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The March Meeting of the Camellia Club of Mobile will be held at the Foley Civic Center in Baldwin County. There will be the usual social half

hour from 2 p.m. and the meeting will start at 2:30 p.m. Our program will be very interesting for those of you who want to increase your

camellia collection (and who doesn’t?) - experts will be demonstrating the techniques of air layering in order to get a good sized plant in the

shortest time; and propagation through cuttings using a misting system. Both methods are easy to master - I say this with complete confidence since I have several nice plants that I grew from my own air layering efforts; plus I have a gorgeous “Maroon & Gold” that is right

now blooming its little heart out and it was propagated from a cutting with the expert assistance of Jim Oates a few years ago. So you know if I can do it, you certainly can! Do try to make this meeting, lots of interesting information so bring a note pad and pencil. To get to the Foley Civic Center: take I-10 to Hiway 59, go south on Hiway 59 to Hiway 98 which is in the center of Foley. Turn left on 98. Go about half

a mile and the Civic Center will be on your left, just past the new Library. Lots of parking, front and back of building. Look forward to seeing you there, remember, you don’t need a passport to visit beautiful Baldwin County!

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The Club’s annual grafting clinic was again held at Bellingrath Gardens in conjunction with their Camellia Weekend. About 60 members, new

and old, attended the meeting on February 11. Jim Smelley demonstrated his tried and true technique and fifteen members went home with

newly grafted treasures clasped in their arms. The Club thanks Jim for his dedication in holding this clinic each year, especially since he and

Elaine come to the meeting direct from their participation in the Birmingham Camellia Show.

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The third and final Garden Tour for the 2006-2007 season took place on Sunday, February l8th, at Ronald and Vaudine Driskell’s home

in the Silverhill/Loxley area of Baldwin County. Despite the biting cold wind, it was a brilliantly sunny day and the tour was enjoyed by quite

a large crowd from Mobile, Baldwin and even Pensacola. We explored a large garden planted with a myriad of different plants and lots

of camellias, from huge 15-foot tall ones to tiny little rooted cuttings. Ronald recently built himself a camellia greenhouse, plus a misting

house for rooting cuttings. These were of great interest to many of the visitors. Again members went home clutching plants given them by

Ronald. We also met three geese, (noisy devils), a flock of chickens, and a pair of turkeys (the tom turkey almost wore himself out displaying his gorgeous bronze plumage for anyone that came to look at him). The Driskells’ 14-month old great-grandson assisted

in entertaining the guests throughout the afternoon. Our thanks to Ronald and Vaudine for their hospitality and a really enjoyable outing.

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CAMELLIA CHAT

If you are looking for a particular plant and don’t want to graft it yourself, Kyle McCaskey, of Camellia Nursery, 10280 Hwy 613, Lucedale, MS, will custom graft just about anything you may have seen at our January Show. If you call him as soon as possible you should be able to

pick up your grafted plant the last week of August. Tel. nos. for Kyle are 601-508-1272 or 601-766-3031. Kyle has been a generous

supporter of the Camellia Club of Mobile for a number of years now.

I finally got up the courage to do some grafting myself this past month - probably still would not have done it if my husband had not brought

10 pots of grafting stock, stuck them in front of me and said “Get to it!”. For those of you who wondered why I watched Jim Smelley’s

initial demonstration from so close up, I have always missed some it before due to usually standing at the back of the room, being short

like a fire plug, plus deaf in one ear. My grateful thanks to Barney, Elaine & Jim, and Ronald for scions and support in my first venture.

If they do not take you won’t hear any more on this, however... if they do take I shall probably be like a new parent, showing them off to all!

Isn’t it irritating when you buy a plant that is very clearly labeled with a stapled on label and then when it blooms it turns out to be something

totally different? Couple of years ago I bought a “Betty Sheffield Supreme” very clearly labeled and it turned out to be a “Profesor Charles

S. Sargent” - not quite the same thing. I bought three different plants from Dr. Clifford Parks’ “April” range last year - one which was

supposed to be pink bloomed out with superb solid creamy white formal double flowers. I suspected it was actually “April Snow”, checked

on the nursery it came from originally in the Carolinas and called their 800 number - got a charming young man who apologised for the error

and confirmed my suspicions. Turned out he started in the Extension Service in Alabama at the same time as our local Extension Agent

Tom Daugherty, he was in Birmingham and Tom was in Mobile, and they became good friends. Small world, the camellia world!