Camellia Heaven Camellia Preserve

The preserve was established in 2005 because John and Stephanie Grimm found too many old gardens and/or nursery collections of stock plants were being destroyed. As the original owners died, their families did nothing to preserve the camellias. Many properties were bulldozed to make way for new construction. This sad story continues to this day. 

The Pursel property in California, home of more new reticulata creations than anywhere in the United States, was lost to the bulldozer in the last several years. Mr. Grimm had hoped to make a trip to obtain cuttings of everything there for grafting in 2015 since Mrs. Pursel had little interest in the collection. When he followed up to try to do so, it was too late. Incredibly no collector, preservationist, or botanical garden made the effort to preserve the camellias there. It is probably critical to ask – where were the public gardens that have the resources and space to propagate and plant these camellias?

Recently Mrs. Ashcraft of Mobile died. Her family, who knew of her love of camellias and involvement in the Mobile club, had half the property bulldozed for development. They never contacted the club to see if anyone wanted to take cuttings of the Cleo Gliddon Arras registrant (only a few people have it) or any of her other camellias and seedlings that were planned for registration. Luckily, on the Grimm’s visit back in 2013, they obtained cuttings of the Cleo Gliddon Arras, as well as, the plant she wanted to register for Wally Long, a friend (which will be done in her name), and some other old varieties including Victory Maid, a Sawada creation (the only other one known of could be at Norfolk Botanical Gardens – if still alive). 

Camellia club members, ACS, and even this preservation group are NOT told of these potential losses in order to do something about them. John Grimm has begun not just hunting for lost, old and orphaned camellias, but is reproducing whole older gardens that are in jeopardy (in the hopes of finding some gems that have not been identified).

Camellia Heaven Camellia Preserve has propagated the entire Hody Wilson Garden. Plants there are being lost each year to the weather conditions and the years of abuse the plants took before being resurrected. Many are being replanted there as space permits and as losses take place. Of the 800 plus plants, over 300 have never been identified due to the destruction of the original documentation. Camellia Heaven Camellia Preserve is preserving other whole gardens for easier identification. It takes many trips to identify even a few varieties in an unmarked garden, but if they were all propagated, experts could come identify blooms at one location for many such gardens. These gardens will be reproduced at Camellia Heaven. Malbis Plantation has been fully propagated and several other unique collections are also planned. The Malbis Plantation property has been heavily developed and continues to lose plants; other gardens are also under heavy pressure in terms of their ideal location for creation that could not be located. Because of our association with the Hody Wilson garden, we are trying to establish all of his creations at the Hammond garden. We have found 4 that no one had seen since their creation. 

Camellia Heaven itself was a nursery with 2,000 plants that could have become a subdivision. Luckily the owner preferred to sell to someone dedicated to preserving their camellias rather than bulldozing them for home sites. Now at over 10,000 plants of which nearly 5,000 are in the ground and include 5,000 varieties of registered and non-registered varieties, the preserve is achieving some of its goals. 

John and Stephanie Grimm didn’t set out to build this type of collection. They wanted to save this property and its camellias and add some plants; however, an idea John had for preserving camellias obtained only a few supporters, but mostly rejection. That plan was to obtain support from one public garden in each state where camellia “creation” was taking place. That garden would be the state repository for every new variety in the state. That designated garden would also work to find and include older creations by the state’s camellia growers. ACS would require 3 plants to exist for registration (or at least cuttings to be provided) so that 3 locations would have every new variety. Only one garden was interested in this concept and was trying to obtain all camellias created in their state. Due to lack of support, they ceased the effort. Since this idea was rejected and no gardens were prepared to be such a repository, the Grimm’s set out to be that place. 

Despite people saying the old and orphaned varieties were often not worthy of saving, the Grimms found great joy when family members of the creators contacted Camellia Heaven to obtain plants. Camellia Heaven is propagating numerous varieties at this time for people who want their relative’s creation (Fran Boudolf, Eleanor and Margaret McKown, to name a few). Lamont Glass was provided to a relative of that Alabama legislator who had the camellia named that state’s flower. The Arras family is pleased that Camellia Heaven has several Cleo Gliddon Arras plants saved from their relative’s home. 

Camellia Heaven plants about 500 varieties a year in the ground. The collection boasts over 5,000 varieties, more reticulata varieties growing in the ground “au natural” (non-green house) than more prestigious public gardens, over 60 species, and the most extensive collection of varieties created by Louisianians, etc. Propagation is done on premise. About 1,000-1,500 plants of mostly varieties not in the collection are gathered from gardens, private, and public around the world and private home sites. Camellia Heaven has about an 80% success rate rooting cuttings (poor by commercial standards, but cuttings vary from half an inch of new wood to 6 inches and varieties have wide differences in growth habit). Reticulatas are mostly grafted as well as some species (about 75 a year). 

We, at Camellia Heaven Camellia Preserve, hope all of you and many more in the national clubs and societies will help us to create at Camellia Heaven Camellia Preserve as complete a collection of varieties possible in the U.S. and where possible from abroad as well (we have numerous varieties obtained from Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and China that do not exist elsewhere in the United States (or at only a single site). It is our goal to try to be the repository that no one else cares to be or cannot afford to be. It is our plan to become a non-profit trust in order to continue this work. 

Thank you for your help. We are glad to help and provide you with cuttings or plants, if possible, whenever you have a special need for your collections. We generously provide anything we can to all those who make requests. A revised inventory is in progress with every plant on premise identified and catalogued. Most areas are fully mapped to assure no loss of identification in the future.