Camellia Club of Mobile Inc. Newsletter

Issue 2 - Vol. XI  November  2014

 

October Meeting one of our best ever!

Over fifty members attended the Club’s October Meeting and were well rewarded with a great presentation by our featured speaker Randolph Maphis from the Tallahassee Camellia Club.  He first gave us an overview of the plans and program for the American Camellia Society Convention which will be hosted by the Tallahassee Club next January, just after our Show.  Sounds like they have everything really well organized and all ACS members will be in for a marvelous time.  Randolph then proceeded to present a mountain of information, accompanied by great pictures, on propagating camellias, with particular emphasis on the dramatic reticulatas.  His presentation was clear, concise and humorous, in fact Jim Oates, former Club President and Club member for well over 40 years, said it was one of the best presentations he had seen at any of our meetings.  Randolph was accompanied by Howard Rhodes, also a well-known camellia grower from the Tallahassee area.  We were privileged to have both these gentlemen sharing their knowledge with our Club.  __________________________________________________________________________________________________

GOT A CAMELLIA PROBLEM?  COME TO THE NOVEMBER MEETING….

If you have any questions on growing, fertilizing, pruning, transplanting, propagating or just generally keeping your camellias in tip-top shape, the November 9th Meeting will be where you need to be.  We will have a panel of very experienced camellia growers available with solutions, explanations and tips.  If you have any  weird stuff showing up on your camellia leaves, pop some into a sealed Zip-loc bag, probably we’ll have an expert who can help you.  See you there

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CAMELLIA CHAT

The November Meeting was great, everyone was delighted to see Marcheta Houston, the guys were even happier when they found out she’d brought her famed coconut cake!  That cake is definitely the way to their hearts…  Some members brought offspring to the gathering, it was so nice to meet Carolyn & Don Oyler’s daughter from Hawaii, and Blanding Drinkard’s son.  Our new catering managers, Tammy & David Bracken, are doing  a splendid job, food was great, as usual.  The only miscue was several members, including this Editor, unaware that the Club Meeting had been transferred to the Annex, almost attended a Memorial Service  being held in our usual meeting place!   One of the biggest laughs of the afternoon was when President Larry Heard gave Secretary Jim Dwyer’s reason for absence from the Meeting – Jim had gone to the Circus!  But since Jim’s niece is an aerialist in that Circus, it was accepted as a good reason, though some people were heard murmuring that they’d love to have a relative in the circus…. I guess everyone at sometime in their life wanted to run off and join the circus  - this talented pretty girl actually did!   

 

Don’t miss the first Camellia Show of the 2014/2015 season -  Greater Fort Walton Beach Camellia Club -  8 November 2014 – Westwood Retirement Resort, 1001 N. Mar-Walt Drive, Fort Walton Beach, FL.  Blooms to be entered between 8 & 10:30 a.m. – Show open to the public 1:00  to 4:00 p.m.  This is always a lovely show and lots of our members exhibit.

 

I’ve written several times about the camellias at Chiswick House and Gardens in London, but now I’ve found some film about them.  If you go to the website chgt.org.uk  you should reach their web pages – click  on “Gardens”, then on the

“Chiswick House Camellia Collection”.   You should get an article, plus a video of a BBC presentation by gardener Rachel de Thame on the camellias in the huge greenhouse.  The whole website is interesting but the camellias are the best bit.

 

Did you see the picture of the solid rose-red sport that Vickie & Al Baugh had of Barney & Laura Barnard’s camellia “Laura’s Beauty”?   Lovely bloom.  Don Oyler has registered another of his blooms, can’t give you more info since the page about it on the ACS website is currently ker-phlooey (technical term for it won’t work!).