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Camellia Club of Mobile |
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Camellia
Club of Mobile Newsletter _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Volume
IV Issue 7
April
2008 The
final Club Meeting for the 2007-2008 Camellia season will be held at the Foley
Civic Center on Sunday, April l3th. We’ll
have our usual social
half-hour before the Meeting is called to order at 2:30 p.m.
To round off this season Board Member Vickie Baugh will be giving a slide
show and talk on the use of camellias in the home landscape, there’ll be lots
of ideas and tips, plus views of various styles of landscaping in which our
favorite flower shines. Vickie will
also have hints and options for companion plants to compliment
your camellia collection.
Don’t miss this program! We
are also holding an exhibition of camellia photographs, all members are invited
to participate, do bring your best pics along, they can be any size, color,
sepia, black & white - only requirement is that there be a camellia in the
picture. The members
present will get to vote for their favorites.
Since this is the last meeting of this season we will also be electing
the Officers and Board
for next season. Hope to see
everyone in Foley, remember you don’t need a passport to cross Mobile Bay!
To find the Foley Civic Center,
go south on Highway 59 from I-10 to
Foley. Turn left on Highway 98 -
the Civic Center will be a few blocks along on your left, past the
train station, park and Foley Library. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MARCH MEETING ON FERTILIZING WELL
ATTENDED The March program
on fertilizing brought sixty members to the Mobile Botanical Gardens to listen
to an excellent talk given by Mark
Freeman of Florikan.
Listeners got a wealth of information and had a great many questions
answered by our extremely knowledgeable speaker.
This program is always
popular and we always seem to learn something new each year. Correct fertilization is quite an art in our area of gully- washer rains and
lean sandy soil - I personally seem only have sandy sand!
Our soil test from Auburn University came back recommending adding four (4!)
tons of lime - guess we tested as really acid. An added plus at
the meeting was a demonstration of air-layering by our Vice-President Dr. Jim
Dwyer - this was missed out in the February meeting.
This is the best way to get
a big new plant - if you can find a big enough plant that doesn’t mind parting
with a branch or two. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Several
newsletters ago I mentioned a vegetable-based oil spray to use in combating
scale, etc. In Home Depot the other
day while trying to find the usual
Ultra-Fine Oil, I came across Vegol Year-Round Pesticidal Oil.
This is made of 96% canola oil, rather than a petroleum- based oil -
do not recommend it for making french fries, don’t know
what the other 4% is! It is
made by Lillymiller - for more info they have a web- site:
www.lillymiller.com. I used the
Vegol last week and it seemed as good as the Ultra-Fine, it was a lot easier on my asthma... Camellia
Nomenclature Books and Supplements have been ordered - nine people have copies
reserved for them out of the total of fifteen ordered.
If you want one of the remaining six copies let Vera Curry know at the
April meeting or by phone, 251-986-8501. We send our
get-well wishes to Past President Barney Barnard, who recently broke his arm,
and to Marcheta Houston who had major surgery about six weeks
ago. Both Barney and Marcheta are
long-time Club members and can be relied upon to attend every meeting.
We missed Marcheta at the
March meeting, but Barney was the center of attention with his spiffy cast! While at the Foley
Flower Festival a few weeks ago, I overheard two ladies praising the lovely new
Camellia Walk that had been planted in the Foley Park.
All the plants seem to be thriving, despite a few days of floods and some
bitter cold winds - actually the coldest windiest day was the day the
Camellia Club members (all from Baldwin County) finished putting in the last
three plants, two super grafts from
Jim & Elaine Smelley and a
gorgeous “Dolores Oates” donated by Jim Oates.
The name plates will be arriving soon so all the plants will be properly identified.
The City of Loxley is also interested in having camellias in some of
their public parks, after our Club Secretary attended a Loxley City Council
Meeting and explained to Mayor
Billy Middleton and the Council what we had done in Foley.
Maybe one day we’ll get to call Highway 59 “The
Camellia Highway”..... There is a
delightful touch of whimsy in the garden of a couple of our members - unless you
know the names of the camellias you’ll miss it! Strolling down a
shady path you’ll find camellias on either side,
looking closely you’ll discover gentlemens’ names on one side and
ladies on the other - I
can just see these Southern belles flirting their fans across the way at their
mustachio-twirling suitors! Any
seeds will be interesting. |
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