February 9, 2025

By JUNE KINOSHITA
Waltham Times Contributing Writer

*An early blooming camellia at the Lyman Greenhouses. Photo by David Greenfield.*

When you feel you’ve had as much snow and freezing cold as you can take, it’s time to visit the Lyman Estate Greenhouses. Enter the historic structure and you are enveloped in warm, moist air redolent with the aroma of rich loam and exotic blooms.

While a visit to the greenhouses is restorative at any season, the best time of all, perhaps, is during Camellia Days. Held from Feb. 18 to March 18, this is when the greenhouses’ extraordinary collection of camellias, some a century old, put on a glorious display.

These plants are among the last remnants of Boston’s heyday as a camellia center going back to the early 1800s. Relatives of tea plants, camellias were collected from mountainsides in China, Japan and Korea and carried back aboard trading ships. Boston Brahmins cultivated hybrids to delight them with winter blooms.

The Lyman Estate’s Camellia House was built around 1820. It is part of a complex that also houses orchids, bougainvillea, citrus trees, succulents and grapes brought over from England. The buildings are among the oldest surviving greenhouses in the United States.

The greenhouses are open Tuesday to Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Enjoy these photographs by David Greenfield.