Camellia Club of Mobile  Newsletter

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Volume I    Issue 6                                                                                                                                                                                                   _         _ March  2005

March Meeting at Bellingrath gardens

The program for the March 13th meeting of the Camellia Club will concentrate on companion plants for your camellias.  Springtime is just about here, the perfect time to choose a selection of southern favorites to complement your camellias and keep your garden looking great all year long.  There will be tips  on selection, planning and design.  Whether you are planting a brand-new garden, refreshing an older one, or trying to make some order out of an “Ivanized” yard, you will find someone to advise you, especially  with daylilies, hydrangeas, azaleas, ferns, Japanese maples and a host of other plants.  The meeting  will begin as usual at 2:30 p.m., after a social half-hour.  Hope to see you there.

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This Season’s Garden Tours a Success

This season’s Garden Tours schedule concluded on February 27 with a visit to Ray & Kay Calloway’s lovely garden in Point Clear.  Despite a very wet start to the day, the rain held off in the afternoon and everyone enjoyed the oriental-inspired water garden; the grassy , tree-shaded area planted with gorgeous azaleas, camellias and flowering trees  which gave the air of an English park; the shady moss garden and the huge oaks.  When the azaleas, wisteria and dogwoods are in full bloom this garden really dazzles!  By the way, if you’ve been through Foley recently, you have seen some more of the Calloways’ handiwork in the brilliant displays of  fluffy  yellow tulips, crimson ivory-edged tulips and masses of other colorful flowers.

 

A  fair-sized group of members attended Harold Beckham’s open garden on February 20 - enough cars were parked outside his house that a somewhat worried neighbor came over to find out what was going on - relieved to find out we were just a gang of camellia lovers... An extra bonus to the tour of the huge camellias surrounding Harold’s property   was a look at some display boards showing old photos of Mobile and a lot of well-known land marks,  fascinating to the people who grew up in Mobile and to the newcomers alike.

 

Those who visited each garden will agree that no two were alike, from Marguerite Miller’s tree-filled secluded site with soft leaf-mold paths among tall camellias gleaming in the shadows; to the educational order of the Mobile Botanical Gardens; to the winding paths of Bobby Green’s camellia display

 gardens and his elegantly landscaped personal garden around his home; to the beauty of a private estate at Bellingrath Gardens; to the massive camellia plants hedging the boundaries of Harold Beckham’s large yard, and the Calloways’ plant-lovers paradise.

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Cranberry-Chocolate-Toffee Oatmeal Cookies

 

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus 1 tsp baking soda                                        1 cup dried cranberries (sold as Craisins)

1 cup butter (2 sticks) room temperature                                                         1 cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet or milk chocolate)

3/4 cup white sugar                                                                                         1 cup toffee bits (Heath bits, etc.)

3/4 cup brown sugar                                                                                       1 1/2 cup of rolled oats

1 large egg lightly beaten                                                                                 1 tsp vanilla

 

Cream together butter and sugars.  Add  egg and vanilla.  Sift together flour and baking soda, add to mixture.  In another bowl mix together oatmeal,

cranberries, chocolate chips and toffee bits.  Fold into mixture.  Make into cookie dough rolls in plastic wrap, chill for half hour.  Cut into 3/4 inch slices,

place on parchment paper on cookie tray.  Bake in pre-heated 350 degree oven for 8 to 10 mins.  This recipe is supposed to make 2 dozen 3-inch cookies,

I get a lot more than that, but mine are never all the same size...   This recipe is being included in the Newsletter since so many people asked for it.

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Camellia Chat.....

Camellia growers are getting ready to prune their plants right now - I wait until my plants have finished blooming because I don’t have the heart to cut off the flowers!  As we all know, keeping your pruning shears sanitized while doing this is very important.  Most of us tote a container of water (to which 10% bleach has been added) with us in which to dip our cutting implements.  Unless it is a five-gallon bucket that you are lugging around, it is extremely easy to tip over your container, either by carelessly putting it down on uneven ground, or by accidentally kicking it over, causing unprintable comments and a trip back to the garden shed for more bleach solution.       However....  it has come to my attention that you can now buy Clorox  wipes which will do an admirable job of disinfecting your pruning blades - so no more messy jars of bleach!  They come in a plastic resealable container - just put it in a plastic  Wal-Mart sack, tie it to your belt and stick  the used wipes in the same bag until you are finished pruning for the day.  Those of us who creak  when bending will appreciate there is no bending necessary in this method.   So "snip, bend, dip" could become a thing of the past!