Minutes of 14th Annual General Meeting
of the American Rhododendron Society
May 10, 1958
Ruth Hansen, Secretary-Treasurer
The meeting was called to order by President C. I. Sersanous at 8:30 P.M. in the auditorium of the Portland Garden Club Building. Members and guests were welcomed. Mr. Sersanous then told of the two new Chapters formed this year, Philadelphia and Indianapolis. This now gives us a total of thirteen chapters of which we are very proud.
Our guests coming the greatest distance were Mr. and Mrs. George Gignilliat of Seneca, S. Carolina who were then introduced. Mr. Gignilliat spoke briefly on the formation of the Southeastern Chapter. They now have about 40 enthusiastic members. He then told of the three native rhododendron species common to the Carolinas,
R. catawbiense
,
R. carolinianum
and
R. maximum
and the large number of native azaleas, about 18 species. Mr. Gignilliat concluded his interesting talk by stating that he and Mrs. Gignilliat had driven a total of 4,709 miles on a circuitous trip just to see the Test Garden and the Annual Show here in Portland.
Other visiting chapter representatives were: Mr. and Mrs. Don McClure and Mr. Ed Dunn of Seattle, Mr. and Mrs. Carl Fawcett from Tacoma, Dr. and Mrs. Carl Phetteplace and Mr. and Mrs. Del James from Eugene and Mr. and Mrs. Edward Long of Oakland, Calif.
Dr. Clarke, President of the Portland Chapter thanked C. T. Hansen, Chairman of the Test Garden Committee for his work over the past year. Cecil Smith, Show Chairman and Howard Slonecker Co-Chairman for their work in organizing the Annual Show. George Grace was then thanked for the beautiful booth he was responsible for at the Multnomah County Show.
Howard Slonecker then gave a report on the Portland Show which was in progress at the Test Garden. Winners of the Show were: Wales Wood, Best Truss in Show with an outstanding truss of Mrs. E. C. Sterling, Rudolph Henny won the Dr. Goodman Cup with his best new American Hybrid, George Grace won the Dr. Corbin Cup by having the highest number of points and Howard Slonecker won the Merrell Steel Co. Cup with the Best Truss of a Species, Mrs. A. C. U. Berry won a special award ribbon on a collection of dwarf species.
Mr. Sersanous then read from our financial Audit and was very pleased with the progress we have made in the past year. As the financial facts will be published in the July Bulletin, they are being deleted from these minutes.
Under new business was the naming of the 6 newly elected Directors for the next two years. They are as follows: John Henny, C. T. Hansen, Don McClure, Carl Fawcett, Cecil Smith and George Grace. They were asked to come forward and accept the oath of office.
The speaker of the evening was then introduced, Dr. Carl Phetteplace of Eugene, Ore. He has long been identified with rhododendrons, becoming interested early in the 1940's when he visited the Barto gardens at Junction City. Dr. Phetteplace is primarily interested in species.
The subject of his talk was "An Outline of Some of the Commoner Azaleas as to Outline and Make-up." Dr. Phetteplace had prepared an excellent paper on the classification of the Azalea series and this was read in conjunction with the use of slides. It was the most informative and interesting talk we have ever been privileged to hear on this subject. The complete paper will be printed in the Bulletin.
Dr. Don McClure of Seattle was then introduced. He showed slides of some of the fine crosses made in the Seattle area and teased the audience with only glimpses of some of the beautiful Seattle gardens. Everyone enjoyed the slides and the clever impromptu remarks which accompanied each picture.
Mr. Edward Long of the California Chapter was then introduced. He told of the Oakland Flower Show which the California Chapter always participated in and incidentally carried off a fat cash prize for the best display in its class. This years' material was not up to standard due to the early season, but they had a most impressive display.
Mr. Ed Dunn of Seattle invited everyone to the Seattle Show to be held next week-end, May 16th-23rd in the shopping center at Bellevue.
No further business the meeting was adjourned.