Camellia Hill

Character

Camellia Hill holds about 6,000 camellia trees representing roughly 500 varieties from 80 countries, spread through a large private arboretum in Andeok. The collection flowers in staggered waves from autumn into spring, while other planting carries the garden through the rest of the year

The camellias are not a single-season display planted all at once. Different varieties flower at different times. Six of the world’s eight most fragrant camellia types are represented, and their scent is noticeable among the winter blooms. Jeju native plants and other seasonal species fill the spaces between the main groves

Camellias dominate the colder months; hydrangeas take over large parts of the summer planting; grasses and other autumn displays shift the emphasis again later in the year. The underlying paths and mature trees remain, but the visual center of the garden moves with the season

The experience

Most of the visit is spent on outdoor paths that pass through camellia groves, mixed gardens, lawns and greenhouse areas. The site is large enough that the collection reads as a landscape rather than a single display bed

The oldest part of the story is also visible in the planting itself. Yang Eon-bo began putting camellias into former tangerine ground in the early 1980s, so some of the garden’s mature trees belong to the period before Camellia Hill existed as a public attraction

The collection is strongest when treated as a sequence rather than a checklist. Some sections are dense with camellias, others open into seasonal flower fields or wider planted views, and the balance between them changes substantially across the year

History

Yang Eon-bo began focusing on camellias in 1982, when Jeju’s tangerine industry was still highly profitable. A 2012 Seogwipo newspaper profile records that he cut down tangerine trees on roughly 10,000 square metres of orchard and began planting camellias instead

He spent the following years searching Korea and other countries for unusual varieties. Full-scale development of the camellia garden began in 1998, turning what had started as a replacement crop and private collection into a much larger horticultural project

Camellia Hill opened to the public in November 2008. By then, the site represented more than two decades of planting and collecting. The present collection therefore predates the attraction itself: the public garden was built around trees and research already accumulated over many years

Before you go

Opening hours change with the season because much of the visit is outdoors and the grounds are not fully lit after dark. Last admission is one hour before closing, and flowering conditions vary materially by month