Camellia Club of Mobile Inc

Our meeting on Sunday December 8^th will be our annual Christmas celebration, with ham, turkey, dressing & gravy provided by the Club and other delicious side dishes and desserts provided by our members. If you have not already signed up for your food contribution and would like to help out, please contact our Catering Member Coralie Toomey at 251-643-7127 and she will let you know what may still be needed. If you make a special dish that you know everyone would enjoy let her know about it, we do have some really good cooks among our members! In addition to the good food and great company we will be holding our annual auction of items donated by members. All proceeds benefit the Club and our own past President Jim Oates will be our auctioneer as usual, keeping us laughing while he divests us of our money! So if you have anything you think people would be interested in buying, bring it along, every little helps. (This is another way we keep our annual dues at a mind-boggling $5.00 per person!!) It is always a great afternoon – and you will see more red sweaters than you thought possible!

The American Camellia Society has published its Camellia Calendar for next year – it will be even better than last year’s because one of the featured camellias will be c.reticulata “Jim Smelley” - originated by our own Jim& Elaine Smelley and just registered this year. The calendars will be available for purchase at the Christmas Meeting and cost is $10.50 each. There are only 25 available at the moment so we recommend that you get one before they’re all gone. The ACS is using this particular calendar to highlight blooms associated with “Camellia Legends” that the camellia world has lost during the past months. Included in the roll call of legends is our own Elaine Smelley, along with such camellia giants as Dr. Bill Ackerman and Hulyn Smith

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Members who attended the November meeting came away with loads of information on how to keep track of the camellias we plant in our gardens (oops, yards). Jim Campbell of Covington, LA, gave us some insight into the problems of identifying Mr.McIllheney’s camellias on Avery Island (yep, the hot sauce place), due to incomplete records, storms, etc. Jim recommended everyone make a map or plan of either their entire camellia garden or of each area and its location. Each plant should be put on the map with any additional info such as when and where purchased, etc. The plants themselves should be labeled and you should check every so often to make sure the labels are still there. Camellias live for many years and it would be nice to think that people in the future will be enjoying the fruits of our labors and knowing their correct names.

One of Jim & Elaine Smelley’s japonica introductions was missed from the last Newsletter’s list of camellias eligible for the two new Elaine Smelley trophies in January’s Show – it is called “Summer Pearl” – lovely name! (Thanks VMB for the heads-up).

The ACS is holding their Annual Convention in Pensacola, FL, on December 11 – 15, 2013. This meeting is always well attended by camellia people from all over the US and some people from overseas. Pensacola’s Camellia Show will be on December 14 at the First Baptist Church, 500 Palafox St. As the oldest club in our area, Pensacola always puts on a superb very well-organized Show. Check our website or the ACS website for more details. Highly recommend visiting this Show, even if you don’t exhibit blooms.

Another Camellia Show which is always fun to attend, is the Northshore Camellia Club’s Show in Covington, LA. It is held on December 21 at St. Scholastica Academy Gymnasium, 122 Massachusetts St. This is one of our region’s newest Clubs, but they do a really good show which is well supported by camellia exhibitors from all across the area. Again, highly recommended.

The Mississippi Gulf Coast Camellia Club held their 2013 Show at Gulfport on November 23. It was a lovely Show, with exhibitors from Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and, of course, Mississippi. Several of our Club members took part and won awards, congratulations to

our region’s newest Clubs, but they do a really good show which is well supported by camellia exhibitors from all across the area. Again, highly recommended.

Al, Vickie, Walter and Jim. Some really nice blooms on exhibit, saw my first solid deep red “Fir Cone”, so different from the more familiar variegated version. While I was griping to Jim Smelley about the difficulty of taking decent pictures of varieties and getting the name card clearly in the picture, Jim passed on this tip: take a pic of the name card, then a pic of the appropriate bloom – when you download these to your computer, add the correct name to the bloom photo and then delete the name card pic. This way you can get an excellent closeup of the flower and also get its name. Thanks, Jim!