Camellia Club of Mobile  Newsletter  Volume VI -  Issue 3

Christmas Party – December 13^th – Mobile Botanical Gardens

All members are invited to our annual Christmas Party – the Club will be providing the holiday meats, dressing and gravy, with all the traditional side dishes and desserts being provided by members. If you do not know what to bring, call Carolyn Oyler, our Catering Magician, and she’ll let you know what still may be needed. Long-time member Jim Oates will once again don his auctioneer’s hat and entertain while getting us to bid on the lovely items that will be available (and just in  time for Christmas!) This is always a great party, no business meeting, just a friendly social afternoon with good food shared with good people who enjoy a common interest in our favorite flower, the camellia.  See you there,  Ho! Ho! Ho1

NOVEMBER MEETING on species camellias a hit with members

The more than 50 members who attended the November Meeting found themselves in for a great treat with Jim Campbell’s terrific presentation on species camellias.  Not only did he give a most interesting entertaining talk, he brought lots of live species camellia plants for us to examine and admire, plus photos of the blooms of each plant.  At least one of these plants did not return to Covington, LA, with Jim, it found a new home in Mobile County  Our appreciation and thanks go to Jim for all the effort he put into making this a most special meeting – now we just have to persuade him to give us a talk on his experiences on the International Camellia Society tour of China – what little he told us was fascinating…

PENSACOLA CAMELLIA CLUB SHOW IS DECEMBER l2 & l3 – Don’t miss it!

Christmas comes but once a year – celebrate it with a trip to Robert Moore’s Christmas Village & check out the gorgeous new Boehm porcelain camellia “Mathotiana” for the best Christmas present ever!!!

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CAMELLIA CHAT………………                                                                                    

Sadly our dear friend Margaret Comstock finally lost her hard-fought battle with cancer on November l3th. Visitation and a service were held in Fairhope on November l5th with about seventeen Camellia Club members attending, before interment in Birmingham, Alabama.  Club members Brenda Allen and her son Seth sang a heart-breakingly beautiful rendition of “Amazing Grace” at the service.  A donation was made by the Club in Margaret’s name to a hospice in lieu of flowers. Our sincere sympathy and condolences go Earl and his family  We will all miss Margaret and her optimistic, cheerful & lively presence.

Condolences have also been sent by the Club to Twila Ford , our member from Pascagoula, MS, whose mother passed away suddenly in the middle of November.  Our sympathy goes out to Twila, her husband Rob and their family, in their sad loss.

It was great to see our Treasurer Kay Calloway at the November Meeting, despite still having her replaced shoulder strapped up. She is hoping to be out of the sling before she & Ray visit their son Scottie, daughter-in-law and beautiful granddaughter Maggie.

Our Veep Floyd Hamburg is slowly improving though he and Melba are just about in quarantine since they have to avoid the danger of flu or the H1N1 virus.  Floyd’s system just ain’t up to battling those evil bugs right now!  We’re all praying and pulling for you, Floyd!

We also hear that Marguerite Miller has been poorly lately so we’ve sent her a card with our very best wishes for a most speedy recovery.

The first Camellia Show of the season was at Fort Walton Beach, FL, and quite a number of Camellia Club of Mobile members exhibited and  judged at the Show. Our President’s startled squeal, when she found out the she and Al had won the Kay Berridge Award for best small bloom in the Show, made those in earshot laugh – tho’ if I’d won that cash award you’d have heard my yelp all the way to Elberta!  Their bloom was a beautiful deep red “Tudor Baby”.  Our own Show Chairman, Walter Creighton, really did well, looked like he won over fifteen awards!  Well done, Walter!  The Currys did win an award, but since we were the only entry in that category, we were basically a shoo-in!

The Mississippi Gulf Coast Camellia Show in Biloxi was also well attended by our Club members, as exhibitors and judges.  Lovely selection of blooms, including a yummy yellow formal double.  Elaine &  Jim Smelley, Walter Creighton, Al & Vickie Baugh and Ronald & Vaudine Driskell were among the award winners from our Club.  Bill Curry really appreciated the coffee and donut while Vera was entering blooms.

The raffle at the November Meeting was a huge success with lots of rooted cuttings donated by Jim Dwyer, plus some grafting stock also from Jim and several big grafted camellias from Jimmy Walker, Thanks, guys, for your generosity.  It is really appreciated.

We’ve just heard dome more bad news – Club member  Robert Moore had a heart attack on November 27^th and had to undergo some really major surgery, including a triple by-pass.  Thankfully, Robert is recovering well, to the relief of all at the Christmas Village store and Larry Heard who is busy running the store at this very hectic  time while Robert recuperates. We’ve sent  Robert a card wishing him a rapid and uneventful recovery.

HELP!  HELP!  HELP!  Enclosed with this Newsletter is a flyer/poster for our 70^th Annual Camellia Show which will be held in January 2010.  We would like all Club members to participate in spreading the word about this special Show by passing this flyer on to friends, family, neighbors, local businesses, clubs, churches, etc…..We’d appreciate those who have a copier making copies to distribute, for anyone else we will have copies available at the December and January meetings for those who need them.  The Club will be publicizing the Show in the media, but we feel one of the very best ways for people to find out about the Show is from our enthusiastic membership.   Bless you for helping!