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Camellia Club of Mobile |
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Camellia
Club of Mobile Newsletter Volume
I Issue
2________________________________________________________________________________
___November 2004 NOVEMBER
MEETING SLIDE SHOW OF TOP CAMELLIASDon’t
forget to attend the next meeting of the Camellia Club of Mobile.
This is one of the Club’s most interesting and informative programs.
Camellia aficionado and grower-par-excellence Elaine Smelley will be
giving a slide presentation on camellias. You
will see gorgeous color slides of new varieties, older-but-excellent varieties
and some award-winning seedlings that have yet to be named. This is a presentation that is not to be missed, Elaine has
different slides each year so you will always see something new.
Jim Smelley does an excellent job on the photography and Elaine will
answer questions on any bloom. Be
sure to bring pen and paper so you can take notes, and
do ask your questions as the show is presented (it doesn’t work to wait until
the end of the show to ask Elaine “What was the name of that big ole purty
white one?” when there have been several big ole purty while ones in the
presentation! Lots of outdoor
varieties will be featured, plus some camellia reticulatas
for us to ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ over.
The meeting is Sunday, November 14th, at the Botanical Gardens -
refreshments at 2:00, meeting begins at 2:30 . See you there. ___________________________________________________________________________________________
MOBILE’S CAMELLIA HISTORY
At
the last meeting of the Camellia Club Blanding Drinkard gave an interesting talk
about Longview Nurseries and its founder Robert Ruble, and reminded us that for
many years Mobile was at the forefront of camellia development and propagation
in the South. The obituary this
past September of Tom Sawada, retired president of Overlook Nurseries, gave some
interesting information on the Sawada family who were extremely instrumental in
developing camellias for the home gardener. Kosaku
Sawada (1882-1968) was born in Osaka, Japan, and first came to the U.S. about
1905 with three other young men to establish the rice industry in Texas for a
Mr. Mykawa. Mr. Mykawa
unfortunately died in a farm accident and that project did not succeed.
They then successfully attempted to import and farm satsuma oranges in
Alvin, Texas. Several years later,
Mr. Sawada moved to Grand Bay, Alabama, to start his own nursery, primarily for
pecan and citrus trees. He had an
interest in ornamental plants, especially camellias, and the first camellia
seeds were planted at this nursery in l916,
after they were brought from Japan by Mrs. Sawada.
Two years later the nursery was moved to the Crichton area overlooking
Mobile, and was named Overlook Nurseries. There
Mr. Sawada’s magical touch in
plant hybridizing provided us with many still popular varieties of camellias,
plus azaleas, magnolias, amaryllis and other plants.
After his death in 1968, his son Tom took over the business, and with his
two sons, Steven T. Sawada and L. George Sawada, continued his father’s legacy
to the world of camellias. If you
have, or can borrow, early yearbooks of the ACS you will find many articles by,
and about, the Sawada family and
their influence on our favorite flower. So,
if you have “Sawada’s Dream“, “Sarasa“, “White Empress”,
“Frizzle White” or “K.Sawada” in your garden you are benefiting from the
genius of Kosaku Sawada and the beautiful plants he developed which are
particularly well-suited for this area of the South.
If you don’t have them, find them, they’re worth it! ____________________________________________________________________________________________
SUDDEN OAK DEATH (S.O.D.) This
disease has been responsible since l995 for the rapid death of tanoaks, black
oaks and coastal live oaks in coastal California and Oregon. It has been named Phytophthora
ramorum , but is commonly known as sudden oak death or S.O.D.
Hosts for the fungal disease are bark canker and foliar.
We are most concerned with the foliar hosts, which include rhododendrons,
bigleaf maples, and cultivated species such as camellia, pieris, viburnum and
box. Some of these cultivated species are killed (viburnum), but
some are just carriers of the fungus (rhododendron). Where camellias fit into this we are not yet sure.
Symptoms are similar to dieback and leafspot.
It would seem that only lab tests can confirm if the fungus is S.O.D.
Using sanitary gardening procedures and drenching new plants with a
topical fungicide before planting, then with a systemic fungicide later, may
help. You will be glad to know that
many of the camellia nurseries in California are regularly inspected and most
have received a clean bill of health, particularly the famed Nuccio Nurseries at
Altadena, California who have hybridized some of the world’s loveliest
camellia plants. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPCOMING CAMELLIA SHOWS: 20
& 21 November 2004 - Mississippi Gulf Coast Camellia Club -
Orange Grove Lyman Community Center, Highway
49 North, MS. Opens to
public at 2 p.m. Saturday, 20th November. 4
December 2004 - Ozone Camellia Club -
Municipal Auditorium, 2056 Second St., Slidell, LA. Open to public 2 p.m. 11
& 12 December 1004 - Camellia Club of Pensacola - The Wright
Place, Wright St., Pensacola, FL. Opens to public 2 p.m. on Saturday, 11th December.
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