 Collection of Old Camelias until 1900'
“Villa di Campiglia” Carrara
acknowledgment of the
Old Camelias existing in Italy until 1900
beyoun 645 cultivar of Camellia japonica currently identifées
<<<< look all our Camellia japonica
| next acknowledgment |
| Camellia japonica 'Angelo Botti' |
| Camellia japonica 'Bella Genovese' |
| Camellia japonica 'Delesii' |
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Camellia japonica 'Fostergii'
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| Camellia japonica 'Princesse de Lamballe' |
| Camellia japonica 'Normannii' |
| Camellia japonica 'Isabella Seconda' |
| Camellia japonica 'Punctata Maior' |
| Camellia japonica 'Mainomi' |
| Camellia japonica 'Pomponia Plena' |
| Camellia japonica 'Youngii' |
| Camellia japonica 'Parkerii |
| Camellia japonica 'Duc de Reichstadt' |
| Camellia japonica 'Dahliiflora' |
| Camellia japonica 'Pomponia Rubra' |
| Camellia japonica 'Isolina' |
| Camellia japonica 'Scintillans' |
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Many descriptions of ours cv. of Camellia japonica, are still incomplete we excuse with the visitors, and promise to modernize them
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Next pubblication of our CD " 600 Camelie Antiche"
610 photos in highest definition 3888x2592 dimension 5,47 MB
Collezione " Villa di Campiglia "
Preview of the last ones cultivara of Camellia japonica :
Billottii , Spectabilis de Loddiges , Imbricata Dunlapii , Tumida
Federici , Paola Casanova , Rè , Carlo Alberto . Elena Ugoni
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Reproduced by modern nurseries, varieties have been sold for many years without names or with invented names. Therefore you can find in a garden a cultivar that, while looking beautiful to a hobbyist, happens to be a real discovery for a camellia researcher.
So, many camellias of our collection are re-discovered cultivars. We have spent hours and hours visiting nurseries and gardens in all Italy, France, Switzerland, Portugal and accurately analyzing the flowers … and sometimes we had the chance of discovering an old variety. To optimize our research we have carefully selected the collections to visit, typically choosing the ones close to old nurseries of the nineteenth century, as a collection in Genua, close to the hybrider Mariotti, to the agricultural factory Castagnola & Casabona, and, finally, to the famous Villa Durazzo Pallavicini.
my preferred ones
In those days nurseries were reproducing plants by cuttings, using stock taken at random from historical collections. So, from generation to generation, plants were reproduced and sold in hay markets without names. So, after a lot of explorations, we found out “Nina Durazzo” sold as “White Pearl”, “Baronne de Bleichroeder’ sold as “Lavinia Maggi” and “Variegata “ sold as “ Bella di Chiavari”.
Beside old Italian cultivars, we have other international cultivars that come from exchanges with friends and collectors of the world. Actually, the majority of our collection, mainly reproduced by cuttings, arises from villas, parks, gardens of Europe, America and Australia; about 770 camellias have already been identified . However the most charming group are camellias coming from villas of Toscana, Liguria, Piemonte, Marche, that account about 380, all flourished at least once and none identifiable with an already known name. Therefore, the number of cultivar already existing in Italy, is, in our opinion, over 1,200.
Also, we are completing a work that results from twelve years of passionate research. It is a list of over 2,900 cultivars, that were sold by the nurseries of the Nineteenth Century, thus existing in reality not only in books. In this list, an individual cultivar is described by 34 properties, including (a) properties of the flower, such as colour of petals, the form and size of flower, the presence of variegations, blotches, stripes or petaloids (b) properties of the leaf, such as the form of the leaf, the profile of the leaf border, the colour of perules (c) the tree habit. By contrast, we do not consider the flowering season, since it is too much prone to environmental and climatic factors.
Each cultivar is also defined by the original descriptions given by nurserymen or camellia experts in the range from 1800 to 1900, that have been retrieved from old texts or price lists, that friends – collectors or nurserymen – have kindly given us.
The dependability of this old evidence is assessed by comparing description of cultivars that are well known nowadays. E.g. the descriptions of collectors and nurseries such as Mercatelli, Rovelli, Luzzatti, Burnier, Nutini have a high degree of dependability if they overlap 75%.
Finally we include also data from old iconographies. In this specific case, we assess the precision of drawings, based on the geographical origin of each cultivar. E.g. we give a certain preference to the description of collectors such as Luzzatti and Mercatelli, who had trees planted in fields, versus Verschaffelt, who received his trees from Toscana and cultivated them in green houses, perhaps in pots, with a different soil, a different fertilizer and a different climate. Similarly, we give a certain preference to Verschaffelt for the cultivars originating in Belgium, that, when in Italy, could change even completely their flower colour.
At the end this gathering of information, that has been individually audited, we have worked out software that supports the identification process. Actually, the system provides a screen that enables, by entering plant data and origin area of an unnamed cultivar, to list a range of potential identifications. Of course, this information should be further analyzed to have a unique and robust identification.
Generally, the more detail you enter, the more certain the identification is. So, if you enter a flower of uniform colour, of medium size, without any key property, the systems will list almost the entire range of named cultivars! But, if you enter “White, red blotched, sometimes red and white are divided horizontally” the software will list only one cultivar , i.e. “Carolina Celesia”.
An other important support is the count of presence of an old nursery in a villa or garden. E.g. you know for sure that in Villa Orsi, in Pieve di Compito, you have five camellias already identified, probably bought from a Florentin nursery You-Know-Who. If you select this nursery, you will strongly limit resulting list of potential cultivars.
Our cooperation proposition
If in your garden, in Italy or Europe , you have old cultivars of Camellia japonica and you want to identify them or confirm their identification please write to
Exists in Italy a patrimony of old plants of Camellia Japonica. Often names and origin of these centennial trees, once planted in parks and gardens, have been forgot or lost.
TheTop Ten of our " Camelie Antiche" , without name .
| 1- Villa Tognini , cm 12 somiglia a Pallade Maculata , ma più grande |
| 2- Giardino Riganò , cm 7-8 petali estrni convessi , interni coppa |
| 3- Giardino Scirea , cm 12 righe rosse e rosa |
| 4- Giardino Marsano , cm 13 |
| 5- Villa Brughier , cm 12 fiorisce semidoppio e peoniforme |
| 6- Villa Moriconi , cm 9 petali centrali rigati di bianco |
| 7- Giardino Marsano , cm 7 fiorisce a stella a sei punte |
| 8- Villa San Ginese , cm 9,5 |
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9- Villa Gianelli , cm 13 enorme si trova anche a Villa Torrigiani
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| 10- Giardino Marsano , cm 8 fiorisce spessoa stella |
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ancient without name
