Such a good sport! The Ville de Nantes caméllia never disappoints.
Although the winter chill is upon us, many South Carolina gardens are showing off their splendor with their beautiful varieties of caméllias. Today, we share the Ville de Nantes caméllia blooms from the Charleston garden of our Executive Director, Elizabeth F. Gay. She has provided the below to accompany her blooms.
As noted by the American Camellia Society, “Middleton family history holds that in the year 1786, French botanist Andrè Michaux (1746-1802), gave the Middletons some of the first caméllias to be planted in an American garden.” The beautiful caméllia originated in Asia, mostly China and Japan, and there are over 200 different species. Michaux is credited with bringing the mimosa or silk tree, crape myrtle, tea plant, and the caméllia to America.
Of my thirty-one caméllia trees, the Ville de Nantes is one of my favorites. It reminds me of my Huguenot heritage as the Edict of Nantes was signed in Nantes by King Henry IV in April 1598 and a bloom from my tree won a first place prize for me a few years ago in the Coastal Carolina Camellia Society show. While the variety was developed long after my ancestors fled France, its name is a reminder of this important date and place in Huguenot history. When I was young, the tree name was spoken in Charleston as “cah-may-lee-ah” unlike today when I most often hear “cah-mee-lee-ah.”
The Ville de Nantes caméllia japonica is a sport and is a rich dark red with semi-double blooms and white blotches. The petals are fringed. The term “sport” refers to new features that appear without human intervention or cross-pollination. The variety dates to 1897 in France and was registered in 1910. The Ville de Nantes originated in the Jardin des Plantes (Nantes Botanical Garden), located close to the historic centre of Nantes, France. Nantes became an important camellia centre, when Jean-Alexandre Hectot established a camellia collection at Les Jardins des Plantes between 1803 and 1820.
Antoine Noisette was a designer for the garden in 1823 and his creation, for the most part, is the garden of today. For over 200 years the garden at Nantes has cultivated and developed various varieties of caméllias and today hosts over 1,000 varieties of the various species. The Noisette name is also familiar to us in Charleston as we know the Noisette rose and Noisette creek where Phillippe Noisette opeated a popular nursery in the 1800’s. The mention of Noisette always leads me to John Champney who cultivated plants and roses and I will have to share that story more in depth sometime. For me, the Champney farm was always my source for the most delicious fresh blueberries to make blueberry lemon jam each year.
Take a walk in these cooler weeks to enjoy the gorgeous caméllias in bloom. If you’d like to stroll and see a range of varieties in a lovely setting, visit Hampton Park, the Legare Waring House, Magnolia Gardens or Middleton Gardens. All host a display worth seeing.
