Vern McCaskill (January 1, 1902 – March 23, 1992) was a

nurseryman A nursery is a place where plants are propagated and grown to a desired size. Mostly the plants concerned are for gardening, forestry, or conservation biology, rather than agriculture. They include retail nurseries, which sell to the general ...

active in southern California for much of the 20th century who specialised in breeding

Camellia ''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in tropical and subtropical areas in East Asia, eastern and South Asia, southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are ...

and

Azalea Azaleas ( ) are flowering shrubs in the genus ''Rhododendron'', particularly the former sections ''Rhododendron sect. Tsutsusi, Tsutsusi'' (evergreen) and ''Pentanthera'' (deciduous). Azaleas bloom in the spring (April and May in the temperate ...

cultivars. He was the father of the botanist and herbarium curator June McCaskill.

Early life

In June 1918, McCaskill was recruited from Missouri, and admitted to the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (USNA, Navy, or Annapolis) is a United States Service academies, federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as United States Secre ...

at the age of 16. While enrolled he met Billie Lee Nowlin, then a student at

Drury University Drury University, formerly Drury College and originally Springfield College, is a private university in Springfield, Missouri, United States. The university's mission statement describes itself as "church-related". It enrolls about 1,590 undergr ...

and they soon married. This led to his dismissal from the academy in March 1919, "since a midshipman at the Academy could not have a wife, a horse, or a beard," and it ended his military career. The newlyweds went to California for their honeymoon, and initially returned to Missouri before relocating in the early 1920s. Vern and Billie found work at the Coolidge Rare Plant Gardens, which their daughter June attributed to cultivating their love of exotic garden plants.

Horticultural legacy

Billie Lee and Vern built their home, and opened a nursery on South Michillinda Avenue in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...

, California, in 1932. Specialising in Camellias and Azaleas, the business became the largest Camellia nursery in the southern California region. Over his horticultural career, between 1930 and 1988, McCaskill developed 72 ''Camellia japonica'' cultivars and eight non-''reticulata'' hybrids between 1930 and 1988. In the 1970s, due to the long periods of time needed to create new Camellia cultivars and hybrids, McCaskill switched to Iris ser. Californicae, and started to sell Iris cultivars. As an accredited Camellia judge, McCaskill also became the director of the Southern California Camellia Society. He was the editor of the first Camellia nomenclature book in 1942. Entitled ''Classification of Camellias'' it listed 196 varieties. He also edited the first Camellia taxonomy work in 1947 with William E. Woodroof and O.L. Eakin, with 911 cultivars, as ''The Camellia, Its Culture and Nomenclature''. Vern is credited as hybridisers of the following irises: * ''Iris'' 'Hidden Shadows' * ''Iris'' 'Kaweah Maiden' * ''Iris'' 'Kaweah Sunrise' * ''Iris'' 'Showers of Flowers'

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCaskill, Vern Otho Camellia Nurserymen Southern California People from Missouri United States Naval Academy alumni