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September 16th-22nd, 1992
" 'Gardenia Man' Gives Gift to Library"
by by Larry Wade
Ed Campbell (left) shows how his "mystery" variety gardenia is grafted onto a hardy root stock
for a healthier plant to (center) Christian Esquevin, Director of the Coronado Library, and Wilf
Seaman, president of the Friends of the Library organization. Campbell donated four of the
valuable plants to the Coronado Library and has donated other species to the city in the past.
Photo by Larry Wade
Landscape architect Ed Campbell, of Coronado, is known internationally as "the gardenia man."
Perhaps not since Luther Burbank has someone made so successful a blending of one root stock
with with another variety.
Last week Ed Campbell presented a group of his hand-grafted, "Mystery Gardenias" to Coronado
Library. They are placed near the shade of an African Tulip Tree Ed brought to Coronado 25 years
ago from Hawaii, and donated to the City at that time. It can be recognized by the large orange
tulip-shaped blossoms now in bloom.
Ed Campbell has been a landscape architect and contractor in Coronado since 1934. He thought he
was retiring in 1988. A hobby of grafting gardenias, which he began in 1952, is keeping him
as busy as ever. Most of the gardenias grafted even 40 years ago are still thriving beautifully.
Ed gives credit for the development of his gardenia grafting 'recipe' to a nurseryman, now deceased,
who suggested it to Ed but never did anything with it himself.
The importance of Ed Campbell's grafting is that on their own roots, gardenias become sickly and
usually die out.
Ed grafts five different varieties of gardenia on the hardy root of "Gardenia Thunbergia". His
healthy production varieties of gardenia are in ever wider demand, keeping him working more than
full time, as before his "retirement." His gardenias can be seen all over Coronado and around
San Diego County. He grafts them by the thousands for nurseries and homeowners.
On the island his gardenias are thriving, with their bigger-than-normal blossoms, at the
Hotel del Coronado, at Sacred Heart Church, and [along the block of] C Ave. There is a large
display of them at Sea World, as well.
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