page_title: Eben Gowrie Waterhouse
section_title: Camellias
hierarchical_section_title: Eben Gowrie Waterhouse / Camellias
caption_attribution_description: English: Camellia japonica 'Betty Cuthbert' by E.G. Waterhouse 1962; photographed in the National Rhododendron Garden, Olinda, Victoria
context_page_description: Eben Gowrie Waterhouse OBE CMG was an Australian who had three distinguished careers. Starting out as an innovative teacher of languages, he became one of Australia's most prominent Germanists when classical German culture still commanded worldwide respect. Between the Wars in Sydney he was a leading arbiter of taste in house-and-garden living, fostering a conception of garden design which still dominates much of the Sydney North Shore and parts of Melbourne. Finally, in his long retirement he brought about, as scholar and plant-breeder, an international revival of interest in the genus Camellia.
context_section_description: Western interest in camellias as luxury flowers had waxed 1840–1880 then waned as they lost favour to orchids. From 1914 Waterhouse's writing and breeding eventually brought about a renewal of interest 1930–1960 in camellias (even in Japan), now as warm-climate woodland trees.  His influence thus preceded by many years that of Sacheverell Sitwell's 1936 book Old Fashioned Flowers, often named as starting the revival.
  Waterhouse early formed the opinion that the rich and well watered soils of the North Shore were ideally suited to plants found in forest glades, most notably Japanese azaleas and camellias. But the names of available camellias were deeply confused, and the best means of breeding and growing them was poorly understood. In 1952 Waterhouse and four other enthusiasts founded what became the Australian Camellia Research Society. By 1958 it had 320 members. Waterhouse became one of the world's leading scholars of camellias — the International Camellia Society, of which he became the first president in 1962, has a register containing over 150 entries on camellias which Waterhouse identified, bred, discovered, renamed or reclassified. Among these were camellias originally imported to colonial New South Wales or raised there by Sir William Macarthur of Camden Park 1820–61. The enormous job of rationalising Camellia names in Australia was done by Waterhouse, A.W. Jessep of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens, and Walter Hazelwood of Hazelwoods' Nursery outside Sydney.
  In 1970 Waterhouse assembled a national collection of camellias on two hectares in the Sutherland Shire (at Caringbah), Sydney. The collection was renamed at his death the E.G. Waterhouse National Camellia Gardens. It contains more than 450 cultivars and species.
  Growing many camellias led to discovering natural seedlings and sports, as well as propagating known varieties and making deliberate crosses — starting with 'Plantation Pink' in 1942. Many of his named original varieties are still commercially available.
caption: Camellia japonica 'Betty Cuthbert', Waterhouse 1962
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A470", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2017:10:07 21:07:38", "Image Artist": "Cowboys Customs LLC", "Image ExifOffset": "252", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "886", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6743", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "3", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:10:07 15:01:23", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:10:07 15:01:23", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "5906891/1000000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "126797/40000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "101/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "63/10", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1536", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2048", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "64000/7", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "64000/7", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": "Cowboys Customs LLC", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[63/10, 108/5, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "6.3-21.6 mm"}