Pillnitz camellia moves back into the greenhouse

The camellia in the park of Pillnitz Palace in Dresden is moving back into its shelter for the winter. This was announced by Schlösserland Sachsen. The glass and steel construction, which moves on rails, is a good 13 meters high and weighs 54 tons. It is intended to protect the 250-year-old plant from frost.

The Pillnitz camellia was planted in 1801, first protected with straw and bast mats and later with heatable wooden houses. Since 1992, it has had a movable house with a climate computer in which it hibernates and sprouts unscented flowers in spring. The glass and steel construction protects the nine-metre-high and eleven-metre-wide plant from frost at a constant internal temperature of 4 to 6 degrees Celsius.

In May 2025, the Pillnitz camellia was awarded the title of "Historic Camellia" by the International Camellia Society (ICS). At the time, it was said that the specimen did not need to shy away from comparison with the most beautiful trees in Asia.