Por Redaccion The Mayor of Oviedo, Alfredo Canteli, inaugurated this morning the I Forum and exhibition of the camellia «Ciudad de Oviedo» that will host the Asturian capital until tomorrow, March 23.
The event kicked off at Campo San Francisco where the Mayor planted, alongside Carmen Salinero, president of the Spanish Camellia Association, and Carmen Inés Fuenteseca, organizer of the Forum, a reticulata camellia donated by the Areeiro Phytopathological Station, a center associated with the CSIC, dedicated to Susana Rodríguez, a doctor and Paralympic triathlete, European and World champion.
After the planting, the group moved to Plaza Trascorrales to open the camellia exhibition. The Mayor emphasized that the event «is born with the vocation of lasting over time (… I am convinced that this exhibition will bring the interesting world of the camellia even closer to the public and help popularize its cultivation and commercialization. The camellia is one of the most iconic flowers in botany, famous for being the flower of Alexandre Dumas’ lady and the symbol par excellence of Chanel since it was first introduced on a belt in 1913. However, it hides mysterious secrets that we may discover in this exhibition to better understand the reasons behind the elegance, simplicity, and beauty of this flower.»
Canteli continued to highlight the gardening in our city, «one of the most recognized in all of Spain. (…) Some of our streets, in fact, are adorned with camellias, and we also support the sector with initiatives like the Oviedo en Flor Market, which will take place on May 10 on Gil de Jaz Street. It is evident that, as mayor and as a great lover of gardening, I have more than enough reasons to be excited about the birth of this exhibition in Ciudad Oviedo, which will undoubtedly allow us to appreciate the importance of this rose flower and delve into a market that we can still make much more of in Asturias, one of the regions in Spain where camellias thrive the best.»
The exhibition at Trascorrales can be visited for free until 8:00 p.m. today, Saturday, March 22, and tomorrow, March 23, from 10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
In parallel, the Royal Institute of Asturian Studies (RIDEA), at the Conde de Toreno Palace, will also host a series of talks on this flower starting this afternoon. The first of these, «History of the camellia, arrival in Europe,» by the biologist and president of the Spanish Camellia Society, Carmen Salinero, will begin at 5:00 p.m. An hour later, in the same space, it will be the turn of the Botany professor at the University of Oviedo, Tomás Emilio, with the lecture «Camellias in the Principality. Urban camellia in Oviedo.» To close this first day, there will be a final talk by Pilar Vela, a biologist and representative of the International Camellia Association, with an exhibition titled «Camellia species. Uses and utilities,» revealing unknown uses of these plants to attendees.
On Sunday, to conclude this Forum, there will be two more talks: the first, at RIDEA at 10:30 a.m., will be led by forest engineer Pedro Mansilla and will focus on the problems of camellia cultivation, pests, and care. The second will be in the morning, at 12:00 p.m., in the Trascorrales room where the exhibition is located and will include a tea tasting. «History and process of tea production» will be presented by Carmen Salinero and Pilar Vela.