Story of the Camellia

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Subtle, characteristic scents of the camellia

Researchers at the Shiseido Laboratories studied about 200 varieties of fragrant camellias grown at the Children's Land in Yokohama, Tokyo Agricultural University campus, and the Cherry & Camellia Garden of Izu Ohshima. A team comprising of researchers and perfumers was sent to each to study scents and collect specimens for analysis of contents.
They found that camellia scents could be divided into four basic types:

Light sweet scents similar to azalea (Camellia japonica of Ohshima, "First Storm", "Ajiko")
Fresh sweet scents similar to white trumpet lily or daphne (Mizukichi, Cup of Celebration)
Plum-like scents with the fresh green note of hyacinth (Hime-sasanqua)
Powdery and subtly sweet scents (Camellia sasanqua, Ume-no-Kaze, Yukiyama)

Although the above scents are subtle and the differences hard to distinguish, this research reveals that camellias too have highly characteristic scents.

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