Camellia Club of Mobile  Newsletter

Volume III  Issue 1___________________________________________________________________________________October 2006

 

ARE ALL CAMELLIAS GOOD PARENTS?

Now this is not such a silly question as it seems… Come to our October Meeting and Dr. Bill Bennett of Pensacola will provide lots of information on the genealogy of camellias.  We all know that there are many different blooms descended from “Betty Sheffield” and from the old favorite “Elegans”,  also many of the fragrant camellias that have been hybridized  will be found to have “Mrs. Bertha A. Harms” in their parentage.  This will be a most interesting lecture, especially since many of us are planting this past season’s very prolific crop of seeds.  The Meeting will be held at the Mobile Botanical Gardens, with the usual social half-hour before the Meeting is called to order.  Don’t miss this, hope to see you all on Sunday, October 8th, at 2:00 p.m.

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ACS HORTICULTURALIST A BIG HIT!

If you didn’t or couldn’t attend the Club’s first Meeting of the new season on September 10th – you did miss a good one.  Tom Johnson,  horticulturalist for the American Camellia Society gardens at Massee Lane in Fort Valley. Georgia, was our guest speaker and he was excellent, very humorous with a great deal of seriously helpful information.  Many questions were asked and answered.  One piece of information that should be passed on for those whose couldn’t attend…..if you have a healthy plant that is big enough to be producing blooms, but isn’t, take a stick and whack the trunk all around – not hard enough to leave a wound or mark.  This will apparently make it take notice that it should be getting on with the business of providing you with nice flowers!  Many years ago I personally watched my god-father’s gardener take an old cricket bat to the trunks of some young apple trees, “to wake the little divils up!”.  Our thanks to Tom for an enjoyable talk, his enthusiasm and humor were much appreciated.

In Memoriam

We sadly inform the members that James Andress passed away in May of this year.  James had been a member of the Club for twenty years and though not active for the past few years, still retained his love of camellias.  Our thoughts and sympathy go out to his wife

Madge from the Club and all of us who knew him.

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The International Camellia Society Journal announced the death recently of Stirling Macoboy, the Australian author of two of the best camellia books currently available “The Colour Dictionary of Camellias” and “The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Camellias”.  Quite a few of our members will recall meeting Mr. Macoboy at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Show several years ago.  Some of the blooms pictured in his books were grown by our Club members.  Mr. Macoboy had suffered from Parkinson’s disease for a number of years.

CAMELLIA CHAT…..

Now that the cooler weather is finally getting here, many of us are itching to get out in the yard and start with the autumn planting… if you are looking for more camellias (who isn’t!) check out the Home Depot and Lowes right now.  I saw some really nice large plants of “Star above Star” at the Home Depot on Nine Mile Road in Pensacola the other day, priced about $30.00.   If you are looking for a really wide selection of camellias, take a trip to Kyle McCloskey’s Nursery in Lucedale, MS.  If you want some of Bobby Green’s gorgeous sasanquas try Wilsey’s Nursery on Highway 27 in Baldwin County.  (If you know of any good places to get quality camellias, let me know and I will pass it on in the next Newsletter. vc).

 

Mrs. Barbara Tuffli, President–elect of the ACS, attended our September meeting, along with her husband.  Esther P. de Salinas of Mexico City came to our meeting, as did Marylin Johnson, wife of ACS horticulturalist Tom Johnson.  All these people had been in Mobile for the Gulf Coast Camellia Society Annual Meeting .   Mrs. Tuffli joined our Club at our Meeting.

 

Those of you who attended the April Meeting and asked Walter Creighton if he had a written copy of his talk on Spring Camellia Culture – your requests have been heard and we now have a printed three page copy of his presentation.  If you want one and cannot make it to October  8th Meeting (where there will be 60 copies available for members) please let Walter or Vera Curry know and we will see that you

receive a copy.