18th September | The Garden Diary

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CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2023 – CHW

Back at Burncoose again to hopefully finalise the 5 year Woodland Management Grant.

In the till area some startling Amaryllis belladonna or so they are labelled? Could they in fact be Nerine?

Different coloured berries on Pyracantha starting to colour up.

Cotinus ‘Grace’ turning colour nicely but not yet at its best.

We grow many different Corokias and Coprosmas very well but they simply do not sell by mail order or to nursery visitors.

Aralia elata ‘Variegata’ now with ripe black berries.

Caryopteris x clandonensis ‘Heavenly Blue’ superb at this time of the year.

Callistemon ‘Red Cluster’ with secondary flowers.

Our new pictorial labelling in the nursery is getting better and better. 700 more new colour labels this week and a clever plastic holder with a wooden back which is safe for the public and not easily damaged by our own staff in vehicles.

2022 – CHW
To Burncoose and surprising numbers of camellias out in flower already in the tunnels on this very early (post drought) autumn.Camellia ‘Snow Flurry’ on show beside the till.

A tremendous show from the last of the Penstemons.

Our 30 year old borehole had partially silted up and we have finally had to drill a new one beside the old. Previously the borehole was 60 metres deep nut now we are down to 80 metres. Plenty of water at 30m too.

This is what comes out of the ground from 80m down into the granite bedrock.

The camellia tunnel looks healthy, nicely pruned of secondary growth, and covered in buds.

Camellia sasanqua ‘Hugh Evans’

Camellia ‘Kick Off’ in bud.

Camellia x williamsii ‘November Pink’ partially burnt in the heat.

Camellia x williamsii ‘St Michael’.

Camellia ‘Takanini’ is usually one of the very first japonicas to perform outside by Christmas. A good colour in September!

Camellia ‘Winter’s Interlude’ (c. oleifera hybrid)

One would expect Camellia sinensis also to be out in the garden quite soon now.

Excellent young and rare rhododendrons from our own propagation. Soon lots of new varieties for our catalogue.

29 pallets of trees delivered yesterday to finally restock out much depleted tree lines which have been fairly empty since last autumn when most sold immediately in the immediate post lockdown rush to plant.

The amazing and unusually early autumn colours on the leaves of Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Arnold Promise’. You can see the flower buds amid the brown, yellow and red tints on the edges of the still green leaves.

2021 – CHW
Fruits and berries in the frames beside the greenhouses.Crataegus dahurica will be new in the 2022 Burncoose catalogue. Conventional hawthorn berries.

Crataegus horrida with far from horrid berries or fruits.

Crataegus crassicarpa with autumn tints and berries.

Cotoneaster hillieri is another addition to the cotoneaster species collection. Here performing well for the first time.

Camellia brevistyla out in flower already in the greenhouse.

Desmodium elegans with numerous pea-like seedpods.

Buddleia caulescens in flower here for the first time.

2020 – CHW
The trash around the top pond has been cut. What a silted up mess of trees it was before we cleared it out three years ago. Our dragonfly survey in 2011 found 12 species but not all were then identified as actually breeding. This clearance may well help them and other pond life. I suspect the new ELMs grant scheme in 2024 may need a new dragonfly survey.

Frankie is now on the dykes under Old Park. Just a skim off of the surface grass coverings really to assist the water meadow flooding/drainage system and stop cattle or large Americans trying to walk on water.

Stupidly I have somehow missed several of our new collection of Hedychiums flowering for the first time but Cautleya spicata ‘Robusta’ has a bit of a flower left. Leslie Baker gave us seeds yesterday of his yellow flowered Hedychium which I hope to view in flower next week. Hedychium gardnerianum I expect.

A late and out of season flower on Vallea stipularis in the frames which is new to me.

Exciting new first flowers on Schefflera enneaphylla (HWJ 844). A huge flower head and seeds forming quickly on older flower heads while others are still full out. A vigorous species I think!

2019 – CHW
A trip to Hook Norton to view the newly acquired pub in the town of Benson and then to the brewery for the Hooky Awards with 38 publicans and their wives present. The Carpinus betulus in the brewery car park was looking particularly fine with the seed heads showing a hint of pink.

Hook Norton village has always had wonderful gardens. Here a fine display of Japanese anemones.

The Hook Norton dray horses attended the party and were rewarded with pints of beer which they consumed very quickly indeed.

2018 – CHW
Stewartia rostrata already showing autumn colours at its extremities but remaining green elsewhere. This really is a remarkable tree and the seed pods are nearly ripe too. I hope more people will grow this in full sun and enjoy it through the seasons as much as we do.

Camellia oleifera with buds nearly showing colour. With one downpour I think it would be out in September and around a month early after the drought.

I have been trying to locate our plant of Diospyros kaki for some weeks and here it is in Kennel Close doing rather well for a 2013 planting. It is rather different in leaf to the three other Diospyros species in the Isla Rose Plantation. I must keep an eye out for the much vaunted autumn colour.

2017 – CHW
The sunshine encourages a trip to the Georges Hut area to see what is new here.Hoheria sextylosa ‘Pendula’ is full out from top to bottom. None of the other hoheria varieties (including Hoheria angustifolia) have any flower at all. Hoheria sextylosa is late this year.

The leaf has dropped on Acer pseudoplatanus ‘Leopoldii’ to reveal (as for many years) cascades of lichen. A sign of clean air or a sign of an old tree past its prime? Probably both!

Aralia vietnamensis still in full new growth and 15ft high after five years. Leaves even bigger than Schefflera macrophylla. The indumentum on the new growth is similar though. Nasty spines remain on the stem of what now must be called a tree.

Cladastris kentuckea is showing its first yellow autumn colour. Always early and always one of the best displays.

2016 – CHW
The new clump of Hydrangea paniculata ‘Vanille Fraise’ by the fernery and in the shade have grown well and flower late in the season. The ‘ice cream’ colours are only just starting to show on some lower flower heads.

The old oak tree which fell a week ago at 4am with no wind has now been cut up. The main trunk is destined for Jaimie’s wood-burner.

Sorbus ‘Pearly King’ (from Trevor Green) planted in 1997 is full of fruit. Sorbus ‘Golden Wonder’ behind it has none. Sorbus do not generally fruit well in our wet conditions but Pearly King does well. Two others on the drive.

A small number of raspberries are just forming on Rubus lineatus together with yet more attractive new growth. Must remember to look in a month.

The top grafted Crateagus grignoniensis has been photographed before in this diary but seldom fruiting as well as this! The pheasants are, as yet, uninterested.

Heptacodium miconoides has grown well in a year and is flowering attractively. A wonderful border shrub with crinum or crocosmia.

Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Phantom’ is still out above Red Linney and very late for a Hydrangea quercifolia. All the others are long over. This one a single survivor of three or five planted and clearly has a rather dwarf habit.

2015 – CHW

Magnolia ‘March till Frost’ is one of two in the garden living up to its name. These flowers seem larger than those in the spring and are, as expected, darker in colour. The slugs have hugely enjoyed the tepals in the recent wet weather but this second flowering is far better and more prominent than on the much vaunted Magnolia ‘Star Wars’ autumn showing.

Nearby is the wonderful Cornus kousa ‘Satomi’, easily the best cornus in flower here amongst the many photographed in July. There are a few orange strawberries showing up but not that many.

1971 – FJW
The Duke of Cornwall came to stay. Arrived at 3.31pm.