Old Camellias of the Mississippi Gulf Coast
	1950 Article Reprint
2004 Mississippi Gulf Coast Camellia Society
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Old Camellias of the Gulf Coast by Edwina N. Mogabgab, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi (American Camellia Society Yearbook 1950 reprinted with permission.)

AS FAR back as one can remember, there have been camellia trees on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Many of them were brought from France by the early settlers and plantation owners. They were always known as camellias, and only in the past ten or fifteen years has the name "Japonica" become familiarly associated with the camellia. About this time they again became popular; they were bought by the hundreds and were planted, mostly as small bushes, in the gardens of the Coast and the surrounding areas. Many people, not knowing of their beauty, thought they were a new shrub, since they were called "Japonicas." It was some time before they rightfully became known as Camellia japonica.

Nurserymen and agents from large gardens in the East bought many of our oldest and largest trees at fabulously cheap prices. Many were found growing on dilapidated properties, and the owners were delighted to sell a pretty flowering tree i for what, to them, was an exorbitant price. In this way, the Gulf Coast lost some of its oldest and most beautiful camellias.

In the front garden of Art Fifield's home and tourist court, a few yards from the highway in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and in full view of the passing traffic, is a 32-foot Sarah Frost. This tree is the largest on the Coast so far as is known. It is a healthy plant growing under the huge branches of an old oak. Mr. Fifield claims this tree to be approximately 80 years of age. Some years ago he refused seven hundred dollars for it. In full bloom, it is a beautiful picture.

Pass Christian. In Memorial Park, situated in the heart of Pass Christian, Mississippi, on the coastline, a healthy 12-year-old plant stands 7 feet high and proudly sways in the Gulf breezes. It deserves to be proud and hearty, for it is the offspring of an old and historical plant still growing in the front garden of the old McCutchon property on the beach front.

According to records, this mother plant, a mere slip at the time, was brought to the Coast from Mt. Vernon. Mrs. Frances Park Lewis Butler, a grand-niece of George Washington and a great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, brought this plant to the Coast and set it in her front garden some time in the early nineteenth century. She is buried in the Live Oak Cemetery in the town; her tombstone states that she was born in 1793 and died in 1874.

The blossoms of this tree are red and semi-double, and to this day have not been identified by name. Like a person, the tree has begun to show her age, perhaps because of neglect and the whipping she has taken from the three large magnolia trees that flank her on three sides. The height of this tree is about 18 feet. One wonders how she has withstood the lashing of the winds and the surf from the tropical hurricanes and storms that have visited our Coast from time to time. Over a hundred years of age! No wonder she has lost her girlish figure and is a bit lopsided. Regardless of her age and abuse, she still bears many lovely blossoms each year..

A few hundred yards down the beach, in the front garden of the old Monroe and Leovy property, now owned by Mrs. Margot Gack, is another old camellia tree. So far as can be ascertained, it is between 80 and 100 years of age. It is 20 feet in height and about 18 feet wide. This tree was also grown from a cutting from the historical mother plant. Pass Christian's famous camellia has many children scattered throughout the town, and the townspeople say that the flowers from the parent plant are of a deeper shade than those of the offspring.

Bay St. Louis. Moving westward along the Coast and across the old Bay of St. Louis, we come to the towns of Bay St. Louis and Waveland. So closely are these towns tied together in civic and social contacts that it is said that only the politicians can find the dividing line.

In the front garden of the Charles A. Breath, Jr., home, on North Beach, a large and healthy old camellia is growing. This tree, 20 feet in height, is a tradition in the Breath family, and so far as they know, is about 70 years of age. It has been identified as Mission Bell. Mr. Breath's mother, as the bride of Captain William Boardman, brought it as a young plant from her home at Elmwood Plantation near Bay St. Louis and planted it in the yard of her new home. Here it has thrived and given of its blossoms to hundreds of people these many years. It stands beneath a large oak and has withstood the salt spray and winds from year to year. During its blooming season large branches covered with blooms are given to the church for decoration and to their many friends. This tree is cherished and yet generously shared with the neighbors.

Over a hundred years ago a small potted Alba Plena was bought from Indian peddlers at the French Market in New Orleans, Louisiana, and planted in the very small front garden at 218 North Beach, then owned by the Saucier family. The home is still standing and is now owned by the Horton family. The plant, growing not more than a few feet from the porch, is situated about 20 feet from the front beach road. At one time it was almost tree size, but with age and the constant whipping from salt spray and winds it is now in very poor condition and not more than 5 feet high. Each year, however, it still gives forth large and beautiful blossoms. In the 1947 hurricane that hit the Coast full force, this bush withstood the spray from 20-foot waves that broke at the edge of the side- walk and swept over the top of the house behind it. The street or beach front road in this section was completely washed away. Deposits of salt and sand 6 inches deep and more were left on the ground. It would seem this delicate white-flowered camellia has proved the stamina of its kind.

Waveland. In Waveland, Mississippi, a few blocks from the beach or coastline, on Jeff Davis Avenue, there is a small unpretentious white house with a little garden almost filled with camellia bushes. The owner proudly points to the one nearest the house and claims that 35 years ago he picked it up from a wayside ditch as a small rooted cutting someone had thrown away. This plant bears large, semi-double, red flowers.

In searching for old plants 50 years old and more, I came across a fine collection of healthy camellias in the yard of a grocery store, on the Old Spanish Trail a short distance west of Bay St. Louis. One tree was particularly interesting. It is about 16 feet high, beautifully shaped and branched. Some of the branches are practically lying on the ground, and it reminds one of a well-shaped Christmas tree. There was no evidence of scale or dieback, and when told by the owner that this tree was only 15 years old, I peeped through the heavy branches that almost completely hide the trunk, to see the size of it. There were at least four or five main branches or trunks growing from the ground level, each about 4 or 5 inches in diameter. It is the most beautiful tree I have ever seen, and I will not be satisfied until I see it in bloom this winter. There is also a Sarah Frost near by, about 5 to 6 feet tall. The owner claims it to be three years old. I'm sure she must be a bit mixed up on the age of her plants. When asked what she fed them, she replied, "Rotted chicken fertilizer and topsoil from the woods." Her garden is filled with seedlings sprouted from her own bushes. She does all her own gardening, and every plant on her property was healthy and vigorous.

Ocean Springs. In Ocean Springs are located the original plants of Morning Glow, White Butterfly, Charlotte Bradford (pink and white), Crusader (turkey red), Thelma Dale (pure phlox pink), Mrs. Baldwin Wood (white with pencil stripes of pink) and Stephen Foster (red in the morning and deepening to a bluish hue in the afternoon). These belong to Mr. Bradford of Bradford's Way-side Nurseries.

Logtown. A trip to the home of Miss Annette Koch in Logtown, Mississippi, is an inspiring and treasured memory. Miss Nettie, or Aunt Nettie, as she is affectionately called by all who know and love her, is 92 years old. She lives alone except for the caretaker and his wife who tend both home and grounds.

Logtown, situated on the banks of Pearl River, a few miles north of Highway 90 and west of the town of Bay St. Louis, is a "ghost town." Sometime around the turn of the century, life in this section was busy with the hum from two lumber mills. The main excitement for the inhabitants was the landing of the mail boat which plied up the river from a small station on the L & N Railroad, called English Lookout, later named Dunbar. The boat carried mail, express, supplies and passengers and constituted the main touch with the outside world for the citizens of the town and surrounding communities.

Miss Nettie's father was a sea captain who came to this country from Denmark. About 75 years ago he purchased the first camellia tree to be planted in the town. It was bought from a nursery situated at Pine Hills a few miles north of Pass Christian, Mississippi; later the beautiful Pine Hills Hotel was built on the spot where this nursery was located.

This camellia has grown and flourished through the years and has reached a height of about 40 feet and a diameter of 32 feet. It is growing under a mammoth oak tree. Its topmost branches reach around and above a huge limb of the oak. It bears semi-double red flowers in profusion and is known and loved by the people who through the years have had some association with this town.

A few hundred feet from the house and on the Koch property is the family burial ground. Here are many small marble crosses iii bearing the names of the deceased members of the family. A little apart and under dense shade from oak and magnolia trees are the graves of Captain Koch, his wife and two of their children who died in infancy. At the foot of Captain Koch's grave is a 15-foot Sarah Frost camellia. The ground on the opposite side of this tree slopes steeply about 12 feet to a thickly wooded, narrow vale. It's a beautiful setting for such a lovely, thick and bushy shrub. According to Miss Nettie, this camellia was planted over her mother's grave by her father in 1886. For fear it would grow too large, in 1894 she and her brothers moved it to where it now stands.

Miss Nettie has never let anyone cut more than short-stemmed flowers from her camellias. They have never been sprayed and are fertilized only by the leaves from the surrounding oak trees. Lifting the lowest branches that just escape the ground and looking up through the top branches, one finds no evidence of scale or other plant disease.

Upon leaving this beautiful old home and garden where in the past people were always welcomed, where many picnics and weddings were held under the oak trees, knowing that Miss Nettie, at 92 years of age, is still able to walk through and supervise her beloved grounds, one stops and considers many things—soil tests, soil amendments, vitamins, fertilizers, sprays and the numerous things so many of us employ in our camellia gardens. Could it be that camellias are like some of us humans who thrive best in quiet places without too much fuss and bother?

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Updated 11/22/04
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