It was Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s favorite flower, because it was simple but elegant, pure and free of thorns. A passion born after attending the play The Lady of the Camellias by Alexandre Dumas. Camellia thus became the symbol of the Maison on Rue Cambon, revived as a decorative motif not only in fashion collections, but in belts, buttons, jewels as well as in beauty and skincare products, which exploit the extraordinary moisturizing properties of this perennial youthful plant. .
On the farm of Chanel
Since 1998 in Gaujacq in southwestern France, between the Béarn hills and the Adour river, Chanel has created a real camellia farm, a botanical research project for cosmetic purposes, entrusted to an internationally renowned expert such as Jean Thoby. Over 2,000 varieties from all over the world are hosted in this cutting-edge farm, and if the undisputed queen is the refined and candid Camellia Alba Plena, already protagonist of the line Hydra Beauty, in recent times, attention has focused on red camellia, the majestic and rare Czar, rich in revitalizing active ingredients, which is the basis of the new Chanel N ° 1 cosmetic line. www.chanel.com/it/skincare/n1-de-chanel/laboratorio
The Camellia Park in Locarno, Switzerland
Symbol of sensuality
Native to eastern and south-eastern Asia, in particular to the territories extending from the south and southwest of China to the islands of Japan, camellia (which includes about 320 botanical species) arrived in Europe in the 18th century along the routes some tea. The name is a tribute by Linnaeus to the Jesuit missionary, as well as pharmacist and botanist, Georg Joseph Kamel (1661-1706). In Italy the first camellias were planted around 1760 in the park of the Royal Villa of Caserta, at the wish of Queen Maria Carolina of Habsburg Lorraine. The success was extraordinary, a real one broke out cameliomaniaand so the flower that in oriental culture was a symbol of eternal devotion between lovers, in the European aristocratic and bourgeois gardens came to take on a sensual if not sinful connotation, but also a political meaning (the flower of the Risorgimento). Specialized nurseries were developed, particularly in the Lake Maggiore area, and new varieties were always selected. After glorious years in which in every nineteenth-century garden the presence of camellia plants was a must, at the end of the century the interest in this flower faded until it almost disappeared, perhaps also due to the absence of perfume. Only in the mid-60s of the twentieth century, thanks to some scholars and expert floriculturists of the Italian Camellia Society, the attention for this plant was reborn with a view to protecting biodiversity.
A specimen of mottled camellia in the park of the seventeenth-century Villa Carlotta, on Lake Como
In Locarno in Switzerland, a thousand different varieties
We leave Chanel’s France to move to Switzerland, on Lake Maggiore, in Locarno, where the camellia is truly the queen. Cultivated for over 150 years, not only is it present in every garden and in hundreds of varieties, but here a special park is dedicated to it. “The Camellia Park”, inaugurated in 2005 on the occasion of the world congress byInternational Camellia Society and awarded the prestigious brand Garden of Excellence, hosts on an area of over 10 thousand square meters just under a thousand different varieties. Until 27 March, the Park is the setting for the 23rd edition of «Camelie Locarno», perhaps the most important European exhibition dedicated to this flower. The focus of the event is the scientific exhibition with about 250 varieties of cut camellias, divided into different species (japonica, reticulata, etc.), hybrids and cultivars from various parks and gardens in the region. And to make the trip even more impressive, you can reach the Swiss shores of Lake Maggiore using the historic Vigezzina-Centovalli railway, a 52-kilometer panoramic route, which connects Domodossola with Locarno. www.ascona-locarno.com; www.camellia.ch; www.vigezzinacentovalli.com
On Lake Como, the camellias of the Risorgimento
From Lake Maggiore to Lake Como, in Tremezzina, where the seventeenth-century Villa Carlotta stands, which in its eight-hectare botanical garden houses an important collection of camellias, about 150 specimens. Predominant is the Camellia japonica, for example the Archduke Ferdinando, with red-pink petals streaked with white, or the Oscar Borrini, with a double and large white flower, streaked with pink and red. Many specimens are cultivars that hybridizers have dedicated to characters or events of the Risorgimento: Count of Cavour, Garibaldi, Giuseppe Mazzini, Pius IX, March 22, 1848, Vittorio Emanuele II, even Risen Rome e United Italy. Others have been given “poetic” names (Jewel, Sunset, Swan), or they recall illustrious aristocrats (Paolina Maggi, Princess Clotilde). Most of the plants of Camellia japonica are concentrated in the Italian garden in front of the facade of the villa, in some cases they can become real trees up to ten meters high. The collection of spring-flowering camellias also includes the Higo camellias, a group of cultivars native to Kumamoto in Japan, which are recognized for having a visibly exhibited and exceptionally large group of stamens relative to the size of the flower, which adorns itself with a rich crown of 100-200 golden anthers. Among the novelties, do not miss the Nuccio’s Gem, which develops white flowers with petals arranged in a perfect spiral geometry. Saturday 2 April you can admire the spectacle of the flowering of camellias thanks to a special path dedicated to the history and secrets of this flower. www.villacarlotta.it.
Specimen of Japanese camellia embodied at the Castle of Miradolo (Turin)
In Piedmont, rare and ancient specimens
Moving to Piedmont, the park of Miradolo Castle, in the Pinerolo area (Turin), houses over 160 specimens, among the oldest and rarest varieties in Italy, coming from the garden of the former Eden Hotel in Verbania Pallanza and from the Villa Durazzo park. Pallavicini of Genoa Pegli. The nineteenth-century camellias, introduced by Countess Sofia Cacherano di Bricherasio, have been joined by new cultivars, recovered and saved from abandonment, thanks to a project for the recovery, protection and enhancement of the Camelieto, which will be presented on Saturday 2 April by the Cosso Foundation in collaboration with the University of Turin – Department of Agricultural, Forestry and Food Sciences (Disafa) and the Italian Society of the Camellia of Verbania. Throughout the month of April, themed educational events, meetings and tea tastings are scheduled, unique opportunities for in-depth study and promotion of botanical and landscape culture. www.fondazionecosso.com