Chiswick House Camellia Festival

Camellia

Today we went to Chiswick House where there was a camellia festival. This was an exhibition in the newly restored conservatory. The camellia collection of Chiswick House is believed to be the largest in Europe.

The plants are very attractive to look at, and look as though they should smell nice but in fact they don’t have any scent.

Some of these plants are nearly 200 years old and were mostly brought from China in the early 19th century. There was a lot of good information about the collection, and stewards were on hand to answer any questions.

Chiswick House and Gardens has had a major restoration project completed in June 2010 and the whole place was certainly looking a lot better than the last time we visited several years ago.

The cafeteria especially was much improved. It is now run by Company Of Cooks, and after we had finished the exhibition we went there and had some good toasted sandwiches for lunch.

My blog being somewhat behind schedule, the camellia festival has now finished. But Chiswick House and Gardens itself is worth a visit for a stroll around. It’s not the easiest place to get to; we took the District Line to Turnham Green from where it’s about 15 minutes walk.