The rare variety Camellia japonica ‘General Washington’ blooming in the Arboretum. (Photo by Niall Dunne)
Collectors are a curious and passionate breed. I remember visiting the New York City apartment of my editor-mentor-friend Ray Roberts, who was an avid book collector. It was wall-to-wall bookshelves, and each shelf was two layers thick with books. Signed first editions were lovingly jammed in every nook and cranny, and it was difficult to use Ray’s bathroom because there were so many piles of oversized art volumes stacked waist high around the toilet and sink. (On the upside, there was no shortage of things to read on the pot!)
Similarly, plant collectors can amass incredible and unique private collections, which are always fun to visit. However, they also can make very important contributions to the collections of botanic gardens. Take, for instance, our own local and very influential collector/explorer Dan Hinkley: A cursory search of the Arboretum’s digital map shows that Dan has generously donated more than 300 trees and shrubs, from his extensive travels, to be enjoyed by Arboretum visitors.
The collector-garden exchange can work both ways, as I recently learned when I heard that UW Botanic Gardens Curator Ray Larson was helping a plantsman based in the Los Angeles area recover rare, cultivated varieties of Japanese camellia (Camellia japonica) lost during the tragic Eaton Fire of 2025. I contacted Ray, and he informed me that the exchange had actually been going on for several years, and some of the cuttings lost in the fire originated in the Arboretum collection.
Michael Ossen (right), with John Grimm and Tom Nuccio, at Nuccio’s Nurseries before the Eaton Fire.
Ray put me in touch with the plant collector, Michael Ossen. On a Zoom call with Michael, I discovered that he’s a young man who has spent his life in the San Gabriel Valley, just east of LA—and that he’s obsessed with woody shrubs, a passion he inherited from his grandfather.
Reviving ‘General Washington’
“My grandfather planted a beautiful, holistic garden at our family home, filling it with fruit trees, like guava, and much more,” he says. “I’ve added to it over the years, developing a collection of rare camellias and azaleas.”
Michael is particularly interested in reviving rare varieties of Japanese camellia that are no longer in circulation in the horticultural trade, and he has been working on a target list of plants for some years. That’s how he connected with the Washington Park Arboretum, which is home to one of the best camellia collections on the West Coast. Many of the Japanese camellia varieties in the main Camellia Collection grove at the south end of the Arboretum date to the 1940s and 1950s and are now considered hard-to-find heirlooms.
A few years ago, Michael contacted Ray, asking if Ray could send cuttings from a particular rare variety of Camellia japonica in the Arboretum collection: ‘General Washington’, a lovely, double-flowered white variety with pink streaks, originating in Pennsylvania in 1844.
“As far as I know,” Michael told me, “the Seattle Arboretum is the only public garden where ‘General Washington’ still exists.”
Ray kindly obliged, and Michael grafted the cuttings onto mature Japanese camellia stock. “Grafting onto mature stock accelerates the propagation process and can yield fairly good-sized plants in a matter of a few years, whereas growing plants from rooted cuttings takes a lot longer.”
Damage at Nuccio’s nursery from the 2025 fire. (Photo by Kathy Liu)
Fire Damage
Michael was propagating the Arboretum-sourced plants—along with a few other target varieties—in a shade house at Nuccio’s Nurseries, a legendary garden center in Altadena specializing in rare camellias and azaleas. Sadly, the Eaton Fire burned through the nursery in early January 1995, destroying much of its stock, including Michael’s plants.
He’s starting over, and Ray has helped him out again, sending fresh cuttings of ‘General Washington’ and about a dozen other rare cultivars, such as the rose-red ‘Sol de Oro’, earlier this year. And what are Michael’s plans for the plants that he’s trying to revive? He said he’ll keep some for himself, trade others, and offer specimens to botanic gardens—such as The Huntington, in nearby San Marino, which is home to the country’s most extensive public collection of camellias.
A Two-Way Street
I spoke to Tim Thibault, the Curator of Woody Plant Materials at The Huntington, about camellias and collectors. (It turns out Tim began his career at the Washington Park Arboretum in the early 1990s, working on storm damage clean up.)
In the past, Tim has given Michael permission to propagate from the Huntington’s collection, specifically to help renowned camellia experts Florence Crowder and John Grimm develop their collections in the U.S. Southeast. In exchange, Michael has given Tim a couple of camellias for the botanical garden’s collection.
“Neither of them are exactly rare or old,” says Tim, “but I’m glad to have both.” One is ‘Florence’s Debutante,’ a rose-pink peony-form variety developed by Florence Crowder. The other is ‘Strawberry Limeade’, which Tim describes as “a really funky plant with alternating pink and green petals.”
Tim is a fan of collection exchanges, especially between botanic gardens, and of spreading the good news about plants: “My wife is a librarian, and if we’ve learned anything from Caesar’s burning of the great Alexandria Library, it’s to make copies and move them around. My goal with the camellia propagation project was to help get the plants back out into the world!”
Michael likens the world of plant collecting to a joyful, collegial swap meet. “If you’re kind and cordial, people are happy to send and exchange plants. We are all aiming for the same thing—to care for plants and be stewards and tenders of the earth.”
Niall Dunne is the “Bulletin” editor and the communications manager at the Arboretum Foundation.
Camellia japonica ‘Sol de Oro’ blooming in the Arboretum. (Photo by Niall Dunne)
Arboretum Camellias Being Revived
Besides Camellia japonica ‘General Washington’, UW Botanic Gardens curator Ray Larson has sent cuttings of the following rare camellia varieties to collector Michael Ossen, so that Michael can help reintroduce them to wider cultivation.
- Camellia ‘Daisy Eagleson’
- Camellia japonica ‘Liliiflora’
- Camellia japonica ‘Madame Martin Cachet’
- Camellia japonica ‘Masayohi’
- Camellia japonica ‘Mikenjaku’
- Camellia japonica ‘Nobilissima
- Camellia japonica ‘Professore Filippo Palatore’
- Camellia japonica ‘Red Cardinal’
- Camellia japonica ‘Sol de Oro
- Camellia japonica ‘L’avvenire’
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This article is reprinted from the spring 2026 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin, our quarterly botanical and horticultural magazine. Published since 1937, the Bulletin is a benefit of Arboretum Foundation membership and features in-depth articles on the Arboretum collections and history, as well as general information of interest to plant lovers in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Join/subscribe today.
