2024 – CHW (images to follow)
The Garden Society Dinner in London and 4 species of Lindera for members to look at:-
Lindera triloba has tiny flowers but grows into a sturdy upright multi-stemmed shrub. The autumn colour is better than the flowers.
Lindera sericea is a quicker growing and less woody upright shrub but also multi-stemmed. The flowers are as good as the autumn colour.
Lindera angustifolia is an extraordinarily quick growing tree with gorgeous bark and new growth. The flower clusters are a bit sparse and do not give much of a show. Near evergreen in a mild winter with no frost.
The flowers on Lindera erythrocarpa only open fully with us when the leaves appear so the overall effect is muted. With us this is a medium sized woody tree. Ours dates from around 1990.
All 4 species of Lindera together.
Lindera are dioecious which is irritating as you have no way of knowing if you have a male or female plant if grown from seed. All you can do is plant a group and hope to get berries with males and females present. Propagation from cuttings is difficult. They can root easily but overwinter badly and readily die off.
We tend to think of Lindera as autumn colour plants, and some are indeed spectacular then. However some species do produce a good spring show. About half the species which we grow are evergreen although all the 4 pictured above are deciduous.
2023 – CHW
A pleasantly warm and wet week where I think the water table will have got back to about normal. Frankie has dug out the stumps of a number of old Camellia japonicas in the Rookery to make a good new planting place up from the now flowering well Melliodendron.
2022 – CHW
The strong east wind persists.
First flowers showing on all the clumps of Rhododendron ‘Countess of Haddington’.
A late afternoon garden tour with Tom Hudson to look at forms of Magnolia sprengeri. We viewed about a dozen including a few hybrids.Daphne bholua ‘Mary Rose’ still full out while all the other varieties are well over. Great value in a garden plant.
Primroses on the bank at their best.
2020 – CHW
A glorious Mothering Sunday amid the National Gloom. We remain open.
Jaimie has planted a group of Rhododendron ‘Ginnie Gee’ below Donkey Shoe. A heavily mulched surround.
Vikki in the (now) takeaway tearooms.
Sent: 23 March 2020 18:17
To: Charles Williams PA
Subject: Visit.Hi Charlie,
Great that Jo and I were able to come along on Sunday, the net is closing fast now and we will all be looking at our own gardens for a while.
There is plenty to see, what a treat we are lucky.Just a few things that I had noted….That tender oak I think may be Q. fleuryi. [Correct]I think that the Kew Schima may be remotiserrata but it will be interesting to see it in flower. [Labelled excelsa]I will definitely get that Eisenhut book, the most up to date with the named selections and their parentage.Interesting to see The Rookery where the old oaks are and the Emmenopterys trees.
I quite like the feel of the darkness under the evergreens, quite like being in that type of Fagaceous forest in Asia.
We were surprised to see Emmenopterys trees in Vietnam recently, it will be interesting to see whether they will flower earlier or at all when compared to the original Wilson material.So much new planting in new areas has changed the feel of many areas and will set the garden up for at least a couple of generations.Many thanks, all the best,
Tom
2019 – CHW
A tour with a journalist from ‘The Tatler’. Not normally a publication noted for its horticultural content!
Vaccinum urceolatum still retains some reddish autumn colour in the Rockery although it is an evergreen shrub of some rarity.
2018 – CHW
A horrid funeral in Mount Hawke of a 20 year old. A hundred boy racers wearing woolly hats may just have got to grips with the reality of their ‘sport’!
First flowers showing on Magnolia dawsoniana and no frost damage.
2017 – CHW (photos to follow)Passed by Parliament Square at 2.20 some 10 minutes before the terrorist atrocity en route to Vincent Square and a police lockdown.
Showed Cephalotaxus fortunei at the 275th Garden Society dinner at Whites. Pollen everywhere! Home on the overnight sleeper – new carriages.
A 24 hour trip to London for The Garden Society dinner (64 attendees) and back on the night train. Not the greatest display of plants I have seen but some nice things – Abies pindro, Lindera umbellata, Viburnum furcatum, Michelia platypetala.I took two forms of what we now call Michelia doltsopa and explained the puzzle between this and Michelia floribunda which ‘the experts’ say we do not have and Michelia manipurense which we may now have. Also Michelia ‘Touch of Pink’ and Michelia ‘Silver Cloud’ as well. It made them all laugh and we had a very jolly dinner in what is now known as the ‘naughty corner’ with Jim Gardiner (who retires from the RHS in October), my brother and Thomas Methuen-Campbell.
1996 – FJW
Phillip saw first swallows – now very wet.
1992 – FJW
Saw a flock of the swallow family flying around the pond.
1947 – CW
No colour on any Magnolias, Camellia hybrids not nearly at their best and only Mary reticulata out. Blood reds and Rireii beginning to be good, also Sutchuenense hybrids. Not 100 flowers out in Tin Garden but come on a lot the last week. Still a lot of snowdrops. Rho moupinense good and Rho praecox beginning.
1940 – CW
Mag campbellii and sargenteanum opening. Salicifolia above Camellias fully out. Camellia hybrids very good also Reticulata species and Lady Clare. Rhodo sutchuenense hybrids and reds at their best, red Auklandii coming. Lutescens very good. Most daffodils out.
1924 – JCW
The east wind has left for a time and after a dry three weeks it is mild and damp, far behind 1921. No Auklandii hybrids red or white, few buds and most of them frosted.
1921 – JCW
The Auklandii x White Arboreum are good. The red Auklandii wanes. The heath Erica darleyense fades. Rho bodartianum is good, the first Mag Consipua and is open. Cerasus subhirtella not open yet.
1920 – JCW
The Berberis pinnata is VG, Cerasus subhirtella and pendula is good, heaths are excellent particularly arborea. Over 70 species of Rhodo open. I put scintillans first.
1913 – JCW
Some Poets are open, several Erica australis half open. The Arboreums about mid season. Anemone alpinia at their best. Many reticulatas open.
1907 – JCW
Bob saw the first martins.