15th November | The Garden Diary

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CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2024 – CHW (images to follow)

I have been watching the buds of Camellia sasanqua ‘Gay Border’ for some days. Only a couple of flowers out today.

Good colour on Prunus ‘Fragrant Cloud’ by the shop.

Some colour on Fagus asplenifolia by the 4-in-Hand.

Magnolia x loebneri and Liquidambar styraciflua showing together.

Stupidly I had forgotten to go to look and see if the large flowered Camellia ‘Cornish Snow Michael’ was out in flower below Tin Garden. It has clearly been out for at least 10 days.

The Crataegus laevigata ‘Paul’s Scarlet’ can surely not blow over again with a post this size?

Acer rubrum ‘Red Sunset’ not bad but not yet as good as last year. Planted in 2009.

2023 – CHW

Magnolia ‘Peachy’ has good autumn colour today in the sun and showers.

Liquidambar styraciflua ‘Golden Sun’ with its autumn colours.

Idesia polycarpa still with clusters of berries intact in the wind.

Acer takesimense with its last few leaves.

Carpinus caroliniana (this form from Mexico) is still entirely green with no autumn colour at all showing.

2011 planted Acer morifolium split asunder. Every joint has let in water on this quick growing snakebark maple.

2022 – CHW
Most of the leaf has already fallen on Kalopanax septemlobus.

Magnolia macrophylla with its autumn display and early camellias behind it.

First flowers on a large seedling Camellia saluenensis by Tin Garden.

Liriodendron chinense approaching its zenith.

Enkianthus cernuus rubens with its usual autumn tints. The best show on any of the Enkianthus this year.

Fruit forming on Malus x prattii below Kennel Close. Not yet ripe.

Autumn colour on Aesculus hippocastanum ‘Baumannii’. Better than expected.

Callicarpa species unknown from Nanning, Guangdong now with well-formed berries.

Secondary flowers on Rhododendron crassum. Just 2 or 3 trusses.

And on Rhododendron ‘Damaris’. Poor flowers all over.

One pristine flower on Zantedeschia aethiopica. Not bad for mid-November in a mild autumn.

2021 – CHW
A final grass cut in Kennel Close before the daffodil bulbs begin to emerge. A final tidy up before the spring. Perhaps the fifth time we have cut the grass here this year. Spot spraying also of nettles and cow parsley in Tin Garden.

Callicarpa shirasawanum with a good crop of pink berries in Tin Garden.

More of Jaimie’s magnolia crosses with seed safely gathered up for sowing in the spring.

Prunus ‘Fragrant Cloud’ (‘Shizuka’) just turning colour.

Fagus sylvatica ‘Pendula Aurea’ with autumn tints.

Salix fargesii just turning.

Corylopsis spicata with rich yellow autumn colour on the Main Ride.

Acer palmatum ‘Scolopendrifolium’ only now starting to turn yellow. This will be one of the very best Japanese acer displays as it always is on the drive at Burncoose.

2020 – CHW
The first flower on the Camellia ‘Noblissima’ by the front door. About the same as last year?

Just as fine a flower on Magnolia grandiflora today as on Magnolia delavayi a day or two ago.

The first quince we have ever seen on Pseudocydonia sinensis. I did capture a very few flowers on this bush but not where the single huge fruit has now formed. Assume it will turn yellow soon.

The laurel hedge below Sinogrande Walk is nearly finished. Two weeks of work to complete the lot with most of the garden team (one on furlough) and lots of tidying up of young plants along the way (removing lower branches / side shoots / wire surrounds).

This is what Jaimie thinks is Ilex opaca on the planting plans. I had thought it was an Osmanthus when looking a month or two ago below Hardy & Berts Old Nursery bed when we were looking at ilex species in the garden. No flowers if it is an Osmanthus but no berries either if it is a holly? The trunk is holly-like and the leaves are ‘variously’ spined as Hilliers say they should be. Planted in 2007 it has made a large shrub in 13 years and will soon be a small tree.

An elderly Enkianthus chinensis with the full autumn show.

Pruncus incisa (I assume) in flower as an old tree above the Dacrydium towards Four in Hand.

The first few flowers on the record sized but unnamed Camellia x williamsii outside the front gate.

2019 – CHW

A day doing ‘topical tip’ videos with Karol for the Burncoose website.

We looked at this camellia covered in seeds a month ago. I do not think I have ever seen a small bush with so many ripe seeds. On opening though most have no seeds at all in the four chambers and a few had just one. All that effort by the bush with little end result. Very unusual though and quite pretty.

Then on to film collecting rhododendron seed initially on a Rhododendron loderi hybrid. Not all the seed heads have filled out but, those that have, are just starting to turn brown so time to collect them and dry them off indoors where they will split where the ripe seed can be collected in a bag rather than blown in the wind.

On Rhododendron suoilenhense many of the nearly ripe seed pods have already dropped ripe to the ground and only the odd ripe one remains for collecting and drying off indoors. Asia needs to grab what is left quickly if she has not done so already?

Cornus capitata with the flies and wasps enjoying the sweet juicy yellowish pith in the ‘strawberries’ surrounding the individual seeds. It all made a good little video in the sun today. Do not eat them!

2018 – CHW
A new batch of conifers for planting out in Kennel Close. Mainly from Mark Bulk’s nurseries.Glyptostrobus pensilis ‘Woolly Mammoth’ certainly lives up to its name at this time of the year. A rare swamp cypress from China related to Taxodium.

Abies firma, the Momi fir from Japan, has very different new growth needles to its older ones. A big tree which might well go in as a replacement in Donkey Shoe.

Micocachrys tetragona, a rare conifer from Tasmania with a creeping, arching habit.

Pinus wallichiana, the Bhutan pine, which I saw growing so beautifully at Tregrehan.

Chamaecyparis lawsoniana ‘Imbricata Pendula’. I saw this in Ireland at Fota as a huge pendulous tree and decided we needed one too.

2017 – CHW
Syringa emodii ‘Aureovariegata’ still with no sign of autumn. The prominent dark green centres of its leaves persist only on the leaves which are lower down the shrub.

Hydrangea quercifolia putting on its true colours – rather late?

Daphniphyllum macropodum with fine red leaf petioles but no sign of flower buds yet on this youngish plant.

The Camellia oleifera we looked at two weeks ago was, I thought, the largest and oldest which we had. Here is, however, the matriarch below the main ride now nearly over. Could do with a good trim and the team have just started a clean-up in this area.

2016 – CHW
Still plenty of flowers coming on Magnolia grandiflora as usual in November. In a mild winter there are at least some flowers for at least nine months.

Liquidamber styraciflua ‘Red Star’ is perhaps at its best but far less red than last year. The other varieties have hardly turned colour yet. This was the first to perform last year too.

Acer palmatum ‘Atropurpureum’ is at its best but the nearby Acer palmatum ‘Osahazuki’ has long since lost its splendid earlier colour.

Nearby a Magnolia stellata variety is still in full green leaf without a hint of autumn as yet. Likewise the Magnolia ‘Caerhays Splendour’ next door. Strange for mid November anywhere else apart from Cornwall I suppose.

We have looked at this clump of Hydrangea ‘Madame Mouillere’ several times since early spring. There are still new flowers opening and full out. While the older ones fade to blue-green with a hint of pink before they finally brown off. Quite an array of colours when you look closely at the same time. A valuable plant!

Larix kaempferi glowing yellowish with a hint of orange/red in the hazy sun.

2015 – CHW
There was no hurricane here but much of the autumn colour on the drive was indeed blown away in the largely overnight gales. Rhododendron ‘Cornish Red’ has a few secondary flowers towards the Four in Hand which is not unusual at Christmas but perhaps it is in November.

A Prunus subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’ has some white flower although still with leaf. I have never noticed this tree in flower before and it is not that dramatic but, for November, who cares!

Acer davidii ‘Karmen’ is still mainly green but the odd leaf has good colours. A vigorous grower but the snake bark is best in younger plants. These look better at the Savill Garden where they grow more slowly. This tree was one of several grafted at Lees & Co near Portsmouth by an ex Hillier’s propagator.

2002 – FJW
Nov Pink well out and good flowers on Delavayi – wet November.

1988 – FJW
3 flowers on Nov Pink and 4 flowers on wall Mag delavayi – dry autumn.

1962 – FJW
Still very late.

1958 – FJW
Very late year. Picked one near open bud of November Pink, 2 flowers C oleifera and 1 flower Rho thomsonii. Have picked quite a lot of seed on Japonicas and 2 days ago picked seed of C reticulata. No magnolia seed this year – but 3 seeds of cleistocarpa – 1 of these fertile – and a lot on evergreen oak near Auklandii Garden below Falconeri.

1919 – JCW
Pond frozen for five days. The hardest autumn week we have seen for many years. The hydrangeas remain good.

1913 – JCW
Several coums open. Roses good. C sasanqua at Beech Walk in flower. One double white camellia open. Cynoglossum holds on. Lapagerias nice, several heaths. Clematis cirrhosa very good. Hammamelis nice. Iris stylosa open.

1910 – JCW
C sasanqua nice. E hybrida starting to open. Just a coum or two.

1908 – JCW
Iris stylosa good, C sasanqua fair. P megasoefolia late hardly a flower. Cassia good. Heaths have just begun. No coum yet. C neopolitanum nearly out of flowers, a lot of leaf on yet. Dahlias hardly touched.

1902 – JCW
Iris stylosa open, one flower. C sasanqua on the wall at its best. Primula megasoefolia good.

1897 – JCW
F Wilson shows, also Cyclamineus, Horsfieldii, and Nelsoni major, also M Hume and No 100 of 85.