Bayu Fragrance

Garnet camellia

Hongyan Spirit

CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- The reporter of Chongqing Morning Post learned from Nanshan Botanical Garden that at the 2019 International Horicultural Exhibition Beijing, three new varieties of camellia namely “Hongyan Spirit”, “Bayu Fragrance” and “Garnet” exhibited in Nanshan Botanical Garden won one special prize and two gold prizes, and became the unit that won the best awards in this international exposition.

There are few scented camellia species in China, especially in Sichuan. The three new varieties also fill up the lack of fragrance of Sichuan camellia.

Before that, there were 130 varieties of Camellia, but none of them had fragrance. Camellia flower is big and beautiful, but it had no fragrance, so it was on the agenda to cultivate camellia with fragrance. In 2010, Zhou Li, a senior engineer of Nanshan Botanical Garden, began to hybridize the Sichuan camellia “Zhaojun Going out of the Fortress” with the fragrant black tea hybrid “Xizi Lotus” cultivated by Wang Dazhuang as the male parent. It first bloomed in 2017.

After 7-year careful cultivation, a light pink, semi double and fragrant medium-sized flower bloomed in the mountain city, filling up the gap of traditional Sichuan camellia without fragrant flowers, and also announcing that there were fragrant Sichuan camellia in China, named “Bayu Fragrance”. Later, Zhou Li cultivated two fragrant camellia varieties, and Nanshan Botanical Garden made a series of new breakthroughs in plant research and cultivation. (Translated by Luo Juan, Fathom Language Limited)