Due to the recent subfreezing temperatures damaging the local camellia plants, the Birmingham Camellia Society will not hold a camellia bloom competition and show this year. Instead, a plant sale will be held to help the community replace plants that were actually killed by the weather.

We will have the camellia plant sale in the auditorium of the Birmingham Botanical Gardens from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm, unless we sell out of plants sooner. Also, anyone having surviving blooms is invited to bring them to display. No prizes will be awarded this year, but we hope to resume our competition and show next year, weather permitting.

The Alabama state flower is the camellia. Most camellias have no fragrance, but the blooms are so pretty, that they don’t need a fragrance. You’ll also find that camellia blooms come in many varieties, colors, forms, and sizes. Depending on the variety, camellias bloom from late fall until early spring and brighten up the yard when everything else is brown.