Prince Charles has commissioned dozens of botanical watercolours from 36 leading international artists to record the wild flora of Transylvania, an unspoiled area of Romania he fell in love with 20 years ago.

The artists, from as far afield as Japan and America, descended on this area to capture with scientific accuracy campanula and crocus, gentian and geranium, hepatica and hellebore, among rare and diverse plants in the idyllic rolling landscapes.

Most of the artists are British. They include Fay Ballard, daughter of the late novelist JG Ballard, who found inspiration in meadows where wild flowers grow in abundance. “These meadows are of world significance and some of the watercolours document plants that grow nowhere else or in few other places,” she said. “I drew a Crambe tataria, a rare European plant listed for conservation protection by the EU. You can walk through these pastures of high wild flowers. It’s just heaven.”



Crambe tataria painted by Fay Ballard. Photograph: Fay Ballard

She added: “This is eco-friendly, agricultural land where there isn’t mechanised farming. There aren’t huge farms carving up the landscape. Medieval villages are nestled in the valleys. The agriculture goes back to medieval times. Nothing has changed for hundreds of years. Prince Charles’s botanist said that this is how parts of England would have looked in Shakespeare’s time. Everything is so beautifully kept. Prince Charles adores the place. I can see why.”

The choice of plants was drawn up by the botanist Dr John Akeroyd, who accompanied the artists, including Helen Allen, principal of the School of Botanical Art at the Chelsea Physic Garden.

Prince Charles is lending the paintings to the Transylvania Florilegium exhibition being held at the Romanian Cultural Institute in London from this week, which coincides with the Chelsea flower show. The artworks will also be reproduced in two volumes created by Addison Publications in a collaboration with the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation and the Romanian Cultural Institute.

The Transylvania Florilegium Erythronium dens-canis by Laura Silburn. Photograph: Addison Publications copyright A G Carrick

The prince first visited Transylvania in 1998 and has spoken of being “totally overwhelmed by its unique beauty”. He acquired properties in the Saxon village of Viscri and the more remote village of Zalanpatak.

In the forthcoming volumes, Akeroyd writes of the prince’s passion for Zalanpatak: “[It is] a place where he can enjoy peace and quiet … One of his greatest pleasures is to walk over several days among the myriad wildflowers of the extensive hay-meadows, pastures and woods … the sort of peaceful landscape that many would imagine no longer exists in a busy world.”

He told the Guardian: “I can’t emphasise too much the importance of the area. There are other wildflower meadows in Europe, but they’re mostly in the mountains. This is still lowland wildflower meadows of a sort that has virtually disappeared in Europe … It gives us a way forward for biodiversity conservation and the prince is one of the few people who’ve recognised how important this area is.”

Most of the artists painted three plants, recording a total of 124. They stayed in the prince’s properties, which include guest houses, described by Allen as “comfortable, but not in any way opulent”. She added that the area is “unbelievably wonderful … real soul food”.

Transylvania is a land of myth and legend. Ballard found a garlic clove above the door of her bedroom, to ward off Dracula and evil spirits. She listened to dogs barking and howling at night, protecting villagers from the bears: “If a bear came into the village at night, the church bells would ring.” She woke to cowbells as cattle were herded through the village.

Prince Charles visits the Transylvanian town of Sibiu in 2004. Photograph: Tim Graham/Getty Images

“Everything seems self-sufficient,” she said. “Everyone’s growing vegetables in their back gardens. They’ve all got a few chickens. Turkeys roam the streets. There are very few cars. Everyone’s got a horse and cart. There are no shops at all. Not a post office. In the evenings, we’d go to the local bar – the bar was in someone’s home.”

Addison Publications specialises in fine art facsimiles of famous manuscripts. In 2007, it created a publication of paintings depicting plants and trees in Prince Charles’s Highgrove garden in Gloucestershire.

The Transylvania Florilegium, with a preface by Prince Charles, is published on 3 July. Henrietta Pearson, Addison’s co-founder, said the prince was the instigator of the project. “He’s hugely knowledgeable about matters botanical,” she said, adding that the paintings were visually beautiful as well as scientifically accurate, noting that what artists like Ballard “can do with a leaf is absolutely fantastic”.