| Sources |
- [S76] Atchley Funeral Home Records, Volume III, 1974-1986, Larry D. Fox, (Smoky Mountain Historical Society), 1 Mar 1982.
Robert Lee Mize obituary
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 25 Sep 2006.
Azalea named for local nursery owner
By: CANDICE GRIMM
Staff Writer
September 25, 2006
Naming a child after someone is common. Even naming a boat after someone is not all that unusual, but naming a plant after a friend....
Well, it seems odd, but for Vivian Abney, owner of East Fork Nursery off Jones Cove Road from which she sells native azaleas and other native shrubs, having a friend name a previously unidentified azalea after her was a wonderful surprise.
"I feel honored - I never expected to have a plant named after me. ... It was a total surprise; he never mentioned it until it was done. He was just doing a nice thing for me I suppose," said Abney. She explained that she and Earl Sommerville met years ago through the Azalea Society, which she joined in order to learn all she could about azaleas and associate with others that know and like azaleas.
Another nice surprise for Abney was having the beautiful pink Vivian Abney Azalea featured on the cover of the summer 2006 "The Azalean," a journal of the Azalea Society of America.
According to Abney, Sommerville collected the plant in the mid 1980s probably somewhere near his Georgia home, but he inadvertently failed to note the location when he found it. It wasn't until just this year that Sommerville decided to register the plant with the American Rhododendron Society.
The new azalea is now being produced in tissue culture, which Abney explained involves taking a small piece of stem, sterlizing it and putting it in a jell-like substance called an agar that includes other chemicals and vitamins.
"The piece of stem grows little knots that are removed, rooted and become plants," said Abney. "The advantage of tissue culture is that you get thousands of plants instead of one plant."
As a bonus, Abney received a "baby food jar full of little plants ready to be rooted." The tiny Vivian Abney Azaleas are now several inches tall, but still too young to be sold.
Abney said she mostly sells wholesale and advertises with the Tennessee and Southern Nursery Association.
* cgrimm@themountainpress.com
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, d. 1 Mar 1982 (Age 85 years)