In an old neighborhood near the Isle of Hope in Savannah Georgia lies a treasure trove of old camellias. Here among the live oaks and pines, are approximately one hundred and fifty camellia plants, most of them C. japonica varieties popular in the 1940’s 50’s and 60’s. These plants are the living legacy of my father Harry Folke Johnson who moved here in 1938 and began planting and grafting the plants, enjoying and caring for them until his death in 2000.

Harry Johnson, a Civil Engineer, moved to Savannah from Boston Massachusetts in 1938 to work for the Army Corps of Engineers. He and his wife Geraldine bought a house and land several miles southeast of Savannah in Harrock Hall, which was subdivided in 1928 from an old plantation, owned in the 1800’s by Judge William Norwood. Although Harry’s vocation was engineering, his life long pleasure was working with flowers. Over the next sixty years he nurtured his land and made it beautiful with azaleas, gardenias, native shrubs and of course, camellias.

During those years he made friends in Savannah’s gardening community; Cheves Oliver of Bloomingdale was one in particular who shared plants and cuttings with Harry to graft. C.C. Brown of Isle of Hope and Judge Arthur Solomon, of Grimbal’s Point were also helpful in building this collection. A neighbor, Wallace Winn, also grew camellias and was a good source of information for Harry. Some of the original plants came from John Hall Nursery on Wheaton Street, which still sells fine camellias in Savannah. Harry’s old records dated January 1953 show that he bought five two year old camellias from Hall’s Nursery, Elizabeth Arden, Pink Perfection, Coloney Firey, Margret Higdon and Duncan Bell for just $ 3.19! Harry and Geraldine both enjoyed living in the country and over the span of twenty years raised six children who under their influence also learned to love plants and wildlife. Harry taught his children the botanical names of trees and plants in the yard and woods, and let them help with the grafting of the camellias. I remember holding the jar of wax as he split the trunk and inserted the scion of the cutting, lecturing as he worked. Along the front of the house lot he planted many japonica varieties, some of which are: Betty Sheffield and Betty Sheffield supreme, the prolific Lady Clair, Pink Perfection, K. Sawada, Tomorrow and Tomorrow’s Dawn and Mathotiana.

Others in this area are, Sarah Frost, Leucantha, and recently an interesting assortment of seedlings that have appeared among the older bushes. In the 1950’s Harry was able to purchase adjoining lots to make a three-acre unit of land. On a wooded lot he planted sixty-eight more camellias and later on another lot continued to plant more. Some of these like Tricolor, Leucantha and Elegans are found today only in older collections. Over the years some of the identification tags have been lost so there are some unknown varieties on the lots. There are also many seedlings that have grown up under the established varieties that are not blooming out in interesting ways. In the early years, Harry was a methodical record keeper, tagging and keeping records of his purchases and grafts. Un fortunately some of these valuable records were lost and he depended on the remaining tags and his memory in later years. In his eighties he was still supervising the planting of newer varieties in the adjoining lots. Some, like C. sinensis, both the pink and white species, and eight camellia sasanquas were not readily available when he began acquiring plants in the 1940’s.

Over the years all of the Johnson family enjoyed the camellias. Geraldine, a school librarian, took the blooms to school and explained to the students what they were and how they grew. The flowers were shared with friends and neighbors on any occasion during the winter months. Birthday presents often were sent off with a vivid bloom tucked into the ribbon. Our hose was always decorated with a vase or two of colorful camellias during the November to March season. After the six children grew up and moved away, any Fall or Winter visit home was marked by the tour of the camellias to see how they were growing and what was currently in bloom.

After his death in 2000, the family realized that Harry had left us a legacy of heirloom camellias. We began to assess what we had and decided how to care for them. With the help of Debbie Odom from Gene’s Nursery in Savannah, I am able to identify several of the old varieties. Also I refer to the old but good book resources such as H. Harold Hume’s Camellias, Kinds and Culture (1951) and G. G. Gerbing’s Camellias (1945) and The Camellia, It’s History, Culture, Genetics and a look into It’s Future Development (1978) by the American Camellia Society. I compared the pictures and descriptions in these books to the flowers during two bloom seasons and was able to verify some of the varieties that had lost the original tags. Also helpful are the back issues of The American Camellia Society yearbooks and more recently The Southeastern Camellia Digest. With these tools, family members are mapping, identifying and re-tagging the collection of old plants. Fortunately the youngest Johnson son, Ernie works as a gardener and uses his expertise to fertilize and prune the plants.

To further preserve the collection, a computer database is under construction with maps of plants on each lost named, numbered and cross-referenced to the site maps. I also am starting a file of digital pictures of each plant in the collection. We still have a long way to go to accurately identify each plant and hope to find more experienced Camellia growers of the community to help us verify our guesses.

As his children, grandchildren and great-grand children walk through the flowering wooded lots and the more formally landscaped front yards of our houses, we view an array of beautiful camellia blooms in many colors and forms made possible by this dedicated gardener. Flowers of pink, white, red, variegated, and in single, double , peony form, and other combinations please our senses. The ten to fifteen foot tall bushed have survived sixty years here, through changes of urban encroachment, several hurricanes, drought, and neglect. They are sill alive and thriving and we feel that Harry is here in spirit with us to enjoy this living legacy of beautiful camellias.

By Freya Johnson Zipperer

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