Camellia Club of Mobile  Newsletter  Volume VI -  Issue  5

…AND WE THOUGHT THE PRE-2009 SHOW WEATHER WAS BAD!!!!!

That weather was positively balmy compared to what hit us before our 70th Anniversary 2010 Show!  First, the wettest, soggiest December for many a year, then thirteen consecutive nights of below-freezing temperatures after the New Year…. I was changing my bird-baths each day by lifting out the contents and throwing them on the ground where they shattered!  However, as everyone who attended the Show knows, it was a most enjoyable social event. Though we only had about 320 blooms in competition, all the judges, exhibitors and Club members seemed to have a really good time.  Our unprotected blooms section was severely depleted due to the freezing weather, but better than we had expected partly due to our friends from the Pensacola Club who brought some lovely outdoor blooms. The freeze affected the entire Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida so we did miss seeing a number of our regular exhibitors who bring large numbers of unprotected blooms. Skip Vogelsang was the astonished beneficiary of those peoples misfortune – he won the Grown Outdoors Sweepstakes (for the first time he said!).  I felt I did really well getting an award on 100% of my entries – but I only had one entry…. On Sunday, too late, I picked seven lovely blooms to put on the Club table.  Our very sincere thanks to all the members who worked to make this Show a success, despite Mother Nature, & to all who exhibited and judged.  Without you we would not have had a 70th Anniversary Show..  Bless you all!  We’re looking forward to the 71st Show!

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GRAFTING, AIR-LAYERING, ROOTING & OTHER PROPAGATION METHODS

Don’t forget – if you want to add to your camellia collection (or start one) this is the meeting for  you.  On February l4th our experts who include Jim Smelley, Barney Barnard, Jim Dwyer, Walter Creighton and others will be on hand to demonstrate and answer questions on how to propagate camellias.  This is how  you get all those special plants that just aren’t available in nurseries.  There will be scions available, too. Glenn Read Camellia Nursery has kindly donated 15 pots of grafting stock which will be grafted and sold at a nominal price to benefit the Club. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In Memoriam

Sadly we report that long-time Club member Marguerite Miller passed away a few days before the 2010 Show.  She had been doing really well after her surgery and had returned home, but took a sudden down-turn with several complications including pneumonia.  She was a member of the Club since 1986, her husband Max’s father shared his interest in camellias with her and she was an active member of our Club until very recently, helping to organize the clerks for each Show.  Her granddaughter, Maggie Fleming, has been accompanying her to our last few Shows and helping at the Club table.  In a very loving gesture Maggie came and helped at the 2010 Show, in memory of her grandmother.  The Club made a donation in Marguerite’s memory to her church.  We will all miss this quiet lady with a lovely sense of humor and great love of camellias,

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CAMELLIA CHAT………………                                                                                     

Visitors to our 2010 Show were a veritable Who’s Who in the camellia world.  President of the American Camellia Society Judge Roger Vinson was there, exhibiting and judging. Blanding Drinkard visited for awhile before viewing the blooms.  We were delighted to see elegant Ms. Lib Dodd, widow of Tom Dodd Jr. (the Show was dedicated to the memory of Mr. Tom).  Also looking fantastic was Liz Jeffares from Mississippi, told us she’d just had her 90th birthday and was still in the middle of celebrating – Liz, we invite you to our 80th Show, then we’ll really party!!!   Former head of Bellingrath Gardens and past Club President Pat Ryan turned up to wish us well on our 70th Show, it was so nice to see him again. I have fond memories of standing between Pat and the late Herb Segner (also a past President) as they swapped jokes, my face ached from laughing! An especially nice surprise was the arrival of Robert Moore, he looked amazingly well after some very traumatic heart surgery.  We were all so pleased to see him.  Walter and Alice Creighton’s grandson put on an appearance, but an active toddler isn’t going to stay and look at flowers! Much more fun to dash round the tables with grandpa chasing, - didn’t know you could move that fast, Walter!

Hope everyone saw Jim & Elaine Smelley’s award winning retic seedling at the Show – it was gorgeous and ENORMOUS!

The Judges Reception was held the evening before the Show at the Bakery Café, a very cosy  venue.  Sharon Emmons did her usual terrific job in organizing the food and David Nihart donated the bar beverages.  It was a most pleasant evening, our thanks to all who made it so.

If you want to see camellias in the landscape, take a look at Bobby Green’s Wintergarden at the Mobile Botanical Gardens, Saw drop-dead gorgeous specimen of Camellia yuhshienensis  here, it looked like 4ft Christmas tree covered in big white butterflies, & it was fragrant!