There are more than 20,000 camellia cultivars, over 1000 of them bred in Australia.
Breeding in this country began in the mid 19th century with William Macarthur at Camden Park Estate, one of our horticultural pioneers (at the same time, in town, Charles Moore was creating a botanic garden on the harbour).
William travelled widely, and introduced many garden plants to Australia, including the camellia – and less constructively, the African Olive as a hedge plant.
During the 20th century, though, camellias took a back seat as roses captured the public imagination. By the time the camellia made its comeback in the 1930s, almost half the Australian cultivars were lost – although a flurry of breeding in the last 50 years has resulted in another 550 registered cultivars.
Most cultivars we grow are from three species, C. japonica, C. sasanqua and to a lesser extent C. reticulata. The sasanquas are well suited to Sydney and they are coming into flower now.
Camellia flowers are mostly white, pink or red, but there are a few yellow-flowered species and one rediscovered recently in Vietnam with purplish petals.
In fact there are about 300 species of camellia, 80% of them coming from China, but also some from nearby countries like Vietnam and Japan. There are species with leaves only a cm or two long, and some up to 55 cm (nearly two-foot long!).
Most people know that tea comes from Camellia, both the common fermented black tea and the unfermented Chinese green tea come from Camellia sinensis var. assamica or var. sinensis. Surprisingly, there is probably as much camellia grown in China for seed oil (Camellia oleifera) as there is for tea.
Dr Tim Entwisle is Executive Director of the Botanic Gardens Trust
