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The Forgotten South @forgotten_south - Last week, while wandering through some of the oldest cemeteries in Charleston, South Carolina, I noticed camellias blooming everywhere, around headstones, at historic homes and plantations, and along cobblestone streets downtown.
I arrived at just the right moment, as these blooms decorated the streets, just before a hard freeze knocked many of those blossoms to the ground.
Seeing camellias at so many historic places made me curious about their story in the United States, so I went digging for more information, and here is what I found:
Camellias are native to China, Japan, and Korea and were cultivated there for thousands of years before reaching Europe in the 1700s. From there, they made their way to America in the late 18th century.
Their U.S. introduction is sometimes credited to a New Jersey grower in 1797, but another account suggests they actually appeared earlier in the South, introduced by French Botanist André Michaux.
Michaux established a botanical garden near Charleston in the 1780s and is believed to have shared camellias with Henry Middleton of Middleton Place during that time. An 1814 diary entry from Charles Drayton mentions taking camellia cuttings from there, confirming they were growing in the Charleston area by the early 1800s.
By the mid-1800s, camellias were a Southern garden favorite, ordered through nursery catalogs and planted on estates and in city gardens.
I have also seen beautiful blooms in the cemeteries of North Carolina and Georgia. Do camellias bloom near you?
https://x.com/forgotten_south/status/2019425785283768578

Frasier Payne @MeinGottNiles - Video: Grok
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