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Camellia Club of Mobile |
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Camellia
Club of Mobile Newsletter _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Volume
IV Issue 1
_______ October 2007
GREAT
VARIETY ON THE AGENDA FOR OCTOBER MEETING.... The
next meeting of the Camellia Club of Mobile will be on October l4 at the Mobile
Botanical Gardens. We will be
featuring a report by one of our younger members, Seth Allen, on all the work
that has been done to help Bellingrath Gardens locate and name all their older
camellias. Vera Curry will explain
how the camellia made its way to Europe, America and Australia - did you know
that if those guys hadn’t chucked that tea into Boston Harbor there might not
be camellias in Australia now? The
Bonsai Club in Mobile will also be present to give us the best information on
how to use our favorite plant to grow a bonsai. Do try and attend this meeting, lots of things of
interest plus you’ll get to socialise with a lovely group of people! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW SEASON’S FIRST MEETING WELL ATTENDED Sixty members
attended the first meeting of the new 2007/2008 Camellia Season on September 9
at the Mobile Botanical Gardens. Everyone
seemed in great spirits and happy to be back in the swing of camellias!
It is nice to see that we have a solid core group of people who attend
every meeting with enthusiasm. Walter
Creighton gave a talk on how gibberelic acid came to be used on camellias and
also instructed newer members on how to use the gib.
We also found out why you don’t get jumbo peanuts by planting jumbo
peanuts - the peanuts only get huge because as plants
they have been treated with gib. You
can get a lot of extra information at camellia
meetings! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Garden Tours..... Yes!
We will be having our popular Garden Tour program again this camellia
season. Vickie Baugh is busy
finalising the arrangements for each tour and details will be published in the
Monthly Newsletter, put on the Club Website and announced at the Club Meetings.
Do keep your eyes and ears open so you don’t miss out on some pleasant
afternoons during the peak of the bloom season. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In Memoriam Members who have
read our 2008 Camellia Show Brochure will have noticed that the Show has been
dedicated to the memory of John Edwards. John
was a camellia lover/grower par
excellence and a great
supporter of our Club especially through our leaner years.
He was a dear kind man and will be sadly missed at our Shows.
Our love and sympathy have gone out to his wife Mary Ellen who has also
taken a great part in our Shows, willingly helping as a clerk each year. Don Lovell, who
has been a quiet supporter of our Club since he joined at our 2004 Show, has
passed away. Our sincere sympathy
goes to his wife Judy who has elected to join the Club herself. We look forward to seeing her at our meetings and the Show. ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................
CAMELLIA CHAT How did my grafts
do? Absolutely brilliantly - all 10
took nicely on the “Maiden’s Blush” sasanqua stock we purchased from Kyle
McKaskey. Having followed
Jim Smelley’s advice of putting the root stock in the ground some time prior
to grafting, I had to dig them up after the grafts had properly
taken, put them in bigger pots and place them in light shade under the oak
trees. Then disaster , in the form of a fat little rabbit, struck!
This monster, (who has been stuffing his furry face with our ground birds
feed for months) snipped off five (5!!!) of the plants right at
the graft - didn’t eat them, just cut them down!
Next year the potted grafts will be inside a chicken-wire enclosure... Garden
organically? There is a new oil
spray made from canola oil now on the market.
This is supposed to be a good replacement for the
petroleum-based oil sprays we all use to combat scale on our camellias. If anyone has used it, let us know the results. New camellia book
about to be published: “Camellias
- The Gardener’s Encyclopedia” by
Jennifer Trehane. Ms. Trehane and
her father Peter are
well-known in the camellia world and run a nursery in Dorset, England,
specialising in camellias and blueberries.
She has been very active in the
International Camellia Society and written several books on camellias.
Check amazon.com for date of
sale in October. Think global
warming is not for real? How about
this - a company is planting C.sinensis
in Yorkshire, England
with the plan of locally producing tea.
Verry interresting.... |
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