In late February, myself and native plantsman Mike Chelednik, headed south for the mid-winter assembly of the Southeast Palm Society, being held on the American Camellia Society Headquarters at Massee Lane in Ft. Valley, Georgia. I had needed to go to the camellia backyard ever since I knew one existed, however the timing had by no means labored out. Mike, who goes by the social media moniker, “Mike See”, is without doubt one of the foremost camellia specialists, in addition to a hardy palm fanatic.

Our first cease on the way in which to Ft. Valley was the Atlanta Botanical Backyard’s Gainesville, Georgia satellite tv for pc backyard, to take a look at the plant harm from their winter low temperatures of 5 levels F. Though various crops of their trial fields have been fairly crispy, together with a lot of the industrial cultivars of distyllum and even large crops of Osmanthus heterophyllus, there have been an incredible variety of new crops from their latest Asian plant exploration journeys that sailed by the chilly.

I used to be notably excited to see {that a} assortment of the large Begonia sillitensis from India sailed although the chilly and regarded prepared to begin rising. It was additionally nice to see how nicely their giant specimen of the Taiwanese aralia relative, Sinopanax formosanus, sailed by the winter. I had seen this within the wild a number of years earlier and felt it had an excellent shot at surviving in central NC.

I used to be particularly glad to see that their superb, conical clone of the hardy cinnamon tree, Cinnamon japonicum sailed by the low temperatures with none harm.

Their greenhouse was full of recent treasures but to go within the floor, together with this Vietnamese assortment of Sauromatum venosum. Nearly all the materials within the commerce presently is from India, so these new genetics are fairly thrilling. After all, there may be all the time the chance that this constitutes a newly found species. The velvety leaf floor makes me pretty assured this can be new. We’re very lucky to be a trial website for a lot of of their superb collections.

From ABG, we headed south by the freeway madness that constitutes the drive by Atlanta and south towards Macon, GA. There merely aren’t sufficient lanes to deal with the mass of autos that journey this route–one thing you’d suppose freeway division officers would have seen by now.

I used to be fairly unprepared for the amenities at Massee Lane Gardens, since plant society headquarters are just about an extinct dinosaur of bygone eras. On this case, the Ft. Valley headquarters positioned on this former peach transport hub of South Georgia, was a well-funded throwback to earlier generations. Began within the Thirties by pecan farmer, David Strother, the 160 acre property nonetheless incorporates pecan orchards. In 1966, Strother donated the property to the American Camellia Society.

The rectilinear facility has a “dripping with cash” class, at odds with a lot of the surrounding drained city. Getting into by the present store, a proper flip takes you into the Annabelle Lundy Fetterman Academic Museum, a gathering room/show museum, which homes an absurdly intensive assortment of Boehm porcelain. This room is called after the NC camellia aficionado of the identical title. The late Annabelle Fetterman was the renown businesswoman CEO/proprietor of Clinton NC’s Lundy Packing Firm.

Taking a left from the present store, routes you towards the beautiful auditorium, the place we’d maintain our Palm Society assembly.  

About 35-40 palm nuts confirmed up for the SPS assembly, with a number of like us, driving in from 5-10 hours away. I’ve been a member of this superb, however unfastened knit group, for over 3 many years, though I believe that is the primary assembly I’ve attended that wasn’t held at our personal Raleigh backyard. We have been handled to an interesting discuss by Rick Davis, on rising Cocoid palms in upstate SC. These embody the jelly palms of the genus, Butia, and their hybrids. I believe all of us left the assembly, figuring out there are much more palms we have to strive in Zone 7.

Following the assembly, there was a uncommon palm public sale due to member donations, adopted by a tour of the Massee Lane gardens by Backyard Supervisor, William Khoury. William and his workers of 1 assistant, handle and curate the whole camellia backyard, which covers over 6 of the 160+ acre property. We’re sending good ideas that they get extra assist to handle this intensive assortment.

The backyard is nearly solely camellias, planted in giant beds, with simply navigable paths winding guests by the plantings.

Whereas 99% of the guests head to the backyard part containing the present camellias and their hybrids, I headed to the nearly empty part dedicated to wild camellia species, virtually all of which have been a present from the late Dr. Clifford Parks of Chapel Hill, NC, simply previous to his dying. It was an fascinating examine, since they dropped to 12 levels F. this winter…solely a single diploma increased than Raleigh, NC.

Camellia species apart from Camellia japonica, Camellia sassanqua, Camellia reticulata, and Camellia sinensis, are nearly unknown by US gardeners. Whereas not practically as showy as the flamboyant hybrids, many of those crops have superb foliage and types, with most worthy of backyard inclusion.

For the primary a number of hours, I had the species collections to myself, till after an on-site meals truck lunch, I heard a feminine voice recording a soliloquy about species camellias because the determine slowly sauntered from plant to plant. As I peered by the thicket, the voice was coming from none apart from our NC neighbor and former PDNer, Brie Arthur of Brie Grows, who was within the space, recording a camellia section for her Youtube channel.

By late afternoon, I had completed learning the species, and made my method over to the present camellia backyard. A lot of Massee Lane is dedicated to camellias which are grown for flower present bloom competitions/shows. Under are a couple of pictures from the acres of largely well-labeled crops. There are definitely few higher gardens within the southeast US to see this many camellias (over 1,000 crops) and make notes of which you’d like on your personal backyard. There was even a gross sales space dedicated to some slightly new and exhausting to search out hybrids.

Heading again north towards residence, we made one cease on the backyard of Atlanta space plant collector, Ozzie Johnson, who maintains a big assortment of largely Asian crops at his intensive backyard. As we noticed at Atlanta Botanical Backyard, there was intensive harm because of the single digit F low temperatures in December.

An enormous specimen of Aucuba omeiensis was fairly fried and we have been unable to find out but if it would probably resprout.

The unique plant of Ozzie’s introduction, Mahonia ‘Tender Caress’, additionally was utterly defoliated, though it appeared like it will resprout.

One other of Ozzie’s introductions, the weeping Japanese maple, Acer palmatum ‘Ryusen’ was untouched. The photograph is of the unique plant from which all others have been propagated.

Regardless of a lot of the industrial picks of Distylum being fried, it was nice to see this variegated number of Distyllum myriocoides untouched after 5 levels F.

I hope you’ve loved touring together with us!