Camellia Club of Mobile  Newsletter

 Volume XI  Issue 3                                                                                                                    December 2014

 

 

The Club will be holding its annual Christmas celebratory meal at the Mobile Botanical Gardens on December 14. All members are invited, the Club will be providing the turkey, ham, dressing and gravy with side dishes and desserts being furnished by our members.  If you missed the last meeting when the sign-up sheet for food was passed round just bring one of your favorite dishes to share and enjoy at this very convivial meeting. Past President Jim Oates will be in the auctioneer’s chair as usual, persuading us to invest in the many interesting items that members have donated for the benefit of the Club. This is always a most enjoyable afternoon, lots of socializing, laughter and great food, so we hope to see you there, the festivities start at 2:00 p.m.    

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NOVEMBER EDUCATION & INFORMATION MEETING WELL ATTENDED

Our thanks to all the Club experts who answered questions and gave information and advice to all who asked for it.  Though many questions were asked  during the general meeting, I noted that there were many one-on-one conversations going on, I personally would like to thank Jim Smelley, Larry Heard, Don Oyler, Rick Crow and Lyman Holland for giving me some invaluable tips on getting started in growing “Kumagai” cuttings next year.

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CAMELLIA SHOWs IN OUR AREA...

 

December 13, 2014 - Camellia Club of Pensacola - First Baptist Church, 500  N. Palafox St. Open to Public 2 p.m. Entry time for blooms 7 a.m. - 11 a.m. Don’t miss this - one of the oldest Shows - always excellent.

 

December 20, 2014 - Northshore Camellia Club - St. Scholastica Academy’s Gym, 122 N. Massachusetts St. Covington, LA. Open to Public 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Entry time for blooms 8 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. One of our newest Clubs, well supported by camellia enthusiasts from the entire Gulf Coast.  Lovely show with nice atmosphere.

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Camellia Chat

If you haven’t finished Christmas shopping - do go along to Robert Moore’s Christmas Town on Hall’s Mill Road, he and our Club President Larry Heard, are in the throes of closing up their fabulous treasure trove of a shop in order to retire and there are lots of lovely things on sale.  Don’t miss this opportunity to find elegant ornaments and decorative items at great prices.

 

For those who watch WKRG TV5 - yes, that was our Vice-President Larry Bush on one of their plugs for their station, now we know that Larry watches Channel 5 for the weather !

 

Went to the Mississippi Gulf Coast Show in Gulfport, hard hit by the vicious freeze just before their show but still a nice Show, half-a-dozen of our Club members exhibited there.  We all thought that a section for brown/beige blooms would have had many, many entries!  Also went to the Ozone Camellia Club Show in Slidell, our first visit there. It was very interesting to see the different ways Clubs organize their Shows. Loved the results of the camellia painting competition

by the students at the local schools. Some very talented artists.

 

We’re glad to report that our Show Chairman Walter Creighton is recovering nicely from his serious eye operation, saw him and Alice at the Slidell Show and he looked great (so did the camellias they were entering!).

 

While firkling around the web the other day I came across a gentleman from Sunnyvale, CA, who is a sasanqua aficianado. His name is Yuri Panchul and his website is sazanka.org - an interesting site.

 

That freeze we had a month ago that dropped into the mid-20’s did not appear at first to have done too much damage, however we now find that quite a few of our camellias are dropping their most immature buds. Buds which were showing a bit of color at that time seem to have survived though they were slowed down, but tight immature buds seem to have been hit hard, even on older varieties like “Mathotiana”.  Possibly a result of the drought & cold?