The center promotes and enhances the plants belonging to the genus Camellia L. have had, since their arrival in Italy, which occurred in the late eighteenth century, great success as ornamental plants both for their adaptability to our climates, and for their beauty due to the evergreen foliage and the spectacular flowering. But it was above all the ease with which new plants with much more showy flowers can be obtained, starting from the species that first arrived in Italy (Camellia japonica L.), which aroused the enthusiasm of collectors and hybridizers. In Tuscany the latter were particularly numerous thus obtaining many cultivars (man-made varieties) and importing as many from other Italian regions or even from abroad.
The Camelie cultivars were naturally planted in the most prestigious Lucca villas of the time, becoming almost fashionable, the "cameliomania" which had its maximum splendor in the mid-1800s. These plants, now become monumental, today constitute an invaluable heritage both for their beauty and for the rarity of the cultivars still present in the Tuscan territory: in fact, at a first investigation aimed at identifying those still present in the parks and gardens of the Lucca villas, A hundred more have been rediscovered which, in addition to giving us spectacular blooms, still remind us, with their names, characters and events of the time. It is with the aim of preserving this remarkable botanical heritage, given that often some cultivars are present with only one specimen or little more, that the need arose to create this Camellietum, where all the cultivars that have made the history of the Camellias in the 1800s in Tuscany; their positioning was also done with scientific criteria, so as to also have didactic value.
Compitese Cultural Centre
Address: Via Fonda, 1, 55012
Phone: 0583 977188
Site:
http://www.camelielucchesia.itLocation inserted by
Culturalword Abco