The Clower Seedlings

	The Clower Camellia Seedlings
	Experiences of a Gulfport Camellia Grower ca 1950.
(c) 2004 Mississippi Gulf Coast Camellia Society
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OUR garden is located on the beach or shore of the Mississippi Sound. Lying parallel to the shore of the Sound and beginning 200 to 400 feet inland, is a series of slight ridges with fine stands of native live oak. Immediately to the rear of our home and on the first of these ridges is where we have our seedling camellia garden, among and under live oaks.

In my early days my mother grew japonicas but only one variety, Pink Perfection, and I was not aware of any other variety in existence. Being very fond of this japonica, I was inclined to plant the entire garden to Pink Perfection. We secured a modest collection of assorted and old, well-established kinds, with one or two unnamed prolific seedlings.

Mrs. Clower is responsible for our variety of seedling plants. When we moved to our present home, which is her birthplace, our enthusiasm for making a garden led us to visit our friends, Mr. and Mrs. Miles B. Hardy, who were in the pecan and nursery business. Mrs. Hardy fired our imagination, especially Mrs. Clower's, with the idea of producing new varieties from seed. Having had some experience as an apple propagator and grower, I was skeptical of results. However, I realized that once the seeds were produced, some fine healthy evergreens might be grown from them even though their flowers might not be of particular value. These would be suitable for hedges and borders. In late 1936 we planted our first large lot of seed, and apparently they germinated 100 percent. The seedling plants were transplanted early in 1939 on our garden drives, among and under the live oaks, in helter-skelter lots. A number of experienced and expert growers have pronounced these plants unusually vigorous and large for their age.

At the time of hybridizing, our garden was rather isolated with respect to other camellias, and bees were not observed among them. There evidently was very little interference, and as stated before, most of the varieties were the old and established kinds. The pollination was rather persistent and repetitive. Over one-half of these plants have produced good flowers. Many of them are complete double, imbricated, and large flowers for their kind with very numerous petals. However good, these varieties do not have the attraction generally that the more loosely formed flowers have. Our incomplete doubles and semidoubles, whether pure white, variegated or otherwise, have appealed to most camellia lovers more strongly. While we have many beautifully colored single varieties that make wonderful garden plants, none of the singles have been classed as good flowers. The first bloom was produced in the 1940-41 season. This first blooming plant is treasured for its sentimental value rather than for its outstanding qualities. Most of this first lot of plants bloomed during the following two seasons. These plants are now in their thirteenth year of growth and by actual measurement some are 14 feet high and well formed, while 10 feet is a common or usual height. The soil of our garden is a sand loam, moisture retaining, extremely friable, and acid in reaction. A subsoil of white, coarse sand lying several feet below the surface provides perfect drainage. The soil, moisture, drainage, etc., seems to be perfect for camellia growth and vigor. We set our plants into holes, large and deep, filled with old barnyard manure, well packed and mixed about half and half with the native soil. Tamping holes well, especially immediately below the plant, is important to prevent excessive subsidence. Each year we have lightly fertilized subsequent to planting, with a commercial plant food suitable for acid-loving plants. Barnyard fertilizer would, ordinarily, be too bulky to put around camellias often. Incidentally, we retained the full-length taproot wherever possible in transplanting, taking care that the hole was deep enough to accommodate the entire root upright.

A fast-growing, vigorous plant is desirable in several important respects. The foliage is more attractive, the flower is better, pests and disease do not attack the plant to so damaging an extent. None of our fast-growing, vigorous seedlings have ever set too many buds, and therefore they produce finer blooms. An interesting speculation with us is to what size our plants will grow before slowing down and becoming mature.

The varietal character of parent flowers shows in the seedlings, usually in an exaggerated form; the colors are brighter, the leaves are larger and the flowers are more pronounced in the varying forms, as well as larger. Many of our seedlings have extremely large leaves, though there seems to be no relation between leaf size and flower size. The reverse may actually be true in some of our finer varieties. We did our first grafting on our seedlings when the plants had been set five years. Though many of the grafts have grown fast and with vigor, few have become as large as their sister seedlings that remained. None of our seedlings from seed produced by flowers that were not hand-pollinated, have produced fine flowers.

A check on varieties in our garden discloses a definite limit on the number of varieties that may ultimately be produced, though I would not venture a guess as to what that limit may be. Even in our garden there are several seedling varieties that are apparently identical with older named kinds with respect to color, form and growing habits. Further, we have several plants of different varieties that are practically identical with each other, though all of them are different from any other known variety. Few of our seedlings have sported, though there has been no extensive propagation. Those sports that have developed, bear the same relation to the plant as other sports do to their parent plant.

Giving new camellia varieties family names, other than one's own, is a rather risky undertaking. However, we have named several of our new varieties for friends who have had a special part in helping us develop the garden. To date we have two varieties registered, Clower White and Simeon. We have four applications now on file with the American Camellia Society's Nomenclature Committee--Olive Barrett, Gulf port Purple, T. S. Clower, Jr., and Olive Elizabeth-and are preparing the forms for several more. Since we have four girls and one boy, growing camellias as a hobby has to share our efforts with raising children.

When our first good bloom of the first new variety opened, it was called White Potato Chips, Alba Frieze and some other names, until Mr. Brodie, of Brodie's Nursery, propagated it and named it Clower White. Mr. Brodie also showed us how to graft camellias, and this means of propagation has proved an extremely interesting and productive manner of obtaining new or different varieties. As succeeding good blooms of our seedlings came out, the idea of naming one for each of our girls was adopted; but as still newer and finer flowers were developed, some of the girls favored dropping their earlier namesake and adopting another, so we have been slow in naming varieties. With a few exceptions we have let new seedlings bloom several years before naming them. Also, we have considered it advisable to let a propagation of a new flower produce a bloom quite true to its parent before considering the variety established. New flowers proved deceptively deep in color when they were analyzed. Mr. J. S. Bradford, of Wayside Nurseries, Ocean Springs, Mississippi, very kindly permitted us the use of his Royal Horticultural Society Color Chart, and helped analyze a number of the blooms. Usually a flower regarded as pink would analyze on the chart as rose or even as deep as red.

Even our short and limited experience clearly shows that until there is some official authority or agent to fix names of camellia varieties, there will continue to be an endless confusion and duplication of names. Not only will this be true of any given locality but it will obtain generally allover the country.

The fact that a new camellia is a seedling is not alone sufficient reason for its propagation and introduction. It must be sufficiently different from or superior to varieties already in the trade to justify introducing it. Many seedlings will be inferior, others will be quite similar to varieties already in hand; and as time goes on and the number of varieties is increased further, it will become increasingly difficult to secure superior, distinct sorts.

A section of our garden had an unusual experience with salt water. At the peak tide of a great hurricane (in deference to our Chamber of Commerce, I will state that locally no such hurricane had occurred during the previous thirty-two years), salt water inundated an area in which several dozen seedling and some named varieties of camellias were growing. This water had no surface drain and stood over the topsoil for 48 hours or so before being absorbed by the subsoil. After several days the foliage of most of the plants wilted as a branch set without roots. All of these plants were promptly pruned, only a few leaves being left. The following season most of them put on new growth, and the second season they thrived.

Since climate, soil and many other factors are so varied in different sections of the country, it will be well for anyone who may have experienced different results in growing seedling camellias, to remember that these notes are taken from one garden, in one location and are made by strictly amateur growers.

The Clower Camellia Seedlings

The Clower Seedlings