The Garden Magazine, February, 1922 



299 



ideal temperature is around about sixty 

 degrees in summertime, with shade; and 

 the winter temperature of thirty-five to 

 forty. Heat is more likely to be injurious 

 than cold. 



As a pot plant for interior decoration 

 where it can be kept properly cool there is 

 hardly anything to equal, much less sur- 

 pass, the Camellia in regal, if albeit frigid 

 splendor, with its dense mass of thick, 

 glossy, intensely dark green foliage 

 studded with gorgeous flowers simulating 

 Roses or Peonies, four to six inches across. 

 The plant is a slow grower, although it re- 

 sponds to careful cultivation and feeding. 



The blooming season begins with the 

 winter and continues until early spring, 

 the maximum production being about 

 February. Going to the South, Camellias 

 can be established outdoors. It takes 

 kindly to the sandy soils of Florida, 

 and on the Pacific Coast it grows with a 

 vigor that bids fair to justify its re-estab- 

 lishment in an esteem equalling that 

 which it enjoyed in the East a century 

 ago. At Portland, Oregon, plants out- 

 doors in the trying winter of 1919-1920 

 withstood a temperature of six degrees 

 below zero in December. 



MR. COE'S collection, growing in a 

 house specially constructed with side 

 ventilation and top shadingforthe purpose 

 of maintaining the necessary coolness in 

 summer, comprises something more than 



.IP5? 



THE COMPELLING CAMELLIA 



In white, pink, shades of red, and odd blends of all; barbaric or fragilely delicate the 

 Camellia attracts wherever seen by reason of its size and brilliance. (Actual size I: loom) 



a hundred plants. The house is approximately 100 x 50 ft. with an orna- 

 mental pool arranged in the centre. The house itself is something more 

 decorative and ornamental than the conventional plant house and the in- 

 terior arrangement was carried out by Mr. Dawson of Olmsted Bros., land- 

 scape architects. Some of the specimens are in tubs and others planted 

 out. It is fortunate indeed that Mr. Coe had the inspiration to make this 

 collection before the imposition of the restrictive Quarantine Order No. 37, 

 as it is now quite impossible for an enterprising plant amateur to build up 

 a collection of this character by importation since the plants cannot pos- 

 sibly be handled without soil. A few varieties are to be had here, however. 



Large sized, old-time plants are to be met with occasionally in some 

 of the older gardens of the South, and it is said that some of the original 

 introductions to America are still growing at Middleton Place, near Char- 

 leston, S. C, where they were sent by Micheaux, whose memory is asso- 

 ciated with the discovery of the unique specimen of Gordonia altamaha 

 on the banks of the Altamaha River in Georgia. 



The Camellia is related to the Gordonia, and very closely indeed to the 

 plant which supplies us the tea of commerce, and was at one time known 

 as Thea japonica. An affiliated plant usually grown among the Camellias 

 as Camellia reticulata, with larger flowers than the japonica varieties and 

 leaves less glossy, is now recognized under the name of Tutcheria 

 spectabilis. Its larger, attractive, rose-colored flower with undulate 

 petals is even more effective than the true Camellia which was named in 

 honor of Kamellus, a Moravian monk, which should be a reminder that 

 the pronunciation of the name is not as though commemorating Camille. 



