10th May | The Garden Diary

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2025 – CHW

A visit to the Old Kitchen Garden to view the Malus in flower.

Rhododendron prunifolium by the 4-in-Hand.

The very last flower on Camellia saluenensis – a 6 month flowering season.

Malus ‘Butterball’.

Malus ‘Brandywine’ – a double flower and unbelievably good!

Malus transitoria ‘Thornhayes Tansy’.

Malus ‘Candymint’.

Malus transitoria.

Malus transitoria ‘Gulliver’ – nearly over.

Malus trilobata – no flower and just the leaves.

Malus ‘Admiration’.

Malus brevipes ‘Wedding Bouquet’.

Malus ‘Comtesse De Paris’.

Malus ‘Marble’.

Malus hupehensis ‘Arie Mauritz’.

Malus baccata.

Malus ‘Rudolph’.

Malus x purpurea ‘Crimson Cascade’.

Malus ‘Golden Gem’.

Malus ‘Halloween’.

Malus ‘Indian Magic’.

Views over the Old Kitchen Garden.

A very impressive Rhododendron in Old Park which I cannot name.

2024 – CHW
In this early year the garden is close to being over. The loderis are at their best still but the scented rhododendrons are more or less over. Styrax buds are swelling.A warm fine week is speeding the end of the rhododendron season even if the deciduous azaleas have hardly started.A good chop back in the Rockery as we had planned. More to do yet with brambles to dig out.

The wisteria drooped over the wall at the top of the Rockery.

I am puzzled as to how and why our Syringa all seem to have die back? These are robust plants and not early into leaf. The same issue in the nursery with Dutch imports. I am suspicious of the possibility of a ‘new’ lilac disease?

The peculiar and rare Osteomeles subrotunda with flower buds. The IDS website says most plants named O. subrotunda may in fact be forms of O. schwerinae. There are no pictures which enable me to confirm the identity of this plant one way or the other.

Eucryphia ‘Nyman’s Silver’ is recovering well after nearly dying in the drought last summer.

Magnolia laevifolia ‘White Caviar’ is a fine thing! Better each year.

Good new growth on a young Meliosma pungens which replaces a recent casualty of this very rare species.

A young group of Azalea ‘Persil’, planted in 2021 are just now out.

Sorbus matsumurana with its first few flowers. A new species for us.

Staphylea colchica ‘Black Beauty’ looking as its name would have you believe.

Sapium sebiferum very late into leaf but very much alive and well.

2023 – CHW
Camellia reticulata ‘Lovely Lady’ still with decent flowers.

Sadly our original Illicium anisatum has died of old age. It did have a few flowers earlier in the year on a near leafless shrub now in far too much shade.

Magnolia (Michelia) ‘Fairy Lime’. Another plant which I had forgotten with a few decent flowers.

Rhododendron ‘Saffron Queen’ far too out to cut for Chelsea.

Rhododendron ‘Cowslip’ flowering sparsely. (Rh. wardii x Rh. williamsianum).

The fir tree which fell above Red Linney took out Phellodendron amurense var. sachalinense. I wonder if it will reshoot when the mess is finally cleared up? There are two others in Penvergate.

Rhododendron ‘Winsome’ on the drive.

Cornus florida subsp. urbiniana with its white bracts joined at the tips. Odd! I think I looked this up previously and came to a different conclusion as to its identity. I called it Cornus florida ‘Pluribracteata’ and I am still not really sure which is the correct identification as I can find undivided flowers which have charachertistics of both forms. Its not in our planting plans but was planted around 2005.

Rhododendron fragrantissimum by the front door.

2022 – CHW
Tom Hudson tipped me off that the RHS Fellows and Jim Gardiner tour gift earlier this spring was flowering well for him. A near double form of Magnolia sieboldii. However when I rush to the greenhouse ours has no flowers.Malus coronaria ‘Elk River’ is now properly out. Last week just in bud.

We have planted out and lost Viburnum sieboldii before. One at Burncoose a decent size.

Malus toringo ‘Aros’ now out as well with unusual coloured flowers.

Mahonia trifolia flowering with its trifoliate leaves. To go out next spring.

Berberis hypokeriana with large leaves just in bud. Bought from Nick Macer a year ago.

Wisteria sinensis and Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’ on the wall below the Playhouse.

A closeup of Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’; my mother’s favourite rose. Most of the flowers are 20ft up.

Echium pininana and Rhododendron ‘Fragrantissimum’ – both full out.

Rhododendron ‘Patty Bee’ in the Rockery.

Vaccinum urceolatum in flower.

Surprisingly the Rhododendron campylogynum has sprung back into life (one flower in January).

Berberis amurensis var. latifolia (BSWJ 8539) was only planted in 2011 but it is already 12’ x 12’. Attractive in new growth and flowers.

Rhododendron neriiflorum nicely out.

Syringa pinnata hiding away its white flowers.

This cherry above the Four in Hand was bought from Hillier’s 35 to 40 years ago. I try to identify it and the closest I get in Wybe Kuitert’s book on Japanese cherries is Prunus serrulata ‘Albo Plena’. The other possibles with double flowers have pink in their buds and early flowers. This one does not.

Early flowers on Cornus kousa ‘Gold Star’.

2021 – CHW
More young trees just into leaf or flower.Tilia chingiana has a very unusual and interesting unfurling of its leaves.

Crataegus ellwangeriana ‘Fire Ball’ has been slightly frosted.

Crataegus chinesis with flowers almost over.

Crataegus miuveacis with its first flowering here.

Betula ashburneri with its first flowers.

Carpinus kawakamii with new growth appearing alongside its evergreen old leaves.

Pterocarya rhoifolia just into full leaf.

Lithocarpus hancei with its attractive and delicate reddish new growth.

The first tall echium into flower.

View 10th May 1897 – 2020

2 thoughts on “10th May”

Ron Rabideau says:

23rd February 2018 at 8:45 pm

Hi,
Love your blog as I’m a rhodo nut. I saw griffithianum in the wild in Arunachal Pradesh in 2005. You mention “They are the true Rhododendron griffithianum which was one of the parents of all the Gill hybrids of old. These magnificent trees with creamy or red flowers still grace the top of the garden here but many were lost in the 1990 hurricane. ” Were you referring to the Gill hybrids being creamy or red as opposed to griff. which is white? Asking because there are several red hybrids such as Jean Marie de Montague which list griff as an ancestor. More interesting than the color but possibly related is that there are more than a few polyploids in that family tree. J.M. produces unreduced gametes.
1. Charles Williams says:
  
  19th April 2018 at 3:32 pm
  
  Dear Mr Rabideau
  
  Thank you for your comment and apologies for the late reply!
  
  Yes, I was referring to the Gill hybrids being red as opposed to white.
  
  I will try and get some pictures to you or into the diary.
  
  Best wishes
  
  Charles Williams

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