Some camellias are lost not through neglect but through time — promoted widely, admired deeply, and then quietly forgotten. Camellia japonica ‘Virginia Rich’ is one of those plants. What followed its disappearance was a ten-year search across gardens, archives, and continents to bring it back.

A Camellia with Atlanta Roots

Virginia Lazarus Rich was born in New Orleans in 1908 and died in Atlanta on January 8, 1957. The wife of Richard H. Rich — of Rich’s Department Stores — she was deeply woven into Atlanta’s civic and cultural life. She loved flowers, grew camellias and prize orchids at her West Andrews residence, and even operated her own flower shop, Virginia’s Garden. After her death, her long-time secretary and the head of Rich’s Garden Center approached nurseryman Carl Wheeler with an idea: name a seedling he had been developing for eight years in her memory.

In 1958, Richard Rich purchased the first available plants and gave them to family and friends. Rich’s Garden Center promoted the cultivar locally, and ‘Virginia Rich’ appeared in promotional calendars, on a North Georgia Camellia Society cover, and in the American Camellia Society Yearbook in 1961. The bloom was known to be variable — its color shifting as the flower aged — which made it distinctive and, as it turned out, difficult to pin down.

Following a Cold Trail

Despite its strong launch, the cultivar gradually vanished. A visit to Wheeler’s Nursery — before it closed permanently — turned up nothing. A promising lead at the Dr. William Green Lee Garden in Macon came to nothing when all plant labels were found to have been lost. Research at Emory University’s Rose Special Collections Library uncovered a 1958 article in The Camellian magazine and period nursery advertisements confirming the cultivar’s history — but no living plant. An online photograph from a nursery in Victoria, Australia proved it had traveled far, yet even that trail went cold.

Found, Quietly, in a Backyard Garden

The breakthrough came unexpectedly. During a presentation to the Dunwoody Garden Club, an audience member — Mrs. Norma Jones — quietly mentioned that she believed she had this camellia growing in her garden. The next day, standing in front of her plant in bloom, the match was unmistakable. Cuttings were taken. Air layers were made.

Today ‘Virginia Rich’ grows at Massee Lane Gardens, home of the American Camellia Society, and in several gardens across the region. It is not quite a formal double — but it is a living link to Atlanta’s horticultural history, and proof that even lost camellias may still be found.