20th February | The Garden Diary

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2025 – CHW

A nursery day.

At Burncoose Garden tree surgeon James has felled two rows of Thuja plicata originally planted by Arnold Dance near the drive after the 1978 whirlwind which blocked the drive for over a year. A neat job but now a very large pile to clear up.

Scores of wooden crates of shrub liners which have just arrived from France and are now for potting on in the next few weeks.

And yet more crates outside the large shed.

Down by the house Rob Toy has been demolishing another Thuja hedge with the firewood neatly stored up for the house.

I continue to be amazed how much our pictorial labels have improved the nursery and made it so much easier for visitors to find things.

Removal of Thuja on the drive has exposed a very rotten Quercus ilex which was formerly protected. Unfortunately no one had noticed how rotten the base actually is. It too will have to come down when the Thuja are cleared up.

Corylopsis pauciflora just starting to show flowers.

Extensive secondary new growth on Rhododendron oldhamii on the drive.

Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Whitewater Silver’ in full flower in a nursery tunnel.

A great crop of Puya chilensis grown originally from Ventnor Botanics seed.

Repairs to storm damage to the shelter netting on outside beds.

I have never seen the Camellia x williamsii ‘Donation’ hedge at the nursery entrance look so good.

2024 – CHW
To Old Park on another drab day to try to see what is out before it is over!Jaimie’s newly registered ‘Coronation is suddenly full out and superb. This is a hybrid between M. sprengeri var. diva ‘Burncoose’ and M. campbellii var. mollicomata ‘Lanarth’ registered last year. This is its second year of decent flowers.

First ever flowers here on Camellia ‘Nicky Crisp’ which is a cross between C. pitardii and C. japonica. On the bank just next to Magnolia ‘Coronation.

Magnolia ‘Leonora’ now full out by the old Dog Kennels. This too is a very fine hybrid.

A young Magnolia ‘Vairano’ on the main magnolia bank facing the drive. Nice enough but not really that different.

A view along the top path in Old Park.

Less than a week on Michelia ‘Fairy White’ is half out.

Magnolia sargentiana ‘Blood Moon’ at the bottom of the wood where the paths meet. Nice enough again but just a goodish form of M. sargentiana var. robusta in my view.

The view from the bottom path in Old Park looking North today.

An interesting fungi at the base of a Pinus radiata. i look it up and think it’s Ramaria stricta (Upright Coral)

Magnolia ‘F.J. Williams’ now full out and splendid at the entrance to Old Park. Good to see a few visitors have walked far enough to see it properly today.

2023 – CHW

A couple of other interesting snippets of newspaper articles. I had never heard about the drowning of the chauffeur’s wife in the lake. I am not sure I would agree with the coroner’s verdict based on this evidence?

2022 – CHW

Some nice things in the garden which survived Storm Eunice and a record of the damage in the garden here.

Drimys lanceolata just in flower. We used to grow this here and at Burncoose but falling trees hit both. Starting again is fun!

Jaimie’s (next) new magnolia hybrid flowers for the first time above the new Camellia sasanqua patch below Kitchen Garden. This is Magnolia sprengeri var. Diva ‘Burncoose’ crossed with Magnolia campbellii var. mollicomata ssp. ‘Lanarth’. A small but exquisite flower in its first season (frosted last year) and I think potentially better than his other newly flowering hybrid which I have yet to see properly in the garden (featured in the diary last week).

Magnolia sprengeri var. Diva ‘Burncoose’ crossed with Magnolia campbellii var. mollicomata ssp. ‘Lanarth’

Pruning the Hydrangea seemanii and Camellia sasanqua by and over the arch. Storm Eunice was miles overhead and the garden (apart from the drive and Hovel Cart Road area) were spared any real wind.

The elderly Rhododendron ‘Alison Johnstone’ which had been so carefully pruned recently was uprooted in the storm. So much for TLC!

Magnolia ‘Bishop Peter’ completely survived Storm Eunice and still looks fantastic. These pictures show the colour range on the opened flowers.

Branches laden with flowers blown off the original Magnolia campbellii. Not too much to worry about but petals all over the path.

A newly arrived Magnolia ‘Summer Rose’ with its first smallish flowers.

Magnolia sprengeri var. Diva ‘Copeland Court’ nicely out on new growth after this tree got damaged and cut back by the Beast from the East in March 2018.

Windblown flowers out on the five young Magnolia ‘Caerhays Splendour’ on the bank.

Branches off a Scots pine.

A dead sycamore blows over above Tin Garden.

Rather a mess across the road near Tubbs Mill.

Branches off a Magnolia mollicomata.

Massive limbs off a Pinus insignis.

Magnolia campbellii after Eunice.

Near dead sycamore on Bond Street.

Not that much to fuss about really!

2021 – CHW
No rain, no wind and the first normal decent day it seems for weeks.Camellia ‘Cornish Snow’ has shed in the wind but still plenty of flower left on the bush.

Likewise under Camellia reticulata ‘Mary Williams’.

The New Zealand form of Magnolia ‘Lanarth’ has lost a few buds to the wind. Thankfully those on the tree look unfrosted. One tepal on the ground is a good colour.

Massive leaf drop under Michelia doltsopa after the Beast. It will take no real harm from this and has happened before.

Our Magnolia sapaensis does have golden velvety new growth buds. Looking at Jim Gardiner’s International Dendrology Society (IDS) lecture I mistakenly thought ours did not.

The Tin Garden Magnolia campbellii is now out and not too bad now despite everything.

Camellia x williamsii ‘Brigadoon’

Buds nearly ready to burst on Rhododendron cilpinense.

Camellia x williamsii ‘Galaxie’

Magnolia campbellii ‘Darjeeling’ would normally be out by now but, thankfully, the buds look fine and unfrosted.

A few flowers showing at the very top of our original Magnolia campbellii. Tregothnan apparently have 59 flowers by yesterday.

Tidying up the fallen turkey oak on Lower Rookery path yesterday.

Rhododendron ‘Bo Peep’ (pink) has stood up well to the Beast.

Camellia ‘Guilio Nuccio’

Azalea ‘Kirin’ with its hose in hose flowers has recovered from the frost.

On Wednesday night an excellent IDS webinar by Maurice Foster VMH on the ‘second golden age of plant hunting’. Pictures of around 70 ‘new’ (within last 30 years) introductions of woody trees and shrubs to the UK and Maurice’s garden in Kent. Some were his own wild collections, others from Crûg Farm, and many others. Only around 25% of those shown already feature in the garden here so a long list of things to find, propagate or acquire which are exceptionally good.

Acer paxii: Blue undersides to leaves
Acer sacchorum subsp. skutchii: Mexico
Acer wardii
Actinidia rubrifolia var. coriacea: Red flowers
Betula calcicola: Dwarf shrub curled and furry/hairy new growth
Betula skvortsovii
Betula utilis ‘Chris Lane’: Black – big white calcocils
Betula utilis dark form: Black – small white calcocils
Betula utilis ‘Melony Sanders’: Very red peeling stem
Camellia bailinshanica: Red new growth
Camellia pitardii: Pale pink – ours is red! Is it correctly named? Perhaps.
Camellia tanganica: Most fragrant of all camellias
Carpinus monobeigiana
Cathaya argyrophylla: Conifer
Cyclocarya paliuris: Fruit like Peterocarya – renamed
Deutzia sp. ‘Black Eyed Susan’: Unidentified. Exceptional.
Hydrangea involucrata ‘Chichibu’
Hydrangea macrophylla subsp. stylosa
Hydrangea serrata: Blue ex White House Farm
Larix potaninii: Never saw the picture due to cock ups
Magnolia maudiae x laevifolia: SUPERB
Mahonia bealei ‘Cornish Silver’: Blue leaves and undersides
Mahonia eurybracteata
Mahonia pinnata: Tall grower
Mahonia russellii Mexico: Needham intro
Mahonia sp. Ogishu 94056: One of Roy’s
Philadelphus aff. sargentianus: Scandent branches, fragrant +++ free flowering
Philadelphus maculatus ‘Sweet Clare’
Pinus emeritana
Pinus imeritana
Pinus siberica: Very slow growing and dwarf
Pinus wangii ssp. kwangtungensis
Quercus glauca
Quercus glauca: Red young foliage ex Vietnam
Quercus tungmaiensis: Very distinct leaves
Rhododendron ellipticum (syn. latouchae): Taiwan – new growth excellent
Rhododendron gongshanense: Tender but ok Cornwall
Rhododendron magniflorum: August flowers (glanduliferum on steroids)
Sorbus filipes: Purple fruits, crimson fruits. SUPERB small shrub!
Sorbus ligustrifolia: Fruits last into following year with flowers
Staphylea pringlei: Mexico – only one plant in UK with Maurice

Sadly the pictures are copyright protected to cannot be reproduced here.

I ought perhaps to add the list of the finest new plant introductions, as described by Maurice, which we do have growing here already:

Camellia trichocarpa

Camellia chekiangoleosa – better than Camellia japonica

Sorbus ulleungensis – TOP 5 of species. Autumn colour.

Sorbus japonica

Pterocarya macroptera var. insignis – flowers 3ft long when we get them.

Carpinus fangiana – 28-30cms catkins

Carpinus omeiensis – spreading shrub

Carpinus rankenensis

Acer pseudoseboldianum subsp. takasimense

Hydrangea chinensis – from Taiwan

Hydrangea aspera ‘Hot Chocolate’

Deutzia purpurascens – variable – ours purple

Deutzia longifolia – pink or white flowers

Indigofera pendula ‘Shangri La’ – AGM – grows through rhodos

Rhododendron kesangue – flowers in May. Big leaf.

Rhododendron yuefengense – like orbiculare (two or three plants)

Rhododendron huianum – mauve – niveum colour

Betula luminifera

View 20th February 1897 – 2020