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Camellia Club of Mobile |
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Camellia
Club of Mobile Newsletter Volume
III Issue 7 ___________________________________________________________________
April 2007 NOTE:
NEXT MEETING IS ON APRIL 15!
Please
mark the above change of date for the April meeting. The originally scheduled
date of April 7 happens to be Easter Sunday so we are putting the final meeting
of this camellia season on to April l5,
same place, same time, just one week later. As this is the last meeting we are
keeping with tradition and making it a pot-luck meal for the social part of the
gathering, so do bring something that you think people will enjoy. The program
will be on taking care of your camellias through the summer months, it will be
chaired by Walter Creighton and you will be able to ask questions of all our
most experienced growers. We will also be electing the Officers and Governing
Board of the Camellia Club of Mobile for the coming 2007-2008 season. A slate of
nominees will be presented by the Nomination Committee, nominations can also be
made from the floor by any member. We look forward to seeing you on the l5th. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ENJOYABLE
MEETING IN FOLEY
The
March Meeting was held at the Foley Civic Center across Mobile Bay in Baldwin
County. Over 50 members attended and enjoyed the change of venue, with
interesting, informative talks being given by Vice-President Brenda Litchfield
on air-layering and by Board Member Dr. James Dwyer on rooting cuttings with a
misting system. Our thanks go to Ray Calloway for arranging the meeting in
Foley, the hall was bright, the acoustics great and all
the chairs were ready and waiting for us! (No lugging them out of a
storage room and setting them up and we didn’t even have to put them away!).
We were also provided with coffee! An extra special treat that Ray arranged for
all the members who were interested, was a private tour of the model railway
set-up by the Foley Railway Museum. Our appreciative thanks to Ray and to Mrs.
Bonnie Donaldson who took time out from her Sunday to give us the tour. Some of
us even went back a few days later to see all the trains running, it really is a
great layout. So, if you didn’t make it to the March meeting you missed a most
enjoyable afternoon. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CAMELLIA
CHAT Bill
Curry and I attended the March Meeting of the Pensacola Camellia Club - it was
advertised on WEAR-TV3 as a talk by Dr. Bill Bennett on recently named camellias
which sounded worth a visit. It was most interesting to see how another Club
operates and to hear all the plans they have in the works, including a garden
specifically displaying camellias that are closely connected to Pensacola.
Camellias that originated in Pensacola are all over the world, I saw a beautiful
specimen of “Pensacola Red” at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Spring
Show in London one year. Dr. Bennett’s presentation on camellias named in 2005
was very informative, with many cultivars coming from Florida. The
end of March saw a lovely Flower Show and Plant Sale in Foley. It was done on
the lines of the first Festival
of Flowers in Mobile, and it was free! There were lovely displays in the large
tents, with a nice luncheon tent and another one for the featured speakers which
included our own Brenda Litchfield & Ray Calloway with camellia waxing. When
people gathered for the first speaker (about antique roses) we were delighted to
see that one half of the tent was almost filled by Camellia Club of Mobile
members, including five Board Members! The new antique Rose Walk was opened that
day and a stroll along it was very pleasant, the plantings and pathways were
beautiful. This has been put in place on the old railway bed that went through
Foley many years ago. The camellia garden discussed by Ray Calloway at our last
meeting would be in this same railway area - if it could be done as delightfully
as the Rose Walk, it would be a great asset to the growth in popularity of
camellias in our area. This
past camellia season as been a long one, I still have lots of plants blooming
happily, even a lovely little Dahlonega. My “Tomorrow” and her progeny have
done brilliantly this year. All of the cultivars that I have that originated in
California have produced really splendid blooms. I also heard that grafts from
California cultivars seem to be taking extremely well. Camellia aren’t
xenophobic, they will grow most any place despite where they were first
cultivated. I personally have plants that started life in California, Carolinas,
Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Germany, England and New Zealand, they all seem
to like lower Alabama. |