The camellias as part of the composition of the gardens of the city of Porto

Ferreira, R. & Andresen, T.

DGAOT, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre s/n, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal. E-mail: arenatacdpf@gmail.com

Introduction

Our main goal is to present a study of camellias as an element of the parks and gardens of Porto city, conducted within the apprentice masters course in landscape architecture at the University of Porto (UP). A set of parks and gardens was selected and grouped into six categories (gardens of the university of Porto; private gardens; private gardens open to the public; public gardens; public gardens and nurseries for which typologies of planting were defined (Copse, Grove, Border, Isolated, Border of periphery, Clipped hedges and Hedges): the distribution of camellias was studied for the purpose of interpreting their role in the form of the gardens of Porto city.

 Porto is a city with a significant heritage of gardens and historical estates with a specific history and identity in which the camellia appears as a striking element either by its presence or by the symbolism that it has achieved. The gardens assume a part of the history and of the image of the city, as well as of its inhabitants, as the city was becoming more modern, was developing and was organizing itself administratively, financially and culturally. Over time a great number of private and public gardens were built which occupied large areas of the city. Some of them disappeared with time but we still find others that attract us either by their structure or by their diversity. Many of these gardens were designed by landscapes architects or landscape gardeners, both famous Portuguese and foreigners.

From the mid-nineteenth century, a great number of public and private gardens appeared which mirrored the trends of Europe, particularly Great Britain, where landscapes formed by naturalistic features were developing (Araújo, 1979: 382).

It was in the first half of the nineteenth century that in the city of Porto people became obsessed with searching for varieties of camellias that could compete in floral exhibitions. This passion appears at a time when the knowledge and the taste for floriculture were becoming widespread among rich families and owners of many gardens and estates that existed in Porto city in nineteenth century. These families dedicated themselves to the planting, acclimatization and sale of camellias, fulfilling the passion and the search for the beautiful and of the exotic. Thus, “the horticulture and the art of the gardens, in the XIX century, became interdependent areas of knowledge and of performance. The gardens are artistically designed to include several species, several collections are organized in arboretums, ornamental forests, groves, florists’ gardens, rosebushes, naturalistic lakes or rock gardens.” (Marques, 2012: 41).

Following a growing trend for floriculture and more specifically for the camellia, the first horticultural shops then began to appear in the city of Porto. Thus, it was around the 1830s that the first gardener of the city hall, João José Gomes, opened his first horticultural shop in Formosa Street in the city of Porto,  and he dedicated himself to obtaining new varieties of camellias which were later listed in Jardim Portuense (Viterbo, 1909).

Nevertheless the high point of the status of the camellia in the city of Porto occurred when in 1849, José Marques Loureiro went to work in the shop opened by Pedro Marques Rodrigues; he became his partner and later on the owner of the shop. (Guedes, 2012: 37) – o Horto das Virtudes. This great horticulturist from Porto took the camellias to their magnificent peak, as his garden was internationally known by its variety and quantity produced, He ordered hundreds of foreign varieties and reproduced them in his garden. “He collected and systematized the national varieties, giving them the names by which they became known (Araújo et al., 2004), and promoted them through the catalogs of his horticultural shop. The Nº1 catalog of 1865, has already got a great list of more than 750 varieties, of which 164 are Portuguese” (Guedes, 2012: p37).

Following Marques Loureiro, other horticultural shops opened in the city,… in 1870 the shop of Zeferino Matos, and afterwards of his son Jacinto de Matos, and in 1895 the one of Alfredo Moreira da Silva, student and former employee of Marques Loureiro (Araújo et al., 2004: 104), who planted in that year “most of the huge camellias” (Guedes, 2012: 37), which still exist in the Flower Garden of Porto.

The most recent resurgence of the taste for camellias, dates from 1984 when the mayor of Porto city, engineer Paulo Vallada, chose the camellia as the flower of the city of Porto organizing the first Exhibition of Camellias of Porto city (Guedes and Oliveira, 2010). When the writer Georges de Saint-Victor visited the city in 1890, it was already called “the homeland of camellias… even in the cemetery we find them”. Today we still find a great number of camellias in the cemeteries of Agramonte and of Prado de Repouso.

We should highlight the strong tradition that the city of Porto has maintained for the planting of camellias, since today we still can find camellias in many different locations – in gardens of the city peeking over the walls, in romantic gardens, here and there in open spaces, showing the admiration that still exists for camellias.

Material and methods

The city of Porto, as mentioned above, has got many public and private green spaces where the camellia is planted, but as it is not practicable to conduct the study in all these spaces, we made a selection of parks and gardens where there is a greater concentration of camellias. The selection of the twenty-four parks and gardens for this study took as a starting point “The itinerary for a day” (CMP, 2012) where twenty-nine parks and gardens are highlighted. From this itinerary, twenty parks and gardens were selected, considering their location in the city of Porto, their historical importance to the population and to the city of Porto as well as the quantity and quality of the camellias existing in each of them, The other four parks and gardens that we added to the project followed the same criteria.

After the selection of the parks and gardens, we made an extensive bibliographic search and we analyzed the historical references related to the subject. We made an historical framework of all parks and gardens, using iconography, mapping, topography, drawings, digital information and photographic records.

The parks and gardens were distributed among the six categories mentioned above: gardens of the University of Porto (UP); private gardens; private gardens open to the public; public gardens; public parks and nurseries.  
In the category of UP gardens, we have those that are in the patrimony of the UP and as such are administrated and preserved by this University. These are Casa Burmester garden, Casa Primo Madeira garden, and Flower Garden of Porto city.

In the category of private gardens we have: CCDR-N garden, Fundação Instituto Arquiteto José Marques da Silva garden and the gardens of Quinta de Vilar D’Allen.

The private gardens open to the public are: Fundação de Serralves garden, the garden of the Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis and the garden of the Fundação Eng.º António de Almeida.

The public gardens are: the garden of the Casa Tait, São Lázaro garden, the garden of Quinta da Macieirinha, the garden of Rotunda da Boavista, the garden of Marquês, the garden of Quinta da Bonjóia and the garden of Barão de Nova Sintra (SMAS).

In the category of public parks we have: the garden of Núcleo Rural do Parque of the city of Porto, the park of Quinta do Covelo, the park of São Roque da Lameira, the park of Virtudes, the park of Palácio de Cristal, the cemetery of Agramonte and the cemetery of Prado do Repouso.

Since the characteristics of the glasshouses of the city of Porto are very different from the other parks and gardens, they cannot be included in any of the categories mentioned above so there is a specific category for glasshouses.

After the identification of the parks and gardens, it was necessary to do a survey of the distribution of the camellias and so it was decided that each camellia would be classified according to its size its structure.

In his classification, Paulo Farinha Marques (Farinha-Marques, 2008) considered the camellias as strata sub arboreal (bushes of big size) when the size goes from the height of the head of an human adult to five times his height: camellias classified as bushes are those whose size is between the waist and one metre above the head of an human adult. In both strata, the plant is distinguished as being arboreal or shrubby according to their growth habit and the way they present themselves in a park or garden is very important to the perception of its role. During the stage of recognition we made the distinction between camellias that presented themselves as unistem or multistem.

In order to summarize all the collected information in a practical and easy way, it was important to set a terminology that included the different typologies of planting found in the different parks and gardens throughout the entire procedure. The typologies of planting identified were: Copse, Grove, Border, Isolated, Border of periphery, Clipped hedges and Hedges; afterwards a detailed definition of each type was made.

In the typology of planting, Copse (picture 1) was applied to the cores and aggregation of camellias of arboreal size, like a very small forest.
Picture 1 – Camellias classified in the typology Copse, in the gardens of Quinta de Vilar D’Allen (Ferreira, 2012).

In the typology of planting, Grove (picture 2) describes camellias that are planted in a row on the both sides of a path, staircase or alleyway.
Picture 2 – Camellias classified in the typology Grove, in the gardens of the cemetery of Prado do Repouso (Ferreira, 2012).

In the typology of planting, (picture 3), Border describes camellias that are elements of formal gardens where they are planted at the border (limit) of the landscaped flowerbeds.

Picture 3 – Camellias classified in the typology Border, in the gardens of the park of São Roque da Lameira (Ferreira, 2012).

In the typology of planting, Isolated (picture 4), describes camellias in parks and gardens that are without any other plants around them and/or are in gardens with a lot of space.
Picture 4 – Camellias classified in the typology Isolated, in the gardens of Barão de Nova Sintra (SMAS) (Ferreira, 2012).
 
In the typology of planting, Border of periphery (picture 5) describes all the camellias that planted at the outer limits of the parks and gardens, near to walls or gratings, and that can be seen from outside the gardens due to their great size.
Picture 5 – Camellias classified in the typology Border of periphery, in the gardens of Jardim Botânico do Porto (Ferreira, 2012).

In the typology, Hedges (picture 6) and Clipped hedges (picture 7), all of the camellias that were planted in rows, that had the role of separating, closing or protecting the garden or its landscaped spaces, were included. As a result of surveying and observing the camellias, it has become very important to distinguish certain specimens by whether they are clipped or not, for though both have the same role there is clearly a visual difference and camellias that are planted in rows which are then clipped give a strong impression of formality.

Picture 6 – Camellias classified in the typology Hedges, in the gardens of Quinta da Bonjóia (Ferreira, 2012).

Picture 7 – Camellias classified in the typology Clipped hedges, in the gardens of Jardim Botânico do Porto (Ferreira, 2012).

Results and discussion

The presentation of the results was made according to:
- Quantitative distribution of the camellias.
- Distribution of the camellias by typologies of planting.
- Distribution of the typologies of planting camellias by the categories of the parks and gardens.

Quantitative distribution of the camellias

After the survey of the distribution of camellias in the parks and gardens, the collected data was gathered together in Chart 1, where a total of 4017 camellias was recorded from 24 parks and gardens.

According to the adopted classification and distinguishing sub-arboreal stratum and shrub stratum, we can see that there is a majority of camellias in sub-arboreal stratum with a total of 3112 camellias (77,5%) while the shrub stratum represents only 905 camellias (22,5%).

About ¾ (75%) of the total number camellias recorded came from ten of the twenty four parks and gardens, all with more than 140 camellias.

Distribution of camellias by typologies of planting

Concerning the quantity of camellias distributed by different typologies of planting found in the parks and gardens, the typology of planting camellias in Border is in the majority, representing 984 camellias (24,5%) followed by planting camellias in Hedges which represents 905 camellias (23,1%), in Clipped hedges which represent 903 camellias (22,48%), in Copse which represent 570 camellias (14,1%), in Isolated which represent 237 camellias (4,96%), in Border of periphery which represents 222 camellias (5,53%) and in Grove which represents 196 camellias (4,88%) (Chart 2).

Distribution of the typologies of planting camellias by the categories of parks and gardens.

After analyzing the data of Chart 3 and comparing to the number of times that the typologies of camellias planting appear represented in the twenty four parks and gardens, the typologies of planting camellias as Isolated and Border are the ones that appear most, since they are in twenty one of the twenty four parks and gardens. After these, we have the typologies of planting Hedges, which are represented in nineteen of the twenty-four parks and gardens, and Copse represented in eighteen of the twenty-our parks and gardens. The typology of planting Border of periphery exist in twelve of the twenty-four parks and gardens, The typology of planting less frequently represented are Clipped hedges, which exist in eight of the twenty four parks and gardens, and Groves, which exist in seven of the twenty four parks and gardens.
    However, when analyzing the data presented, with regard to the dominant typology of planting camellias, (D - dominant typology of planting camellias) in each selected park and garden, the results are not the same as described above. In this case, the typology of planting camellias with the largest representation in the selected parks and gardens is the Border, as it is the dominant typology of planting camellias in seven of the twenty-four parks and gardens. The following is the typology of planting Copse, which is the dominant type of planting in six of twenty-four parks and gardens. The typologies of planting Hedges and Clipped hedges are dominant in only four of the twenty-four parks and gardens and the typology Grove, dominant in three of the twenty-four parks and gardens. In contrast, the typologies of planting Isolated and Border of periphery, does not appear as dominant typologies in any of the twenty-four parks and gardens.

Chart 1 – Summary table of the stratum behaviour and the number of camellias in parks and gardens (Ferreira, 2012).

Chart 2 –Summary table of different typologies of planting in parks and gardens (Ferreira, 2012).

Considering the totality of the set of parks and gardens studied and after analyzing the results, we can state that the typology of planting camellias that prevails in the parks and gardens selected is the Border. The small size of half of the parks and gardens encourages partitioning through the use of landscaped areas in which the camellias are planted, sometimes in a symmetric shape, while elements of the formal composition are distributed to the limits of these plots.

As a general perspective, the results indicate that the camellias are and were used in different and several ways, with different and several purposes, giving unique features to the parks and gardens of the city of Porto, both in delimiting the spaces, through the shaping of shrubs or trees that create barriers, in the creation of visual axes, in the shaping of small groups that give the feeling of a small forest, in the design of romantic gardens, or as an exotic element. For all this variety of presentation, we should highlight the fact that the Fundação Engenheiro António de Almeida is the only garden of the twenty four parks and gardens selected that presents all the planting typologies of the camellias studied.

Conclusion

Camellias arrived in the Porto in the nineteenth century and since then they have been a constant feature of the parks and gardens that exist today: they easily acclimatize themselves in the green spaces of a city that gives them favourable conditions in which to grow and develop.

At a time when horticulture and the art of gardens is combined and when people are obsessed by the search of knowledge and for an interest in horticulture, with a peculiar fascination for exotic plants, “The camellias in Porto are significant as a whole and also by the character that they lend to the city; growing slowly, they attain the size of true trees, with short twisted trunks, having on the top the silky green of their rounded top trees.” (Araújo et al., 2004: 106).

In the city of Porto, we can find camellias planted in squares, in public and private gardens, in parks and in cemeteries. In most cases they are connected to gardens, parks and historical estates with a specific identity, which makes them part of the history of the city of Porto.

Camellias give typicality and identity to the public and private gardens of the city of Porto, not only because they exist in large quantities but also for their integration into the surrounding landscape and in the memories of the population for decades. A s small trees or as bushes, with their green leaves and their flowers that show the splendor with different colors, shapes and fragrance from autumn to spring, they survive and adapt to the climate and to the geology of Porto city.

Thanks to the features of camellias, their planting assumes six quite different typologies. They are important elements in the design of a garden, with their own different features. On the other hand the typologies of planting are also different and versatile contributing to a rich and varied composition as well as they play different roles in the gardens and parks of the city.

Chart 3 – Distribution of the typologies of planting camellia in each park and garden (Ferreira, 2012).

“… we, Portuguese people, we can say that Porto city is the camellia city.”  (Faro, 1880: 102)

References

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