20th February

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CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

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

2020 – CHW
I sit stuck in meetings for most of the day but a few more big distance shots of magnolias on the drive are all that there is time for today. Getting colder!The true Magnolia campbellii subsp. mollicomata ‘Lanarth’ is nearly full out. Planted in 1955 but this is only its third flowering and far and away the best yet with 50 or so flowers.

Magnolia campbellii subsp. mollicomata ‘Lanarth’

Another sister seedling to Magnolia ‘Caerhays Belle’ down on Bond Street both sisters have performed well this year despite the wind but ‘Belle’ herself is nowhere near out.

This is a seedling from the same crop as the one which produced ‘Caerhays Splendour’. It is a poor substitute for the real thing but a good show today below the drive. One of the very few visitors today in a wheel chair paused to admire it.

Magnolia campbellii ‘Lamellyn’ is now full out and looking translucent.

Magnolia ‘Delia Williams’ full out on the lawn. A bit battered by the wind and paler in colour than some years.

The first three flowers are out on one of the five young Magnolia ‘Caerhays Splendour’ above the front door. This is its first flowering and it is most definitely exactly as it should be. Perhaps these first flowers are a little smaller than they will be in more maturity later but the colour is as startling as when I first saw it on Jaimie’s original three way crossed seedling.

Work now complete on cutting up the huge beech tree which fell just above the garden entrance. A remarkably neat and tidy job which took the team of four not much more than a day.

2019 – CHW
Prunus laurocerasus – common laurel in full flower already!

This is listed on the planting plan as Rhododendron arboreum ‘Tony Shilling’. However, unlike the plants on Bond Street which are pink as they should be, this looks like the true Blood Red arboreum.

A Magnolia ‘Caerhays Belle’ sister seedling (and not as good) showing up in the mist outside the front gates.

Prunus conradinae (hirtipes) now full out and on time according to the reference books. A Wilson introduction.

2018 – CHW
A Great Gardens of Cornwall meeting to chair and then a quick trip around the garden at Trewithen with Gary Long and Tom Hudson. Crisp but sunny late pm.A plant which Jennifer Trehane calls Camellia cuspidata var cuspidata (or C. cuspidata to mere mortals!). Very clearly one of the parents of Camellia ‘Cornish Snow’ – the other being Camellia saluenensis. C. cuspidata has flowers which open out flat as you can see although this is not quite how ‘Cornish Snow’ normally displays itself. A second old plant had slightly less impressive flowers. (The supposed C. cuspidata at Caerhays fell over but has reshot from the base and no flowers recently. Asia needs to propagate. Also Camellia taliensis.) Very pretty and worthwhile early camellia.

Camellia transnokoensis in full flower too. We lost this in the cold in March 2012 but probably have young plants coming on.

First few flowers on Trewithen’s Magnolia campbellii. Spring has not sprung here yet. They expect their Magnolia campbellii ‘Charles Raffil’ to be out before pure campbellii.

Likewise on their Magnolia ‘Lanarth’. Great colour.

A Magnolia mollicomata seedling with small flowers rather more fully out.

Camellia saluenensis ‘Isadora’ named and registered recently after one of Sam Galsworthy’s children is a really good thing. Different from the pure C. saluenensis (light or dark pink) which we know here. Much more pink in part of the petals when they first open and a pronounced centre. Opens fairly flat too and seeds itself profusely. It was of course a chance seedling originally anyway but none the worse for that.

Nearby I was intrigued by Rubus swinhoei which is an extremely vigorous climber growing all over a dormant host shrub. It clearly fruits profusely but horrid prickles. We have this to plant out this year.

Also Buddleia macrostachya which was 12-15ft tall and with pink flowers out already. Stems with lined shredding bark like a Heptacodium miconioides trunk. Some wind/frost damage to the huge blue-green leaves but the flower spikes in full flower up high.

Why does our Schima wallichii not set a crop of seed like this with us? Seedlings self-sown under this massive forest canopy tree? Seed all over the ground and still ripe on the tree. Asia needs to check our plant above Crinodendron Hedge to see if there is any ripe seed there? I think I photographed a single globular green seed pod in November. Tom says the botanists have now amalgamated the three species of autumn flowering schima which we grow here into just one species. Absurd!

An especially good dark form of Rhododendron spinuliferum which is out much earlier than usual. Tom thinks this came from Chyverton and Nigel Holman originally as it has much longer flower tubes than normal although, here, they are not yet fully out/extended. A far better red than the Caerhays plant but not so different from the Burncoose one. Asia to add this to the 2018 propagation list as our plant in the Rockery is very ancient and use the Burncoose one for cuttings.

2017 – CHW
Calm, warm and still conditions encourage more magnolias to start to open outside the back yard and elsewhere.Neither of these magnolias are named but quite nice, early flowering seedlings as they are and well worth their place. The tepals show some wind damage from last week and some are pale with a bit of green/white where they have been blown open too early.

The darker one was the 3rd January 2016 opener which we have now photographed three times in the last fortnight.

Camellia ‘Cornish Snow’ stands out today among the many unnamed x williamsii seedlings along the outside back yard wall. These probably date from the 1920s and may well be from the first japonica x saluenensis crosses which JCW made in 1923 and which produced ‘St Ewe’ and ‘J C Williams’. They are similar but poorish and have been pruned many times along with the ‘Cornish Snow’ over the years.

The flowers on Camellia ‘Lady Clare’ are enormous this year with quite a bit of white patterning and striping in the frilly open petals. A good red when just opening, fading to lighter pink. I do not remember seeing it look so good. Far removed from the insipid first flowers I photographed four to six weeks ago.

There used to be two clumps of these giant snowdrops on the bank. The flymo has got one but the other still thrives. A very dark green blotch on the tip of the corolla or trumpet. Interestingly they have crossed with the ‘ordinary’ snowdrops nearby and produced two clumps of half giants nearby. Any idea of the correct name anyone?

The seedling magnolia (unnamed) from the same seed pan as Magnolia ‘Philip Tregunna’ is out above the top wall. A good dark colour, very visible from the front door this year.

A couple of ‘through the arch’ and ‘over the arch’ shots of the magnolias (as above today) to mirror those taken in early January 2016 which you can look up and compare. These are seven weeks later!

2016 – CHW
Several lots of new plants have arrived today from Glendoick and Rezo nurseries in France. Rhodos and bamboos. Attached are the lists of what has come – Glendoick List & Rezo List.

Also attached are the lists of new plants sourced for planting out this year from all over via Burncoose Nurseries.

Quite a lot of planting work to do when it eventually dries up enough to plant.

2003 – FJW
First flower on Magnolia ‘Bishop Peter’.

1981 – FJW
First on Tin Garden Magnolia ‘Diva’ seedling.

1962 – FJW
East wind started.

1930 – JCW
Six days of frost have cut Rhodo’s and the Gordonia, but we have had no ice on the pond yet. Heath of 3 kinds are good.1928 – JCW
Just as in 1927 say 25 species of Rhodo’s including Mackenzianum and 25 hybrids. No Magnolia as in 1913 but Gordonias, some flowers of the early Kobus ½ open.1927 – JCW
Heaths fairly good, Rhodo lutescens and moupinense very good. Blood Red hybrids well out, some Barbatum and Scabrifolium. Prunus pissardi and conradinae just coming out. [?] Dediconia is the next. Camellia speciosa is beautiful.1924 – JCW
Cold NE wind and frost for a week and all Rhodo’s bloom is cut out for the time but the early stuff has hardly any buds in any case. The heaths are very nice.1917 – JCW
About 4 days ago the frost broke, the hardest since 1895, nothing much is dead. Rhodo lutescens, mucronulatum and moupinense have begun to open.1916 – JCW
Prunus pissardi over, several daffs open, Caerhays daff very good, Rhodo fargesi is very nice by the Barbatums. Blood Red hybrids remain good. Rhodo oleifolium very good, the first Camellia reticulata is open.1914 – JCW
The Prunus pissardi just starting. Only Cyclamineus and its hybrids with Soleil d’Or are out of the daffs. A few Arboreum x Thomsonii open, none of the Mrs Butler x. The following species open Rhodo moupinense – lutescens – argenteum – mucronulatum – barbatum – pink arboreum – blood red arboreum – micranthum – dahuricum – racemosum – sutchuenense.

1913 – JCW
I found a small spray of Pyrus malus open. The Thomsonii x Arboreum lot are very good, and there are some Mrs Butler x Arboreum open.

1897 – JCW
Yellow crocus nearly over, blue and white at their best.

The Garden Diary

A Cornish garden diary from Caerhays Estate over 100 years

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