Now a puzzle! This is Cladrastis sinensis which is listed in Hilliers but the IDS website reports a recent name change to Cladrastis delavayi. This is the Chinese species which is said to be a far more reliable flowerer in the UK than Cladrastis kentukea. A record tree used to (and may still) exist at Cotehele in Cornwall. Looking at the pictures on the IDS website I would say this plant is correctly named even if the leaves look very like Pterocarya on first sight.

Crataegus aprica berries just ripening.

Quercus liabmanii (Tom Hudson gift) suffered in the drought but is recovering.

Crataegus ashei with now ripe fruits.

Good autumn colour on Euonymus monbeigii.

Crataegus heldreichii also ripe.

Crataegus pontica fruits have developed into something interesting.

Suddenly a batch of exceptionally coloured secondary flowers on Magnolia liliiflora ‘Nigra’.

2021 – CHW

From the Werrington archives appears a May 1885 plan of the Caerhays cellar and an inventory of what was in it then.

Before getting excited about undrunk bottles which might remain it has to be remembered that my two great aunts, who were teetotalers, had the entire contents poured away down the cellar drains (clearly marked on the plan) early on in WWII prior to the arrival of the East End evacuees to Caerhays. It is said that the fumes may have got the great aunts pissed for the first time in their lives. George Blandford remembers a horse and cart taking the empty bottles to dump them in a small quarry along the path to East Portholland.

2020 – CHW
A bit of research into Vernicia fordii which Asia has grown from seed. It is not listed in Hillier’s or New Trees. V. fordii is the Tung tree from S. China, Vietnam and Burma. A small deciduous tree growing to 20ft with inflorescences of male and female flowers in terminal clusters before the leaves appear. Woody pear shaped berries containing oily seeds from which is derived Tung oil.
Marco Polo wrote in the 13th century ‘The Chinese take some lime and chopped hemp, and these they knead together with a certain wood oil; and when the three are thoroughly amalgamated they hold like any glue, and with this mixture they paint their ships’.
Vernicia fordii is now listed as an invasive species which has escaped from its native habitats and is replacing native vegetation. I really do not see that being relevant in the UK although it is listed as ‘present’ in the UK in the Invasive Species Compendium. I suspect this is a fairly tender tree which we will need to plant in a very sheltered location.This may well be spindle shank (Collybia fusipes) on a fallen oak trunk on the drive.

2019 – CHW

A couple of half days with Asia looking for rare seeding trees. The first in driving rain and the second, today, ending in thunder and a hailstorm. Nevertheless we found many things seeding for the first time as you will see here. Our prime target was rhododendron species but most were a month or so off being ripe. It made sense to list and record our targets to preserve and grow those elderly species which will die out in 10 or so years from old age. It has been a good seeding year for rhododendrons after a dry summer encouraged them to procreate.Our target list included:
Mrs Butler (griffithianum x arboreum hybrids)
weyrichii
lindleyi
nuttallii
grande
hanseanum
arizelum
niveum
kuisianum
sanguineam
pseudochrysanthum
suoilenhense
crassum
macabeanum
sinogrande
megacalyx
neriiflorum
yunnanense
decorum (pink and white)We didn’t get to look at but Asia will now have in hand to gather:
tethropeplum (Hothead)
burmanicum (Rockery)
zaleucum
schlippenbachii
fargesii
albrechtii
dichroanthum
bureavii
concatenans
stamineum
stenaulum
discolor
aberconwayi
morii
racemosum
arboreum (three colours)
delavayi
falconeri
cubitii
praestansWe drew a blank with no seed pods on the following:
thompsonii
nobleanum
mucronulatum
scabrifolium (Rockery)
fortunei
spinuliferum
vaseyi
dendrocharis (dead)
reticulatum
barbatum (old clump half dead)It will take some time to gently dry off what we gathered.Photinia beauverdiana var. notabilis with its massive clusters of now ripening orange-red fruits. A very impressive tree with weeping laden branches. This is the second year we have gathered some.

The first two seed pods from the first ever flowering of Rehderodendron indochinense. These remain a pale green but fell off into my hand when touched so are clearly ripe. Rehderodendron macrocarpum seeds turn pink when ripe.

The odd secondary flower on a young Rhododendron crassum. Unusual!

Ilex latifolia laden with seeds above the greenhouse. Well worth growing a few.

Ilex x altaclerensis ‘Camelliifolia’ in a similar condition not far away.

The Cornwall champion Acer caesium subsp. giraldii has been given more light and has responded with a large crop of viable seed which we have never noticed or got around to collecting before.

A day or two ago we had chapter and verse from Susyn Andrews about the identity of this Symplocos which we used to call Symplocos glomerata (it is all in this diary). This prompted us to see if it was actually seeding. Asia collected seed from Symplocos dryophila in the late summer but we found the small tree of Symplocos aff. sumuntia laden with upright green seed heads and one or two clumps of seed which were juicy and had turned black. Asia is standing alongside the tree. Once black the seeds were dropping and I guess that we must just have missed them in the past.

A large but as yet unripe seed head on Syringa emodii ‘Aureovariegata’. This is an expensive grafted plant in the nursery and therefore well worth growing. There are no other lilacs anywhere near so the seed should come true with variegated leaves as here.

Loads of ripe seed on Meliosma dilleniifolia subsp. cuneifolia which I have never actually seen juicy and ripe before now. The tree was laden with fruit.

I am afraid I have no idea what this tree is just above Charlie Michaels Nursery. I have guessed it as a Juglans species but these are not obvious walnuts. Single seed pods stand erect from the leading twigs here and there but I have never noticed a flower. I must ask Tom Hudson if he can enlighten us or indeed any other diary reader??

Garlic showing already in Pound Corner. A bulb on the ground is sprouting.

A successful gathering which I could have shown you more of but for the terrible weather.

2018 – CHW
A second and rather different old white Camellia sasanqua is now just out. Different foliage, habit and flower shape.

The final and darker pink sasanqua is also full out. All five are different and the light pink one is very nearly over but you can, today, compare them all at once. Some years the early ones are over before the last ones start. Wasps galore on the nectar as you can see.

A young blackbird digging through the newly laid mulch in the border opposite the Camellia sasanquas.

2017 – CHW
A few other oddments on Burns Bank which I had totally forgotten.

Pentapanax verticillatus was planted 10 years ago and may well have a new name now? It has grown very slowly but appears to be fine. These ‘something’ panax are going to take quite some sorting out or remembering: pseudopanax, tetrapanax, dendropanax, oreopanax etc.

Parrotia subaequalis has attractive blackish autumn colour but still also with bright green secondary new growth. This is the third time we have planted this relatively new introduction and the only success.

Camptotheca acuminata – the Chinese Happy Tree or Cancer Tree is doing well although it has clearly suffered and had a dieback in earlier winters. Tom Hudson says his plants ‘fizzled out’ before they developed a more mature trunk. This is a very new tree in New Trees which I had no idea we had obtained or been given. Attractive new growth and used in cancer treatment apparently. One to take to The Garden Society dinner next autumn. Quite a bit of reading up to do about this new genus. Rather an exciting find! Planted in 2007 and now 10-12ft tall.