Glamelia’s or Camellia’s? Nostalgia at the Oscar’s

This Sunday’s Academy Awards will feature Glamelia’s on the tables at the Governor’s Ball, or at least according to ABCNEWS. Glamelia’s, in case you do not know, are constructed rather than grown – popular in the 1940’s when real Camellia’s were too costly during the war, they were built by a laborious method where a Gladiola ( gladiolus) flower was used as the center ( wired and taped), and a hundred or so separate gladiolus petals, each separately wired and taped, would be arranged around the center bud and blossom, to create a symmetrical, rose-form camellia-like arrangement that looked like one, massive flower. Also popular in the 1950’s and 1960’s with many American florists, they quickly fell out of fashioned, and were considered tacky and cheap alternatives to camellias, until recently, when the craft movement and the need for something different and still pretty re-popularized the trend.

What I can’t help thinking about though, is the fact that Los Angeles is smack dab in the middle of Camellia country, and, this very weekend marks the peak of the season for Camellia’s in the Los Angeles area where Camellia shows have been happening all month. Of course, a fake Camellia somehow seems appropriate also, since after all, this is Hollywood, but the glamelia’s being created by hip LA florist Mark Held of Mark’s Garden are constructed from red roses, ( he created a white glamelia and pine needle bridal bouquet for for Kathering Heigl’s wedding in Deep Valley, Utah). Glamelia’s are suddenly back, and they seem like the perfect match this season for the Academy Awards, since many of this films nominated deal with nostalgia ( silent films, 19th century when glamelia’s were first invented, and of course, the south in the 1960’s where both glamelia’s and camellias reigned amongst the hair spray.