Camellia Garden Restoration at Camden Park Estate

Overgrown sections of the upper gardens at Camden park estate are being cleared of weeds and vines, and there are plans to restore some of these areas to Camellia plantings featuring Camellias that were imported or raised by James and William Macarthur.

A garden bed will also be planted with all the named sports of Aspasia Macarthur. This project is being co-ordinated by Scott Hill of the Historic Homes Trust. A large propagation house has been constructed over the old stove house site at Camden Park, and this will house the cuttings and grafted camellias until they are ready to plant out.

I have volunteered to try to locate through the assistance of Camellia Society members scions of those Camellias that were listed in the 1857 Catalogue of Plants under cultivation at Camden Park estate. Understandably some of the listed plants didn’t achieve horticultural prominence and are probably extinct. So the purpose is to find those that are still in cultivation ….. somewhere, and propagate them mainly by grafting.

Please examine the following list of Camellia cultivars and mark any that you grown in your garden, or those you have seen at a Nursery or known to be grown elsewhere.

Please contact me (Jim Lykos) by phone on 02 4751 5663, if you can offer any scions or have information about the availability of any of these cultivars. I will arrange a time with you to pick up the scions. You can also write to me at:

39 Bland Road, Springwood NSW 2777 or email jimlykos@optusnet.com.au

If you are coming to the June Meeting and have scions of any of these please bring them to the meeting. Please note that almost all the cultivars in italics were imported, others are generally cultivars raised by the Macarthurs

Sports of Aspasia Macarthur

Scions of the following Sport cultivars are also required for displaying Aspasia Macarthur and all its sports:

Otahuhu Beauty

Camden Park

Strawberry Blonde

Glamour Girl

Just Sue

Jean Clere

Thanks

Jim Lykos