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Photo by Jesse Chambers
An impressive display
Some of the 300 plus blooms entered in the 69th annual Camellia Show at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens auditorium on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019.
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Photo by Jesse Chambers
Sharing information
Cindy Warriner, president of the Birmingham Camellia Society, chats with some attendees at the group's annual show at Birmingham Botanical Gardens.
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Photos by Jesse Chambers
Whites and reds
There were 303 blooms entered in competition at the annual Camellia Show hosted by the Birmingham Camellia Society, which is now in its 75th year
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Photo by Jesse Chambers
Checking out the entries
Jesse Bryson (R), treasurer of the Birmingham Camellia Society, chats with an attendee at the annual Camellia Show at Birmingham Botanical Gardens hosted by the BCS.
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Photo by Jesse Chambers
Best of Show
A few of the winning entries at the Camellia Show, Feb. 23, 2019, at Birmingham Botanical Gardens.
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Photo by Jesse Chambers
A closer look
A camellia fan takes a photo of a bloom entered in the 2019 Camellia Show.
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Photo by Jesse Chambers
A real fan
Dan Jones, an attendee at the Camellia Show at Birmingham Botanical Gardens, jots down some information regarding the blooms he especially liked.
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Photo by Jesse Chambers
Checking the book
Tom Warriner, chairman of the annual Camellia Show in Birmingham, and Jesse Bryson, treasurer of the Birmingham Camellia Society, look up some information regarding a type of camellia.
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Photo by Jesse Chambers
A gift to the city
Tom Warriner and Cindy Warriner of the Birmingham Camellia Society present a Magic City Camellia to Sybil Scarbrough from Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin’s office on Feb. 23, 2019. The BCS was celebrating the 60th anniversary of the camellia becoming the Alabama state flower.
The Birmingham Camellia Society — now in its 75th year — continued a long tradition when it hosted its 69th annual Camellia Show in the Birmingham Botanical Gardens auditorium on the afternoon of Saturday, Feb. 23.
As always, the event was a chance for BCS members and others to celebrate the popular flower, which has more than 200 species.
Local gardeners put their best blooms up against each other and had them reviewed by three certified American Camellia Society judges.
But this year, the show also marked the 60th anniversary of the camellia becoming the state flower, according to the event organizers.
All of the camellia societies in the state are marking the anniversary in 2019, said Cindy Warriner, BCS president.
The camellia achieved this honor in 1959 — despite being native to Japan and China — because it was hugely popular and widely planted by homeowners in the state, according to Warriner and her husband, Tom Warriner, the show chairman.
“It’s the only flower that blooms in the dead of winter,” Tom Warriner said. “It’s the only thing that’s got color.”
BCS members persuaded the governor to make the camellia the state flower in 1959, according to Cindy Warriner.
Not only was the flower very popular at the time, but the BCS was a large, “very influential club” that hosted “the biggest (camellia) show in the country for about 20 years,” she said.
In that era, the camellia show — a two-day event held at Boutwell Auditorium, formerly called Municipal Auditorium — attracted as many as 5,000 blooms, 50,000 attendees and judges from across the country, according to the Warriners.
There were 303 blooms entered in the show at the Gardens this weekend, according to Tom Warriner.
“That’s not bad for just a local show with local people,” he said. “Some are members of the club. Some aren't. So we’re trying to build interest. As a matter of fact, most of the entries were local non-members.”
The competition had 16 categories and 16 “best of show” winners, he said.
Judging from among the many lovely blooms entered in the how is “very difficult,” Cindy Warriner said.
“We have a elimination round, and we pick out four or five (in a category) — maybe more if we think they are worthy — and send them to another table there where they get judged again,” she said.
The best blooms in that second round are named best in show, she said.
There were about 25 volunteers at the show, and the attendance is typically about 200 or 300 over the four-hour event, according to Tom Warriner.
Sybil Scarbrough from Birmingham Mayor Woodfin’s office attended the event, and the Warriners presented her with a Magic City Camellia as a gift to the city to mark the 60th anniversary.
