Camellia Club of Mobile Inc

The speaker at our November meeting will be Jim Campbell, owner of Riverside Nursery at Covington, Louisiana. Jim has given presentations at several of our Club’s meetings and they have always been informative and entertaining, so we suggest that you make sure to attend on the tenth! Jim is very active in the camellia world, with both the American Camellia Society and the Gulf Coast Camellia Society. He is also a founding member of one of the South’s newest camellia clubs, the Northshore Camellia Club – they put on a lovely show in December in Covington, LA, which we highly recommend you attend, plus they have some great restaurants in that town! Jim has probably forgotten more about camellias than most of us will ever know and he is more than willing to share his knowledge with other enthusiasts.

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JOHN OLIVE’S PRESENTATION ON ORNAMENTAL PLANTS

The director of the Ornamental Horticulture Research Center at Springhill, John Olive, gave a very interesting talk on the problems that face ornamental shrubs and trees in this area. We all learned something new at the meeting – quite a number of our members already knew John which made it a nice social gathering as well. John’s generosity in giving up his Sunday off to talk to us was much appreciated by all who attended.

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 put your name on the list at the November Meeting when you sign in.

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Don’t forget to send your dues for the 2013/2014 season to our Treasurer Martha Terry, or give them to her at the next meeting. It’s only $5.00 per person, best value for money in the camellia world! (At least we think so!)

Do hope everyone noticed that two new trophies have been added to our January 2014 Camellia Show. These are being donated by Jim Smelley in memory of his dear wife Elaine. They are being awarded for the best bloom grown protected, and for the best bloom grown unprotected, from the named varieties that have been originated by Jim and Elaine Smelley. I think there are at least eight varieties: C.japonica – “Elaine’s Betty”, “Angel Marie”, “Elizabeth Dowd Mystique”, “Red Mountain” – C.reticulata “Skip’s Choice”, “Elaine”, “Jim Smelley”, “Linda Griffin”. There is a camellia named “Elaine Smelley” but it does not qualify since I believe it was originated and named by the first lady president of our club, Mrs. Bea Rogers.

Just back from a trip to Savannah, GA, and found, quite by accident, a superb camellia garden there. We had read about the Bamboo Farm and Coastal Gardens which had been founded 100 years ago and then purchased and donated to Georgia where is is now maintained by the UGA Agricultural people. We decided a visit would be a good idea (especially since we remembered all the fantastic bamboo grown by Jim Cambell at his Covington nursery). However, when we drove through the gate (free admission!) we spotted on our right a colourful sign indicating the “Judge Solomon Camellia Trail” – needless to say we didn’t spend as much time with the bamboo as we did at this marvelous Camellia Trail. We were lucky to find lots of species camellias, many in bloom along with many blooming named sasanquas . An elegant curving wide brick pathway meandered through tall shade trees, very level and easy to walk with sturdy solid wide bridges over any small gullies. The japonicas were not yet out, but their crop of buds promise a feast for the eyes and heart when they do bloom. It was a lovely surprise to see a beautifully blooming sasanqua called “Sarrel” which we immediately recognized as one of Bobby Green’s introductions, named after his granddaughter – she showed our club around Green’s Nurseries several years ago. This Camellia Trail was initiated by Gene Phillips and if you want to find out more go the CamelliaWeb Express.com - this will take you to the web site for the Southeastern Camellia Society – make sure you have some time to spare when you go on this site – it is absolutely full of great information and pictures. Highly recommend it!

Don’t forget that the December Meeting will be our Christmas Party and Auction – so if you have anything nice that you think people would like to bid on and buy, bring it to that Meeting. All proceeds of this Auction go to the club – we will probably have plants as well for auction. Hopefully we will have some at the November Meeting for our usual raffle.