Chiswick House & Gardens are running two free open weekends (26–27 February and 5–6 March) for visitors to enjoy a glimpse of their famous camellia collection, housed in their Georgian Conservatory.
Director Xanthe Arvanitakis said: “We look forward to welcoming visitors to experience the spectacle of these glorious plants in full bloom. Due to the fragile condition of the wings of the Conservatory only the central Rotunda will be open during the open weekends but there will be plenty of camellias on view and providing us with a welcome splash of spring colour after the winter months.”
There will also be a pop-up shop with a selection of gorgeous camellia-themed products including the popular Chiswick House & Gardens Camellia and Cedar Gin, plus a limited number of Chiswick House propagated camellia plants. All income from the shop will help support the preservation of these precious camellias. Find out more.
Camellia competition As part of this year’s Camellia Celebration weekends, The International Camellia Society will be running a camellia competition. This year’s competition focuses on beautiful blooms: with entrants invited to bring their homegrown camellia flower heads (three maximum per person), to wow the judges. Winners will be announced at 11am on Saturday 26 February in the Chiswick House & Gardens Conservatory. Find out more and enter competition.
Camellia talk On 5 March at 3pm there will be fascinating talk by Nadege Forde-Vidal about the Camellia Sinensis, also known as the tea plant. Find out how this member of the camellia family has crossed boundaries between art, medicine, religion, horticulture, trade and social behaviour for centuries. Find out more and book tickets.