To Our Many Friends: 
Like many other businesses the war has work- 
ed quite a hardship on ours. The owner and 
proprietor, Gregory L. Smith, joined the Navy 
shortly after December 7, 1941, and some of our 
oldest and best men are in the armed forces. 
The manpower shortage in the Mobile area is 
probably the most acute of any part of the 
United States. None of this was anticipated in 
trying to build as quickly as possible a large 
nursery. The problem of obtaining the proper 
management and efficient labor under these cir- 
cumstances has been difficult. We have been 
deeply concerned with our inability to give the 
kind of service that customers have a right to 
expect and that we were anxious to render. 
On July 1st we engaged Mr. Carol Worthing- 
ton to manage the nursery, and feel that you 
will be pleased to do business with him and with 
the service he renders. We have one of the 
largest and finest stocks of camellias and azaleas 
in the country, including fine specimen plants in 
the fields, approximately 10 acres of fine camel- 
lias in the lath houses, and about 200,000 lining 
out stock 12 to 18 inches in boxes. The lining 
out stock contains many of the rarest and finest 
varieties. 
We believe that we have one of the largest and 
finest collections of rare camellias in the world. 
We do not quote prices on many varieties that 
we have because we are in the wholesale business, 
and we try to get wholesale quantities before we 
list new varieties. However, we are including in 
this catalogue a list of varieties that we have in 
the nursery so that if you are interested in-any 
of them we can tell you whether we have any 
to spare at the present time, or about when we 
will be able to market them. Quite a number of 
these have not yet bloomed and we do not know 
just how they will turn out. We are trying to 
build up our stock as quickly as possible. 
We invite you to come by the nursery and 
meet Mr. Carol Worthington and look over the 
plants that we have. If you are in the market 
for camellias or azaleas we are sure that it will 
pay you to see our stock before you make your 
purchase. We are also sure that you will enjov 
doing business with Mr. Worthington. 
