Exhibition Locarno celebrates the camellia and the start of spring
Oki-No-Nami is the name of this special camellia in the Parco delle Camelie in Locarno.
Image: Keystone
Just in time for the start of spring, the 26th International Camellia Show in Locarno invites you to stroll and dream.
Image: Keystone
He likes the camellias with the small flowers best: Daniele Marcacci, President of the Swiss Camellia Society.
Image: Keystone
There is still snow on the mountain peaks of Ticino. But the camellias are already in bloom on Lake Maggiore.
Image: Keystone
Oki-No-Nami is the name of this special camellia in the Parco delle Camelie in Locarno.
Image: Keystone
Just in time for the start of spring, the 26th International Camellia Show in Locarno invites you to stroll and dream.
Image: Keystone
He likes the camellias with the small flowers best: Daniele Marcacci, President of the Swiss Camellia Society.
Image: Keystone
There is still snow on the mountain peaks of Ticino. But the camellias are already in bloom on Lake Maggiore.
Image: Keystone
It stands for the end of winter: the camellia in the Parco delle Camelie in Locarno, glowing from pale pink to dark red. From Wednesday, the 26th International Camellia Show invites visitors to stroll along Lake Maggiore.
18.03.2025, 10:44
18.03.2025, 11:54
SDA
It rained for almost six days in Locarno last week. You might think that this would have been bad for the camellias, but far from it: "Quando piove le camelie ridono" - "When it rains, the camellias smile", as the saying goes.
What harms the delicate flowers, however, are very low temperatures and too much sun, explains Daniele Marcacci, President of the Swiss Camellia Society, on a tour of the 15,000 square meter park on Lake Maggiore. After the gloomy weather of the past few days, the deep blue sky looks as if it has been freshly painted, with white mountains of snow shining on the horizon.
Over 1100 varieties of camellias grow in the camellia park. Marcacci believes that it is your own state of mind that makes you choose the "most beautiful" camellia. "When I'm angry about something, I like a different camellia than on a day when I'm in a good mood."
The white "Hermann Hesse"
Nevertheless, he particularly likes the varieties with small, fragrant flowers, such as "Fragrant Pink". Marcacci also has a special relationship with "Oki-No-Nami". This is the daughter plant of one of his mother's camellias. He planted it here over 20 years ago in the acidic soil preferred by the tea bush family. Its name means "waves on the high seas".
The exhibition of cut camellias is being prepared in the tent by the lake. This year, there is also a white camellia here, named after the writer Hermann Hesse. The flower comes from a small plant in the garden of the Hermann Hesse Museum in Montagnola, as Daniele Marcacci explains.
It is by no means the only camellia named after a famous person. In the middle of the park, "Loki Schmidt", named after the wife of former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, shimmers in a delicate pink.
