There are a series of camelia shrubs growing along the Kate Shepherd Memorial walkway (near the Armagh Stree car park). The walk travels along the Avon River bordering the Botanic Gardens and Hagley Park and has many white camellias as well.

Here’s more information on the walkway and the significance of the white camellias:

“Formally opened in 1993, the walk was created to commemorate 100 years of New Zealand women’s suffrage. New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the vote in 1893. In 1990 various women’s groups from throughout Canterbury donated 100 camellias to the Botanic Gardens and these formed the beginning of the Memorial Walk”.  Source: https://discover.stqry.com/v/christchurch-botanic-gardens/s/4f64c1d5a83100b27ebad93d5e6d2da8

And from the Christchurch  Press:

“Women’s Suffrage Day is also known as White Camellia Day, as during the campaign for women’s suffrage, those who supported the 1893 Electoral Bill were presented with a white camellia to wear in their buttonhole. Canterbury had an integral part to play in the Women’s Suffrage campaign. Both the leader of the women’s campaign for women’s votes, Kate Sheppard, and the leader of the Parliamentary campaign, Sir John Hall, were Canterbury people. Christchurch was to lead the country, and New Zealand to lead the world. J. R. Wilkinson in 1893 referred to “the power, ability and duty of this city to lead the world in the cause of women.”