2021 – CHW
Yesterday’s rain has been a godsend to the younger plants especially the newly planted azaleas in Kennel Close which were wilting.
Cornus kousa ‘Madame Butterfly’ at its best on Hovel Cart Road.
Styrax wuyuanensis at its absolute best but a bit droopy from the rain and weight of the flowers.
Rhododendron [to confirm from planting plant update – label lost]
Rhododendron
I have been waiting for weeks for the Viburnum hoangliense flowers to actually open. When they do there is, sadly, not that much to see. Tiny upright flowers in large flower clusters.
Flowers now full out on Huodendron tibeticum and new growth emerging.
First flowers out on the late flowering Rhododendron auriculatum. Earlier than normal.
Rosa roxburgii nicely out but most flowers battered by rain.
Raphiolepsis umbellata out but battered too.
Magnolia virginiana ‘Satellite’ just out high up.
A replacement Schefflera macrophylla with good new growth. Deer damage risk unless the netting is heightened!
Magnolia globosa has 10 or more flowers out today. The first flower was about three weeks ago.
Still plenty of flower on Michelia x foggii ‘Jack Fogg’ – two months at least in flower.
Philadelphus pekinensis in flower but not profusely as yet two and a half years from planting.
First flowers on Rhododendron maddenii below Donkey Shoe. Very like Rhododendron crassum really which is now over.
This Rhododendron keysii absolutely full out at the wrong time of the year. Fear it will now pass out.
2020 – CHW
A little bit of history to add to the absurdities and real problems of lockdown. My daughter has been trying to get married to an army colonel who is about to go on active service overseas in Africa. I will not bore you here but will put the saga in the handwritten diary for posterity which is an email from the regimental chaplain to a government minister outlining the predicament and how church law has little leeway to do anything when churches and registry offices are closed.Quercus laurifolia had some dieback and was very slow into leaf but now the drought is over things are looking up. Nice bark developing on the trunk. We used to have a row of three Q. laurifolia which were small trees in the Rireii Opening but the last blew over a few years ago.
A little bit of history to add to the absurdities and real problems of lockdown. My daughter has been trying to get married to an army colonel who is about to go on active service overseas in Africa. I will not bore you here but will put the saga in the handwritten diary for posterity which is an email from the regimental chaplain to a government minister outlining the predicament and how church law has little leeway to do anything when churches and registry offices are closed.Quercus laurifolia had some dieback and was very slow into leaf but now the drought is over things are looking up. Nice bark developing on the trunk. We used to have a row of three Q. laurifolia which were small trees in the Rireii Opening but the last blew over a few years ago.
Buddleia loricata is now in flower by the shop. Creamy flowers with a reddish-orange eye. Another thing to propagate for the Burncoose website.
I went to check the younger plants in the Stewartia collection but nothing out yet and, like the Styrax, there does not seem much bud compared to last year. Even the mature Stewartia rostratas have only 25% of the flowers they produced last year. Stewartia x henryae still in tight bud in Kennel Close.
Escallonia tucumanensis is a gorgeous species from Argentina. Its drooping panicles of flowers are a delight. Asia should propagate lots! I suspect it would root very easily now. It has been perfectly hardy here for six to eight years and needs no trimming.
2019 – CHW
Ninety-five to lunch and tour here yesterday to raise funds for the Cornwall Historic Churches Trust. We kept the flower festival going in the church and prompted them to drop in on their way home – £87 extra raised. Thankfully that is about it for house tours and house group visits for this year.
Ross Collins has now felled and split all the trunks of the five big beech trees. We will do the burning up ourselves but we agreed on site to extend the new planting area for next spring by grubbing out some additional old camellias and the odd rhododendron.
Vaccinum cylindraeceum in full flower with greenish-cream flowers in profusion that have a hint of pink. Quite outstanding today. It comes from the Azores and only one of the three original plantings has made a decent plant. More or less evergreen with black fruits.
The supposed Magnolia floribunda var. tonkinensis (DJHV 06105) is probably Manglietia insignis from N. Vietnam but investigations continue with Crug Farm. Full out today and very well worth its place. Jaimie wants to layer it as cuttings have so far failed.
Tilia carolina subsp. heterophylla (syn. monticola) has the most gigantic leaves as you can see here. Far bigger than on any other lime tree which I have seen. The slugs have had a go in the recent rain but nothing too drastic and a roe deer has enjoyed a few lower leaves. Thankfully most are now out of reach.
Styrax faberi just coming out.
Ilex kingiana with berries already setting.
Jaimie and Michael just back from the Isle of Wight. Would it not be wonderful if we could put up signs like this in Cornwall. The Cornwall Red Squirrel Project is getting closer to a release on the Lizard Peninsula.
2018 – CHW
A fine crop of blueberries are emerging on the newly planted plants in the Isla Rose Plantation. Isla is now walking without support at 15 months old so she might just get to taste them later.
At the nursery today for various meetings.
Clematis florida ‘Taiga’ really is an outstanding show.
Clematis florida ‘Taiga’ really is an outstanding show.
Delphinium ‘Wishful Thinking’ will be a pleasant bicoloured addition to next year’s catalogue.
Carpinus tuczaninowii will be new for next year too.
Trachelospermum asiaticum ‘Summer Sunset’ has a gorgeous mix of leaf colours as the sun bleaches them red.
2017 – CHW
I stopped in Carnon Downs on the way to Burncoose today to photograph this amazing clump of pink lampranthus full out in the sun.
The five young plants of Magnolia ‘Caerhays Splendour’ are all growing on well on the bank. 2ft of new growth this year.
Magnolia grandiflora ‘Overton’ has some stunning flowers. The other on the top wall are not out just yet.
Gingko biloba ‘Saratoga’ has an extraordinary leaf structure. Very slow to get going as this has been here for eight years.
Another unknown but very late flowering evergreen azalea in two clumps between the ferneries. Not very floriferous and not a very nice orange-red. My father never knew its name either. Perhaps worth Asia propagating?
The young monkey puzzle is flowering for the first time. Is this a male of female? On the basis of the Wollemi seen yesterday the dark cones of flower should be male. [Update – they are male! See comments below.]
This ancient Rhododendron indicum by the front door is quite a show!
2016 – CHW
Day trip to Hook Norton Brewery for a monthly board meeting.
Day trip to Hook Norton Brewery for a monthly board meeting.
2015 – CHW
Another styrax full out; Styrax obassia with the largest leaves of any species and white racemens of flowers hidden amid the foliage.Cornus kousa ‘National’ (I think) on the drive has large faintly star shaped flowers. This was planted in 1991 and is a good sized tree.Behind it a clump of three white Rhododendron decorum coming into their prime but flowering rather later than the older and ancient original plants in the garden, some of which were out a month ago and all of which are now over.On the Hovel Cart Road the evergreen Cornus hongkongensis is starting the odd flower. The US reference book on cornus does not even mention this variety which one has to say is a pretty dull collector’s item. The other one was pruned up by deer.Near Georges Hut a fine 15 year old replacement clump of Rhododendron auriculatum flowering its heart out.Touching them is a 1991 vintage Stewartia rostrata with its first few huge camellia-like flowers with a splodge of pink. This is, to my mind, the best of the stewartias with superb dark purple, almost black autumn colour.In Kennel Close we find a styrax (ex Crug) which is flowering profusely and the first time seen by me. About six years from planting and now bushy and about eight feet tall. Some leaves are oval and some more elliptical. The reference books are unclear. I think it is Styrax wilsonii but it may be Styrax officinalis which grows rather taller; twice the size in fact.A new Magnolia ‘Summer Solstice’ has its first three flowers where we can see them unlike the main 1991 planted tree.Primula helodoxa is flowering just outside my study window. There used to be quite a collection of candelabra primulas in the Auklandii Garden where they would self sow themselves on damp bare earth patches. It was interesting to note that over time all the new seedlings became yellow and still a few pop up (as here) from time to time. Primula helodoxa clearly has the dominant gene and the only survivor.
Another styrax full out; Styrax obassia with the largest leaves of any species and white racemens of flowers hidden amid the foliage.Cornus kousa ‘National’ (I think) on the drive has large faintly star shaped flowers. This was planted in 1991 and is a good sized tree.Behind it a clump of three white Rhododendron decorum coming into their prime but flowering rather later than the older and ancient original plants in the garden, some of which were out a month ago and all of which are now over.On the Hovel Cart Road the evergreen Cornus hongkongensis is starting the odd flower. The US reference book on cornus does not even mention this variety which one has to say is a pretty dull collector’s item. The other one was pruned up by deer.Near Georges Hut a fine 15 year old replacement clump of Rhododendron auriculatum flowering its heart out.Touching them is a 1991 vintage Stewartia rostrata with its first few huge camellia-like flowers with a splodge of pink. This is, to my mind, the best of the stewartias with superb dark purple, almost black autumn colour.In Kennel Close we find a styrax (ex Crug) which is flowering profusely and the first time seen by me. About six years from planting and now bushy and about eight feet tall. Some leaves are oval and some more elliptical. The reference books are unclear. I think it is Styrax wilsonii but it may be Styrax officinalis which grows rather taller; twice the size in fact.A new Magnolia ‘Summer Solstice’ has its first three flowers where we can see them unlike the main 1991 planted tree.Primula helodoxa is flowering just outside my study window. There used to be quite a collection of candelabra primulas in the Auklandii Garden where they would self sow themselves on damp bare earth patches. It was interesting to note that over time all the new seedlings became yellow and still a few pop up (as here) from time to time. Primula helodoxa clearly has the dominant gene and the only survivor.
1917 – JCW
The Wilson Fortunei’s are starting to open. A Mikado is very good and A arborescens, also some of the Harrow hybrids. Papa gontier [rose] is good and also R maddeni, hardly a bud was touched by the great frost.
1897 – JCW
The waterlilies are at their best. Bambusa nigra at full length, Henonis at ¾ of their length, Mitis only now starting in some cases and so nitida.
The monkey puzzle flowers are male! https://twitter.com/chilean_plants/status/904493582257725440