30th July | The Garden Diary

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CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2024 – CHW

Very heavy rain here last Saturday while still in the Isle of Wight. All good news! First flowers on Gaultheria wardii (KR 11274) which was brough at the 2022 Tregrehan Plant Fair and planted near Rookery Path.

Cephalotaxus fortunei with ripening fruit which we have grown successfully in previous years. We only have one female small tree which was planted in 2009 along with 3 or 4 males.

I was only looking at a big tree in full flower at Ventnor last week and here is our own Myoporum laetum with a few flowers. What looks a shy flowerer in its youth should become much more prolific.

The flowers on Vaccinium dunalianum v. megaphyllum have fully opened now. We saw the buds about a fortnight ago. Still a reddish tinge to the flowers but this has faded.

Steve Dance took this photograph of Aloysia citrodora flowering at Trelissick. Neither of us have ever this shrub performing as well. Two dry summers do have their advantages here and there in the plant world.

Hydrangea paniculata ‘Early Sensation’ and Hydrangea sargentiana.

Hydrangea paniculata ‘Polar Bear’ and Hydrangea sargentiana.

Rhododendron ‘Polar Bear’ below Slip Rail enjoying the very wet summer.

Rhododendron ‘Polar Bear’ beside George’s Hut.

Hydrangea sargentiana ‘Gold Rush’ perfectly in flower.

2023 – CHW
An inspection of the Hoheria species and varieties today. Hoheria sexstylosa ‘Pendula’ and Hoheria populnea flower here in September but forms of H. sexstylosa are out already. Made a decent video for the Burncoose website.Hoheria sexstylosa ‘Stardust’ – upright habit and very floriferous.

Hoheria sexstylosa ‘Crataegifolia’ – not yet out.

Hoheria ‘Glory of Amlwch’ (H. glabrata x H. sexstylosa)

Hoheria ‘Borde Hill’ (H. angustifolia x H. sexstylosa) – just as good as ‘Stardust’ or even better?

Hoheria angustifolia – the smallest flower of any of the 5 species of Hoheria but the volume of flowers on this 30 year old tree is prodigious.

2022 – CHW

Visited a garden near Sidbury today with a view to putting together a planting plan for a newly cleared woodland garden area.

A superb Berberidopsis corallina trained on a back wall of the house.

Phlox and early flowering dahlias.

White Wisteria still in flower. I think Wisteria brachybotrys ‘Shiro-Kapitan’ but may be wrong? A hint of pink in the flowers and the leaves hairy.

Alchemilla mollis and Erysimum ‘Apricot Twist’.

A fine display of Carex oshimensis ‘Evergold’.

An early seed head on Arum italicum in a bed of ivy.

2021 – CHW
The siege of the film crew making part of yet another film from one of Rosamunde Pilcher’s books for the German TV market is thankfully now over. During the week they have filmed a burial at the church, turned the tearooms into a prison and done heaven knows what in the library and drawing room. I guess about 100 people at times including the crowd extras for the funeral and the stewards/caterers etc. The church will get a decent income in a year when fundraising has been impossible until recently but the stipend still supposedly has to be paid (about £80 per head for each of 75 parishioners). The excellent part time vicar’s contract may be up shortly or so we all fear. The diocese and bishop demand the money for their ever expanding bureaucracy while the parishes still have to pay in a lockdown year.A few interesting things in the nursery today as we prepare for tonight’s gales.I do not know that I have ever seen a flower on Mitchella repens before but I have seen its ‘Partridge Berries’.

Viburnum cylindricum just coming into flower. Similar to Viburnum odoratissimum and Viburnum cinnamomifolium in leaf and flower?

Our next crop of Musa basjoo looking particularly healthy.

Stachyurus praecox ‘Devon Purple’ really is striking.

A few flowers on a batch of young Chitalpa tashkentensis ‘Pink Dawn’.

Fruits already on Aronia melanocarpa ‘Autumn Magic’. Nearly, but not quite, edible.

As fine a show of flower on Hosta fortunei ‘Aureomarginata’ as I can remember on any Hosta group.

At the nursery entrance Escallonia ‘Iveyi’ and Buddleia ‘Black Knight’ looking good together.

2020 – CHW
An old clump of Hydrangea ‘Blue Wave’ on the drive.

The Hydrangea paniculata ‘Grandiflora’ are now a huge clump above the drive.

The clump of Hydrangea paniculata ‘Kyushu’ is not as large growing.

Hydrangea ‘Quadricolor’ always gets a bit wind scorched in an exposed position but it is flowering very well this year. You readily can see the four separate colours in some leaves (but not others). It is more striking than Hydrangea ‘Tricolor’ but a weaker plant.

One branch in ‘Quadricolor’ has reverted to having just pure yellow leaves.

Hydrangea paniculata ‘Pink Diamond’ by Hovel Turning is just out. No pink visible yet.

Hydrangea paniculata ‘Tardiva’ up Hovel Cart Road in shade looks fairly nondescript by comparison but would be much better with bigger flowers in full sun.

Hydrangea paniculata ‘Vanille Fraise’ is still pure white with no pink tints visible yet by the Fernery.

Still a few more H. paniculata varieties to catch up on around and about (‘Phantom’, ‘White Lady’, ‘Limelight’). It would be a good idea to plant more clumps of the newer paniculata varieties on the drive (‘Skyfall’, ‘Early Sensation’, ‘Little Lime’, ‘Wims Red’).

2019 – CHW
A young Taxus baccata ‘Aurea’ with particularly fine new growth in the shade on Sinogrande Walk. Quite a bit of tidying up to do along here this winter to tree conifers encroaching laurels and a large set of regrowth from an old oak stump getting in the way.

Rubus phoenicolasius with nearly ripe fruit which the pheasant poults will soon find and eat.

The dwarf growing and, here, top grafted Taxodium distichum ‘Hursley Park’ with attractive new growth.

Taxodium distichum var. imbricatum ‘Nutans’ is romping away. It was named on planting as Taxodium ascendens but has now been renamed. The branches are spreading and drooping but the new growth shoots are mainly ascendant. Quite some autumn colour to come here. This tree grows in a damp spot where a small spring rises in heavy rainfall. Jaimie says that it had its leader blown out but I do not think that this was the case. It will become a tree eventually but this is simply how it grows initially.

2018 – CHW
A trip to Manley Cottage in Cheshire (to see Lizzie’s mum who is 94) at the weekend as the drought ends but not soon enough to see the end results there:

Wisteria setting runner bean-like seeds. I do not think I have ever seen this in Cornwall, very seldom elsewhere and never in such profusion.

Cotoneaster horizontalis dying for lack of water. A most resilient plant normally.

Mahonia aquifolium with an enormous crop of blue-black seeds with a silvery sheen. Again the plant is demonstrating its desire to survive the drought by procreation.

Then a sad progress of dead rhododendrons. This is even Rhododendron ponticum dying in the drought.

Far worse casualties of nice species here and all were fine plants growing in semi shade on a hillside.

Rhododendron cilpinense was however a survivor to finally cheer us up.

2017 – CHW
Jaimie has sent me pictures of the new machine’s performance in cutting Old Park. It all looks very tidy and well ahead of our normal schedule which is great. The gunnera bed is at its zenith too.

A huge wasps’ nest in a bank dug out by a badger who was clearly repulsed in the attempt!

2016 – CHW
A shambolic 1960s style farm shop right beside a tourist trap called ‘Oasis’ selling tourist ‘tat’. The shop is run by an elderly couple with no till and a lack of hygiene regulations which would drive the EU and supermarkets absolutely mad. Self-butchered boar and delicious scotch eggs, crab in punnets with a ‘sell by’ label handwritten and stuck on as you buy. An absolutely perfect food hut pictured here with free range livestock. This is what smallholder farming used to be!

A few more novelties to consider as we buy a few plants for the Backstay garden.Lobelia ‘Fan Salmon’ is a pleasant pink with dark brown leaves like the popular Lobelia ‘Queen Victoria’.

Rudbeckia ‘Tiger Eye Gold’ is a lowish growing good yellow but not quite Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’ so probably not worth stocking. On offer at £4.95!

Cestrum elegans is a Mexican species which we do not stock. Pinkish-purple or pinkish-red flowers and not that different to Cestrum ‘Newellii’ which has bright crimson flowers and is probably a hybrid of Cestrum elegans. The foliage is different though.

Rudbeckia ‘Prairie Glow’ is probably sufficiently different and bicolor to make it a useful addition to the catalogue if we can locate a grower.

A new one to me entirely was Lysimachia ‘Clethroides’ although you can see how it justifies its name. I do not remember ever seeing a white lysimachia and we even bought one (£8.00).

Now on to the happy task of selecting the Caerhays order of rare plants from Crug Farm for delivery in February 2017.

2015 – CHW

Mark Bulk’s (Boskoop, Holland) availability list (for once with prices) arrives to peruse. Quite a few odd, rare and new things to purchase for the new 2016 Burncoose catalogue based on new ‘stuff’ growing well here already. Strangely JCW did often use the word ‘stuff’ to describe his plants. A rare aberration from the then protocol.

Chordospartium stevensonii (coastal plant seen at Ventnor)Carriera calycina (original plant here from Penrice Castle)

Cornus kousa ‘Xanthocarpa’ (yellow fruits – very rare)

Deutzia pulchra (wild collected and given to us originally by Roy Lancaster)

Forsythia mandschurica (no idea but dwarf?)

Hydrangea serratifolia (as at Tregothnan – climber)

Polyspora axillaris (see early February for pictures)

Torreya nuncifera (endangered in the wild)

I end up ordering lots for Caerhays and Burncoose gardens and will leave Clare to do the serious catalogue stuff. Quite fun spending a little (£5,000) of the Burncoose spring profits! Easy to get carried away by my personal preferences and then a bollocking no doubt from Andrew, the nursery manager, for increasing our stock too much.Then on to photograph oaks planted in Penvergate (Forty Acres Wood) and Giddle Orchard (Old Park Wood) since 1997. Time is so limited apart from July and August to actually look at what has been as prolific and extensive a planting programme as the garden as ever seen since 1910 to 1930. Many failures and losses. The further you go from Castle Wood the less maintenance and care has been undertaken and the greater the losses. Still we did find a few successes for the next 50 plus years to enjoy!

In March 1997 Quercus variabilis was planted in Giddle Orchard. Although the leaves do not quite match the picture in the Chevithorne oak book the trunk certainly does. A 15 to 20ft tree in 18 years and doing well. We clearly now have two or three of these dotted about.

Of the other six Mexican oaks planted in Giddle Orchard in March 1999 I can find no obvious trace. Uxoris, lancefolia, acutifolia and candicans. We just also lost a Quercus candicans above the veitchiis but this had blown over. Unless I am being dim a total wipeout but trees did come down here and plenty of space to try again.

Moving on to Penvergate we planted Quercus castaneifolia and Quercus coccifera. The former has done well although it is a bit like Quercus x pseudoturneri. Planted in 1998 and a good 20 feet today.

Quercus coccifera, the Kermes Oak, is really a bushy shrub and has done very well in Penvergate just below the pheasant pen at the far end. Probably badly sited.

Of the four other oaks planted in Penvergate in 2000 only two remain. A very poor and stunted Quercus acutifolia which is only 4ft tall and has much salt spray dieback. Secondly, what I think is Quercus castanena x sapadifolia growing reasonably beside Acer sterculiaceum which is doing well. Of Quercus affinis and Quercus rugosa there is no sign. Major casualties because of minimal care and maintenance on the periphery of the garden.

One cannot help admiring Betual albosinensis ‘Bowling Green’ from Werrington via Wilson in 1901. Amazing bark and just as I remember it. Planted 15 years ago. Nice to see several crabiodendron doing well here too.

On the way back down the drive we spot Quercus x bushii with its extraordinary leaf form. Planted in 1997/8. A hybrid of Quercus marylandica and Quercus velutina. Our Quercus marylandica above Higher Quarry Nursery now looks sickly with major dieback.

1989 – FJW
A little rain is falling. We need a great deal – last proper rain June 3rd.

1965 – FJW
First Young Farmers Rally. Lost 1 pair of trousers and a parrot. A wet year – hay difficult – new growth on plants very marked.

1929 – JCW
Hybrids of Ungernii, Decorum and Discolor x Auriculatum are very good, Rosa Brunonis and American Pillar are very and so is the Romneya. One or two Eriogynum have flowers now. Mag delavayi a lot of flowers.

1917 – JCW
Buddleias are good now there is very little else. The Gros au Felicity rose has been very good since May, but wants food.

1916 – JCW
Much as above. Plagianthus begins to go yellow in the leaf, flowers good yet.

1910 – JCW
The buddleias are just starting. Mitraria are good. Ferns by the mitrarias good. Honeysuckles good, not much else, an odd lapageria and so cyclamen.