SC garden collects ancient camellia varieties

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A garden on the South Carolina coast is a bit closer to its goal of creating the world’s largest collection of ancient camellias.

In recent years, Magnolia Plantation and Gardens has added about 200 more varieties to its collection, including about 100 brought as cuttings from Europe last year.

Tom Johnson is the garden’s executive director. He says the garden now has about 300 of the estimated 480 ancient varieties. Ancient camellias are those propagated before 1900.

They may not be as flashy or have large blooms like some more recent varieties. But Johnson says it’s important to preserve the older plants. He says they tend to be heartier and more resistant to insects.

In all, Magnolia has about 25,000 camellias.