Porto Botanical Garden wins "International Garden of Excellence" award

Porto Botanical Garden is showing its beautiful gardens to the world, as its 750 camellia species were awarded the "International Garden of Excellence" prize.

The award was granted by the International Camellia Society, following an application submitted by the Direction of the Botanical Garden of the University of Porto, jointly with the Portuguese Camellia Association. An international jury set up by 28 elements unanimously decided to grant the award to Porto Botanical Garden.

"This is the international recognition of a symbol of excellence that now enters the garden tourism circuit", explains Eduarda Paz, biologist and president of the Portuguese Camelia Association (APC) to Newspaper Jornal de Notícias, furthering that one such difficult criteria to meet, out of ten, is that the gardens have, at least, 200 different species of camellias.

Some of these species are endangered and "growing them is one way of promoting biodiversity and preventing its extinction", states Eduarda Paz.

Why not grow a camellia garden at home? "Camellias are one of the most resilient plants, and they adapt to balconies or pots", explains Eduarda Paz.