Lindsey Gooding

Lucia Marino, a director on the Southern California Camellia board, looks at a group of medium size camellias at The Pomona Valley Camellia Society’s 58th Annual Camellia Show.

Mercedes Bermudez
Staff Writer

The Pomona Valley Camellia Society held its 58th Annual Camellia Show at the La Verne Community Center Feb. 18.

Participants came to the center to show their buds and also to admire their fellow society members’ camellias. Garden lovers traveled from as far as San Diego and Bakersfield for the event.

“Gardening makes you feel good about the world,” said society member Mary Mittage. “It frees your mind of nonsense and also helps you carry these skills into other aspects of life.”

The event receives many new flower entries every year. The new entries are placed into the novice division.
Many of the novice contestants are new couples buying homes in areas such as La Verne, Claremont and Pomona that inherit the gardens that were left behind from previous home owners.

These couples turn to the Camellia Society for advice on flower care.
The precise judging starts when the many different flowers go through a process of elimination.

The flowers were judged on the criteria of color, condition, form and size.
The first and second place winners were awarded with crystal pieces as their trophies and with respect from their peers.

The Camellia Society is not only an educational group but a social group.
Society members wish to see a younger population involved in gardening.
“It gives children the responsibility to care for something beyond themselves,” Mittage said.

Mittage and her husband, Dale, have been members of the Camellia Society for 12 years. Just like other members, they came upon the camellia landscaping while purchasing a home in Upland.

Camellias are one of the easiest plants to care for. They grow during the winter season, they don’t need much up keep and they also can grow in shade.

“They are easy plants and produce fantastic blooms; it’s just there every year,” Mel Belcher said, a director of the Southern California Camellia Society.

Members of the Pomona Valley Camellia Society meet in the La Verne Community Center to educate themselves, exchange new ideas and have a good time with the life long friends that they have made
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Merecedes Bermudez can be reached at mbermudez@ulv.edu.