Camellia Heaven

The number one enemy of historic camellias and collections are Caterpillars and CATs. Those of you from other countries may know this danger as Kubota, Komatsu, Volvo, Mahindra, etc. 

After seeing many old gardens and nurseries bulldozed and all their plants lost, the Grimm’s decided to preserve camellias in either plant or picture of both.

John Grimm suggested each state have a public garden repository for camellias created by people in their state. There was little interest. Many public gardens do not have any space for expansion and most have little money for efforts that do not produce added revenue.

The Grimm’s, therefore, set out to be such a repository themselves. In 2005, they acquired a nursery about to be sold for development. It had 2,000 plants and some 600 varieties. Since then the preserve has grown to about 5,000 varieties and over 10,000 plants (in some level of propagation). Over 5,000 are in the ground and planting includes 500 or more every year (over 630 in the 2016/2017 season).

The collection includes registered and non-registered varieties as some nurseries never registered their creations (preferring to copyright the name or protect through patents). The preserve has most of the Tom Dodd varieties only a few of which were registered and a set of his oleifera seedlings. It includes all of Bobby Green’s creations, as well as, those of older growers who never chose to register their plants.

Each year 2,000-4,000 cuttings are stuck for rooting. These cuttings come from all over the country and some from around the world. Between these efforts and sharing with others, varieties that have never reached America previously are now growing here in Louisiana.

Camellia Heaven is now propagating collections threatened by removal. In some cases these collections might have the only copy of a camellia. They represented the stock plants of nurseries. Saving these could preserve many otherwise lost varieties.

The Malbis Plantation property has steadily been developed piece by piece. All sections were covered with camellias from the old Malbis Plantation Nursery. With the permission of a surviving family member, most of the plants at the Malbis Plantation have been propagated to assure they are not lost through future development. Many of these were Malbis creations.

The Cannon Nursery and home site was sold and the nursery stock was totally cleared. Earlier this summer, cuttings from the entire garden site and nursery were taken for reproduction. Among stock plants of this nursery were Hody F. Wilson’s creations after he left the LSU AgCenter’s Research Station in Hammond and do not exist in either of the gardens named for him. This may be the only chance to save his creations. Plants with tags included Dr. Frank Cato and some other little known and old varieties.

A garden planted by the McIlhenny Nursery and located on a major artery will be commercially developed. All plants were propagated with the hopes of finding some of McIlhenny’s lost creations. One such creation was located (in England) and is now rooting at Camellia Heaven. One never knows where plants will be found.

Smaller gardens, such as this one in St. Amant, La., was totally under water to a level of over 5 feet in some areas. The roots were under water for 5 to 7 days before beginning to recede. Many 1950 varieties exist there and will be propagated before they are lost.

The Walter F. “Hody” Wilson garden in Hammond, planted in the 1950s, includes varieties sent to the AgCenter for evaluation for the commercial market. Many were never registered. This garden suffered from a lack of care after Hody Wilson left as director. It was resurrected by the Tangipahoa Master Gardeners, but has experienced those same flooding waters three times in the past 2 years. Several of the plants have succumbed to “drowning” and root rot. This collection has been mostly replicated and will exist at Camellia Heaven and plants reproduced as needed. 

Many of the Walter F. “Hody” Wilson Garden plants may never be identified; however, Bell Rankin, presumed to be extinct in the International Camellia Register, was found there with its original tag. It may have been the only plant to exist. It has now been successfully replicated. 

The Camellia Heaven Preserve has not only preserved individual plants, but whole collections in danger which could have unique finds. Just last month, the garden of an old nursery owner, which John Grimm inquired about and was told no longer existed, was located. The old nurseryman did not want to disclose he lost the property in a divorce. His former wife was located and the garden visited for lost varieties like Bali Hai and the unregistered Miss Ponchatoula (a sasanqua). 

John and his wife Stephanie, while she was alive, loved helping people who could not find plants named for or by their family members. Camellia Heaven is currently propagating plants for McKown family members (a variety that used to be sold by Monrovia and may have been lost when they destroyed plants due to SOD being found at their nursery), the Boudolf family (Fran Boudolf was a friend of Ed and June Atkins of Shalimar, Florida), and others. 

Governor Kennon was located and propagated for the local current owner of the Kennon estate who unwittingly lost this plant when expanding the old home. She was beside herself when family members arrived and asked for cuttings of it and the plant was gone (having died in transplanting efforts). She searched for 10 years for a replacement. Camellia Heaven has grown her and family members replacements (as well as providing a plant to the Pensacola Camellia Society for their garden of varieties created by Pensacola growers).

Just this week, Mr. Grimm was told that old camellias at a church site were to be removed. These old camellias were from the collection of an old camellian in the area who was an active collector and registrant of several varieties. A friend asked them to discuss their safe transplantation or removal. We are planning to dig these plants and move to another location or to Camellia Heaven, or take large numbers of cuttings to preserve the varieties. This should happen more often. 

Preservation is not only the saving of camellia history, but the saving of family legacies. 

Earlier I said it was the Caterpillars/CATS, etc. that were the enemy. In truth it is not the machines that are the enemy, it is the man who directs these tools to action. Let us all band together and get those people to keep these “tools of destruction” locked behind fences until we have a chance to rescue or at least propagate our precious camellias!