Azaleas to thank you; weeds in New York City

 by MJ Malleck 

Today’s postcard is more of a Thank You card, sent from Owen Sound, Ontario to General Delivery in Kincardine, Ontario. The writer dates it “Thursday” and the postmark is unclear, but stamps in Canada were 8 cents in 1972. Thursday, June 22, 1972, is my guess. Kincardine is a beach town, and cottagers would be there by the end of June, although Lake Huron might not be warm enough to swim in.

“Hi. Many thanks for the help on Sunday – what a day! I stayed up on Monday and finally got the oven cleaned. Do you want me to order up your draperies yet? Love. C. “

Owen Sound is north of Kincardine, on Georgian Bay. If the writer “stayed up” somewhere, they perhaps have a cottage north of Owen Sound, perhaps in Tobermory or even further. Their friend would understand the work involved in opening and closing a summer place. Only a fellow cottager would offer to help get a place ready. Does C sew and make drapes for her friends?

The illustration on the card are flower prints for sale. “Piedmont Azalea. Flame Azalea. By Anne Ophelia Dowden, Plate Number XIX-XX. Limited Signed Edition of 2,500 pair. 2000 pair $20.00  500 Pair with embossed seal printed exclusively for Callaway Gardens, Georgia  $20.00  Size 11”x15”

I found a lovely first-person account, by F. C. Galle the Director of Horticulture, Callaway Gardens, Pine Mountain, Georgia, USA. In 1971 the gardens unveiled three paintings of native azaleas by Anne Ophelia Dowden, at that time considered one of America’s leading botanical artists. She painted with watercolors and used real specimens for accuracy. F. C. Galle tells the story of cutting azalea blooms (“late one afternoon”, plunging them in cold water and storing them in a cool room until they are put in a box lined with plastic and newspaper and rushed “with the cooperation of Southern Airways” to Columbus airport in Georgia and sent to La Guardia Airport, then by cab to the artist’s Greenwich Village studio. The drama ensues about whether the colours had faded enroute. Several more specimens (always soaked in cold water) were given to Ms. Dowden, once in person (she carried them back home) and once in a Styrofoam box wrapped in aluminum foil. Those flowers, bound for her summer residence in Connecticut, missed their connecting flight to Hartford (see – even in 1972 we had travel issues).

I notice that, in this account, the azaleas are called by their Latin names, including Rhododendrons. That is because azaleas are a subspecies of the rhododendron family. The American Rhododendron Society says: “All azaleas are rhododendrons but not all rhododendrons are azaleas.”  (Reminds me of a few posts ago when we were learning about the difference between dolphins and porpoises).

To read the account of the travelling azaleas yourself https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/v26n3/v26n3-galle.htm

The bright pink azalea takes center stage at hole number 13 at the Augusta National course in Georgia. The Azalea Hole was an open field where the course designer, Alister MacKenzie, built a green beside the stream. More than thirty varieties of species are found here, approximately 1,600 azaleas, some rare, older plants.  

The New York Times printed an obituary of Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden when she died at the age of 99. They noted that she found success as a children’s book illustrator and that she spent three years combing New York City- warehouses areas, parking lots, docks and more – looking for native weeds for her book “Wild Green Things in the City: A Book of Weeds” published also in 1972.

For more about Rhododendrons see the blog post from March 2012.