

15. University of West Flor-ida Camellia Garden, Pensacola, FL

16. Eudora Welty House and Gardens, Jackson, MS

17. Mynelle Gardens Arboretum & Botanical Center, Jackson, MS

18. Melrose House, Nat-chez National Historic Park, Natchez, MS

19. Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site, St. Francisville, LA

20. Longue Vue House and Gardens, New Orleans, LA

21. W. F. “Hody” Wilson Camellia Garden, Ham-

24. The Polly Hill Arbore-tum, West Tisbury, MA

25. Planting Fields Arbore-tum, Oyster Bay, NY

26. Pearl S. Buck Interna-tional, Perkasie, PA

27. Morris Arboretum of the University of Penn-sylvania, Philadelphia, PA

28. Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, PA

29. Brookside Gardens, Silver Spring, MD

30. Historic London Town and Gardens, Edgewa-ter, MD

31. U.S. National Arbore-tum, Washington, DC

32. Norfolk Botanical Gar-dens, Norfolk, VA

33. Chesapeake Arbore-tum, Chesapeake, VA

34. Cape Fear Botanical Gardens, Fayetteville, NC

35. Airlie Gardens, Wilm-ington, NC

36. Brookgreen Gardens, Murrels Inlet, SC

37 Kalmia Gardens, Harts-ville, SC

38. James House and Camellia Garden, Bish-opville, SC

39. South Carolina Botan-ical Garden, Clemson, SC

40. Hopelands Gardens,

Atlantic CoastGardens

Gulf CoastGardens

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9. The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Bo-tanical Gardens, San Marino, CA

Aiken, SC41. Middleton Place Plan-

tation, Charleston, SC42. Magnolia Plantation

and Gardens, Charles-ton, SC

43. Charleston Tea Planta-tion, Wadmalaw Island, SC

44. Camellia Garden at the Coastal Discovery Museum, Hilton Head Island, SC

45. Pendleton King Park, Augusta, GA

46. Savannah Botanical Gardens, Savannah, GA

47. Armstrong Atlantic State University Arbore-tum Camellia Garden, Savannah, GA

48. Coastal Georgia Botan-ical Gardens, Savan-nah, GA

49. Massee Lane Gardens, Fort Valley, GA

50. Sam Wellborn Camellia Garden at Columbus Botanical Garden, Columbus, GA

51. Pebble Hill Plantation, Thomasville, GA

52. Betty Sheffield Memo-rial Camellia Garden, Quitman, GA

53. Okefenokee Swamp Park, Waycross, GA

54. Harry P. Leu Gardens, Orlando, FL

55. Bok Tower Gardens, Lake Wales, FL

Find descriptions of the gardens, camellia collection details, website and contact information: www.americancamellias.org/about-american-camellia-society/american-camellia-trail-gardens

The American Camellia Trail: Coast to Coast Camellias

mond, LA22. Mercer Botanic Gar-

dens, Humble, TX 23. The Museum of Fine

Arts, Houston, Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, Houston, TX