Nerium News
NEWSLETTER OF THE INTERNATIONAL OLEANDER SOCIETY
January/February 2015
INTERNATIONAL OLEANDER SOCIETY
2015 Officers
2015
President
Lydia Miller
Vice-President
Lynette Haaga
Recording Secretary
Pat Turk
Internet
Correspondent
Carolyn Sayre
Treasurer
Mary Branum
Past-President
Roxanne Kriticos
Committees
Membership
Corrie Glinski
Garden
Mike Landry
Public Relations
Mike Bailey
Trustees
Donita Brannon
Danny Carson
Betty Head
Betty Williamson
Trustee Emeritus
Betty Lucas
David Rambin
Welcome Back!
Its 2015 a new year, winter is almost over and spring will be upon us
very soon. At our 2014 Annual Meeting we elected the officers that
will lead the organization for this year. They come willing and eager
to serve with great enthusiasm and fresh ideas. We are already in the
planning stages for the 27th Annual March Home and Garden Show,
Earth Day and of course our Annual Kickoff Luncheon and Festival
and the third annual “Stroll in the Park”. At the Home and Garden
Show we will be selling our propagated oleanders, memberships and
bricks for our walk in the park. Earth Day is when we will be creating
awareness about our organization with the distribution of our printed
materials. And, this year at our Kickoff Luncheon and Festival we
will honor our mentor and longtime “Society” member Betty Head.
As you all know, over the years Betty has held every position on the
Board of Directors, wrote the newsletter and has done everything in
her power to hold this organization together. As a newbie she has
been my friend, mentor and guidance counselor which I truly appreciate. I am sure you all will agree that this honor is long overdue. Finally, before the heat of summer sets in we will celebrate our annual
“Stroll in the Park” an opportunity to see the Garden in full bloom
plus everyone dancing and doing the “Stroll”. So update your calendar so not to miss out on opportunities to volunteer and in general just
have a great time with a great bunch of people. See the Calendar of
Events for dates of all the above mentioned activities and finally, a
friendly reminder, it’s time to pay our annual dues. For your convenience, we have included an envelope .
Lydia Miller
International Oleander Society
Page 2
HEAD Lines
A NEW YEAR BEGINS
At the beginning of a new year of activities, one’s mind has a tendency to review the past and also look to the future
and what it will bring. There are a lot of good memories of past times for the Society and a lot of hope for its future in
spite of Hurricane IKE and its damage. I joined the Society just several years after it was organized in 1967 and
have enjoyed what it has given me and I hope it has benefitted from what I have given it. It is a ”two way street.”
The first person I met was Ethyl Mae Koehler, also known as the “Gardening Gal” columnist for the Galveston Daily
News. I needed some help locating different varieties of the flower I had grown up with that grew up and down the
city streets. Soon I found myself a new member of the National Oleander Society with a different group of new
friends. Not a large group but one that grew through the years and one that was interested in preserving the varieties
of our city’s flower. It had been organized by Kewpie Gaido of the Galveston business community and Clarence
Pleasants, formerly, of the Norfolk Botanic Garden in Virginia. His interest and research about oleanders had led him
to Galveston, the Oleander City, and prompted his move to the city. Both of them became my dear and valued
friends.
Kewpie was not an active member at the time I joined but when she returned, I found her to be a person who loved
Galveston and its flower and forever interested in beautification projects. Ethyl May was the Secretary and gardening expert and I soon found myself working with her and learning a lot. What fun it was to find the old and the new
varieties as we scoured the city. Much later when Ethyl May died, I took on the position.
When Kewpie became active again, we also had the availability of her large greenhouse and garden behind Gaido’s
restaurant and her many social activities and contacts in Galveston. We were an active group with new members,
many of whom were from UTMB faculty and also those of national and foreign origin. This led to a change into a
501c(3) non-profit International Oleander Society. Our work enlarged to botanical descriptions and classifications of
the cultivars and also propagation. These activities were led by Dr. Barry Comeaux of Galveston College’s horticultural classes who became a member of the Society.
Although Oleander Fetes and Festivals had been a part of Galveston since the 1920’s, the Society officially took on
the production of an annual Oleander Festival. First there were two weekends of activities and now with only one
held at Moody Gardens Visitors Center. Another major project became the planting of an official Oleander reference
garden. After planting such gardens at SeaArama Marine Park, UTMB, Open Gates, and Moody Gardens, we finally
realized that we needed to be in control of our own park which is now a reality. All during the years, we have been
engaged with beautification projects including Broadway, 25th Street, 61st Street, and the median from the Causeway. We have also provided educational programs and articles for the citizens of Galveston.
We hope you can see that there are many things in the activities of the group that can attract your interest. Take
your pick from history, beautification, horticulture, entertaining, education, fund raising and grant writing and know
that you have contributed to the community---OR—if you prefer, simply enjoy the beauty of the official flower of our
famous Oleander City.
Betty Head
Page 3
Interesting Oleander Facts:
Observations and experiences by James Nicholas
Franklin Delano Roosevelt:
Named after the President of the USA on the occasion of his visit to Galveston in
1938. An outstanding, healthy, relatively compact and cold-tolerant variety with unusual star-shaped salmon-colored blossoms; the throats are yellow with red stripes. The
color changes considerably over the course of the long blooming season; in the cool
autumn weather it becomes almost coppery-orange.
Madame Léon Blum:
A well-known European salmon cultivar which I introduced to the USA. Outstanding;
probably the best standard salmon variety. It grows here without any problems. Floriferous and quite striking.
Ed Barr:
Originated in Galveston. A giant! Flowers are pure white, similar to those of Soeur Agnes, however the petals are a bit wider and the tips more squared. The plant is huge,
extraordinarily robust (cuttings root insanely fast, almost overnight!), and extremely
cold-tolerant. In many respects a superior variety, but probably too enormous for most
patios. In spite of this, I’ve grown it in a big pot – a magnificent plant.
There are no known specific conservation measures in place for the oleander. Because
it is such a widely cultivated species, very little emphasis has been placed on its conservation in the wild
Save the Dates

March 14,15, 2015 Annual Home & Garden Show

April, 2015 Earth Day (Times TBD)

May 1, 2015 Oleander Kickoff Luncheon and Auction (Times TBD)

May 2,3, 2015 Annual Festival (Times TBD)

June , 2015 Stroll in the Park (Times TBD)
2015 Officers
Top left to right
Betty Head, Lynette Haaga, Corrie Glinski
Mike Bailey, Lydia Miller, Pat Turk, Mike Landry
Galveston, TX 77552-0431
P.O. Box 3431
The International Oleander Society
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