Camellia Club of Mobile
Inc.Newsletter
Vol.
VIII Issue 2 Nov 2011
Do you have any Antique
Camellias? Find out on November 13th!
Do try to attend our November 13th Meeting (held at the Mobile
Botanical Gardens as usual) since we have a very special program which will
be presented by Florence Crowder of Louisiana.
Florence has an enormous amount of knowledge about camellias grown
and named prior to 1900, these blooms are classified asantique and we have
just added new awards (sponsored by Florence) for this category for our 2012
Camellia Show. If you check the Camellia Nomenclature Book you will find the
date of birth of the vast majority of camellias listed.
Florence has been travelling all over the world trying to find,
identify and propagate these lovely old varieties before they are lost
forever. If you think that blooms developed over 100 years ago can’t be all
that great... go take a look at Pink Perfection who at over 135 years of age
is still competing in Shows and winning!
This will be an exceedingly interesting program.
Look forward to seeing you there!
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Elaine’s Camellia Slides Dazzle
Elaine Smelley treated all the members present at the October Meeting to a
gorgeous selection of camellia slides, showing old and new blooms.
Elaine also supplied a lot of information about each bloom, including
suitability for growing outdoors and how difficult that particular bloom
might be to grow. Lots of people took
notes and if there is any bloom you want to propagate by grafting (which is
easy to do honest!) let a Board Member know and the Club will see what we
can do to have some scions available for a very nominal fee at the February
Propagation Meeting. We are trying to
encourage members to graft to increase their collections.
I was petrified to try it myself until Bill plonked several pots of
sasanqua rootstock in front of me and said go to it! And I had a first time
80% success rate! One of the best
places to find a new camellia for your collection is at a Camellia Show,
make a note of the ones you would like to have, then check with other
members of our Club to see who may be able to provide a scion.
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BOEHM PORCELAIN CAMELLIA “HELEN BOWER”
Don’t forget about the gorgeous Boehm porcelain camellia Helen Bower which
has been donated by Robert Moore and Larry Heard for the Club Raffle which
will take place at the close of the January 2012 Camellia Show tickets are
$2.00 each or 3 for $5.00. Tickets
are available at our Meetings or from Martha Terry, our Treasurer.
I’m hoping to be able to send out a picture of this lovely prize with
the December Newsletter.
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Upcoming Camellia Shows......
12 November 2011 – Fort Walton Beach Camellia Club.
Westwood Retirement Resort, 1001 N. Mar-Walt Dr.
Fort Walton Beach, FL. Open to public 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Blooms may be entered between 8:00 and 10:30 a.m.
19 November 2011 – Mississippi Gulf Coast Camellia Club.
Lyman Community Center, 13472 Hwy 49, Gulfport, MS. (4 m.N of I-10) Open to
public 2 to 6 p.m. Blooms may be entered between 7:00 and 10:30 a.m.
3 December 2011 – Ozone Camellia Club.
St. Mary Margaret Gym, Robert Rd, Slidell, LA.
Open to public 2 pm
Blooms may be entered between 8:00 to 11:00 a.m.
10 December 2011 – Pensacola Camellia Club,
The Wright Place 1st Methodist Church, Wright St. Pensacola FL.
Open to public 2 p.m. Blooms
may be entered between 7:00 and 11:00 a.m.
All these Clubs will be delighted to welcome your camellia entries in their
Shows. You’ll see lots of familiar
faces at each of these Shows.