Orange Grove Library Camellia Garden - Gulfport, Mississippi

Orange Grove Library Camellia Garden - Gulfport, Mississippi

About the Garden
     The Harrison County Library at Orange Grove was constructed in the years following Hurricane Katrina. The large corner lot on Old Highway 49 is home to the library system for the county. The property hosts beautiful oak trees and over seventy-five Camellia Japonicas, and five Camellia Sasanquas. The selection encompasses old hardy cultivars that include Professor Sargent, Nagasaki, Clower White, Gov. Moulton, Lady Clare, Debutante, Mathotiana Supreme, to name a few.
     In the Winter of 2020, the Mississippi Gulf Coast Camellia Society received an email from the Friends of Orange Grove Library and Harrison County MSU Extension Agent. The Friend of the Library was asking for help on identifying many Camellias on the library's grounds. During the 2020-2021 Camellia season, our society formally adopted the garden and set out to prune, remove the overgrown sasanqua understock and fertile this past April. The county removed many damaged and dead trees in late winter caused by Hurricane Zeta. The garden started to look renewed, and camellia bushes and trees have recuperated. We still had a mystery on our hands; Who planted these beautiful camellias? After several inquiries, no one had an evident answer on the origins of the gardens.
     Around 1900 the communities of north Gulfport of Landon, Handsboro, and Orange Grove boasted large farms and Nurseries operations that exhibited the pecan and citrus industry. The community of Orange Grove was named for the abundance of satsuma, oranges, and grapefruit farms within the area. In the 1920s, the tung oil industry came to South Mississippi and was very lucrative for the commercial nursery growers. Around this same time, we see more ornamental being grown and sold, including Azaleas, Japonicas, and Sasanquas. W.A Cox nursery advertise Japonicas for sale Red, White, Pink and variegated in a Sun Heard newspaper ad in 1921. Mr. Miles Hardy (a pecan expert and nurseryman) of the Handsboro community in east Gulfport mentored local camellia grower and hybridizer T.S. Clower. In return, In 1951, Mr. Clower named a camellia Japonica for Miles Hardy. (Photo M. Hardy).
     The Local historical society gave me clues to unriddle our mystery. I was given a phone number to the couple who sold the property to the library systems. After my conversation with Mrs. Williamson, I discovered the identity of the former owners of the land. D.A. and Ellen McCandliss moved to the Gulfport Area in the 1910s. Mr. D.A. was the first County Agent for Harrison County and longtime statistician for the United States Department of Agriculture. Mr. McCandliss was a tireless and steadfast agricultural educator who devoted his life to giving talks on raising livestock, crop production, and gardening with camellias and other ornamentals.  Mrs. Ellen taught Home Economics in Mississippi and Louisiana.
     In 1955 Mr. McCandliss retired and devoted the rest of his days to the growth and wholesale of Camellia until he died in 1969. The garden at Orange Grove has withstood floods, hurricanes, and the onset of urban development. Our goal at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Camellia Society is to restore the garden and transform this Camellia oasis into an education garden to promote Camellia Culture.
(Special Thanks to Gulfport Historical Society, The Sun Herald Archives, Lisa Miller and Jerry and Norma Williamson)

Contributed by Jason Dean of Mississippi Gulf Coast Camellia Society