Our Camellia collection is quite extensive and has been designated an “International Camellia Garden of Excellence” by the International Camellia Society.  One of only about 20 throughout the world.    It includes some very attractive and unique plants.

Dr. Smart, the founder of the gardens at Marwood collected many plants and cuttings from visits to America, Australia and New Zealand when he visited gardens and nurseries on his travels.

In the 1970s he tried crossing some of these cultivars to see if any of the resulting seedlings would be worth growing and naming. The seedlings grew and eventually flowered.  One of these is planted at the entrance to the gardens and has lovely single salmon-red flowers.     It starts flowering at the end of February and keeps producing flowers till the end of April.   A lot longer than many other cultivars.

After Dr. Smart died in 2002 we named the Camellia after him.

Camellia  ‘Jimmy Smart’ is a good garden plant which each year produces masses of flowers to welcome visitors to the gardens.