The First Flowering of ‘Tsubaki Yama: Camellia Mountain’

The winter of 2026 has ushered in a quiet transformation at Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Mount Tomah. Tsubaki Yama, officially opened late last year, is beginning to reveal its character as the young camellias unfurl their first flowers. Though the plants are still establishing themselves, the garden already offers a rich tapestry of history, horticulture and cultural storytelling.

There are over 300 species of camellias worldwide, though the two most commonly grown in gardens would be Camellia japonica and Camellia sasanqua. There are over 20,000 camellia cultivars!

A cultivar means a specifically cultivated variety of the plant bred by people for unique traits like flower colour, petal shape, size or cold tolerance. They do not naturally occur in the wild.

As you enter Tsubaki Yama, look to your left. What is on display is a representation of the history of camellias in Australia over time. 

One of the first plants you can see is Camellia japonica ‘Incarnata’, also known as ‘Lady Hume’s Blush’, which is thought to be the very first camellia species ever brought to Australia. It reached our shores in 1826, in a shipment for Alexander Macleay of Sydney. At this time, a single camellia plant cost about as much as it cost to employ a maid for an entire year. Talk about fancy plants!

Nearby you can find Camellia japonica, ‘Aspasia Macarthur’ which is the first ever camellia cultivar bred in Australia. It came about as other camellia species reached Australia in 1831 in a shipment for William Macarthur, a botanist and horticulturist amongst other things. William lived at Camden Park, south-west of Sydney, and it was there that the ‘Aspasia Macarthur’ was bred. 

As you slowly move across this area, note the differences in the flowers of the different types of camellia. It’s not just the colours that are different. Just as fashions change with each generation, so too were there trends in the most popular styles of camellia flower over time. 

The flowers of Australia’s earliest camellia imports were singles and formal doubles, one such example is the Camellia japonica ‘Prince Frederick William’ from 1872, the flower of which has more than one row of petals and appears symmetrical, almost mathematical, with an overlapping spiral of petals without any visible stamens. These flowers look almost like roses. The heavily tiered, uniformed rows of these formal doubles mirrored structurally engineered Victorian-era ballgowns echoing an industrialising society’s desire to conquer natural disorder in favour of mechanical perfection. In the mid-century (1940s-1960s), Camellia flowers evolved into peony and anemone shapes with hybridizers like Professor EG Waterhouse breeding cultivars such as 'Lillian Pitts' and 'Andromeda', which mirrored the sharply tailored stripes and complex ruffled textures of garments in a post-war society that rejected wartime rationing in lieu of hyper-feminine luxury. 

Camellia sasanqua was popular in the post-War period, and they’ve been widely used in formal privacy hedges.

Look out also for the largest camellia flowers of the Camellia reticulata.

Higo camellias, cultivated by Japanese samurai, didn’t arrive in Australia until the 1970s and 80s. These highly specialised Camellia japonicas are renowned for their striking, single-form blossoms and massive, sunburst-like cluster of golden stamens. 

Higo camellias must have less than 250 stamens, and no more than nine petals, in a single row. Did you know – the flowers engraved on the basalt pillars in the middle of Tsubaki Yama are Higo camellias.

Higo camellias were prized by samurai, as their flowers fell ‘honourably’ – the entire flowerhead falling from the plant at once, rather than withering on the plant or losing petals gradually. 

Higo camellias often have one stripe of colour amongst their petals. This was reflected in the fairy ring at the centre of Tsubaki Yama. In winter you can see a ring of red Acer palmatum ‘Sango Kaku’ - Coral-barked Maple, and yet you might notice that one amongst their number has brown bark, this cultivar is a lone Acer palmatum ‘Emperor One’. This was done deliberately to call back to the distinctive stripe of colour on the Higo camellia flower. 

This fairy ring contains around 15,000 miniature Mondo Grasses densely mass planted, which gives the effect of soft green cushions all around.

In Tsubaki Yama, you can see Camellia sinensis var. sinensis, which comes from China. The new leaves of this plant are used to make matcha, green, white and oolong teas. You can also see Camellia sinensis var. assamica, which was named after the Assam region of northeastern India where it is a native variety – a cousin of Camellia sinensis var. sinensis. Assamica is a larger leaved variety that is most commonly used for black teas like English Breakfast, Irish Breakfast, Darjeeling and, you guessed it, Assam. 

Note that these tea varieties of camellia also have flowers, but tiny ones compared to Camellia japonicas and others. The large water features in Tsubaki Yama are based on traditional natsume: containers used in Japanese tea ceremonies to hold powdered matcha, a finely powdered bright green tea processed from leaves of Camellia sinensis var. sinensis grown in the shade to increase chlorophyll content.

Phase two of Tsubaki Yama is in development, and will feature culturally significant Chinese camellias.

At Tsubaki Yama you can see a rare beauty - the Pink Goddess of the Moon, Camellia japonica ‘Fen Chang’e Cai’. This is one of the most revered, rare and historically significant camellia cultivars from China. This ancient variety has been cultivated in the historic camellia-growing city of Jinhua in Zhejiang Province for over 500 years. Back in 2003 at the first International Camellia Society Congress in China, the mayor of Jinhua presented Bob Cherry with this plant as a gift to Australia.