Kurume World's Camellia Building

Camellia Gardens and Products

This year is the ninth year the Kurume Camellia Festival is being held and it's primary location is the 久留米世界の椿館 or World Camellia Building in Kusano Town. There is free entrance into the small building although most of the plants are outside or in its glass house with varieties of camellias as well as a small garden in the back. (Nearby 'Kurume Camellia Garden' is about an eight minute walk from behind the building and much larger.) Camellia potted plants and camellia products were being sold inside the building. These include locally made snacks, handcrafts, and postcards showing camellias. They also displayed flower arrangements using camellias for the event. Of these camellia products, an interesting one is camellia oil. It's used in beauty products and for cooking. We tried the camellia gelato, which is a locally made ice cream containing camellia oil. The white color of the ice cream is accented with some strawberry jam to look like the red and white spotted camellias popular in Kurume. There are also meals served using camellias although we didn't come at the right time for that. We enjoyed walking around the gardens a lot because it was a beautiful sunny spring day.