18th March | The Garden Diary

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CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2024 – CHW

Lots of new plants in flower today at Burncoose which we have not stocked before.

Prunus nipponica var. kurilensis ‘Brilliant’ looking excellent in the nursery.

Mahonia x wagneri ‘Fireflame’ is new to the catalogue this year.

Pieris japonica ‘Bonfire’ just has a slight hint of pink in its buds but I assume the name refers to the very red new growth.

Grevillea ‘Fireworks’ – new and impressive. I have not seen this in flower before.

Cornus officinalis in flower in a pot which is unusual.

Acanthus mollis ‘Rue Ledan’ looks a dwarfer grower.

Clematis macropetala ‘Wesselton’ is an attractive blue.

Not quite out yet but an interesting colour is Clematis macropetala ‘Purple Spider’.

Magnolia ‘Pink Pyramid’ – first flowering in the nursery.

Magnolia ‘Purple Globe’.

Magnolia denudata ‘Purpurascens’.

Hydrangea obtusifolia (also known as Decumaria sinensis) in full flower with a rather odd and unpleasant scent.

Camellia cuttings callous up in peat free compost on the mist bench but most of the cuttings have failed or are dying as you can see here. Further proof that peat free and camellias is a non-starter!

A peat based compost ensures good rooting! Many thousands here.

Magnolia ‘Venus’ showing the mottling on the inside of the tepals which is so impressive.

Eucalyptus gunnii ‘Azura’ was new to the catalogue last year.

Eucalyptus pulverulenta ‘Baby Blue’.

Still berries on Ilex aquifolium ‘Argentea Marginata’ which is unusual for mid-March.

Lonicera kamtschatica in full flower and dripping in rain.

2023 – CHW
Unfortunately I was in bed with a lurgy but Jaimie and the team won 4 separate trophies at the Rosemoor Camellia Show over the weekend. We cut earlier in the week anticipating the wet and windy weather at the end of the week.Spring ornamental plants competitionAny three trees or shrubs of different genera in bloom
Acacia longifolia, Stachyurus lancifolia & Corylopsis spicata – 2nd

A tree or shrub in bloom
Prunus campanulatus ‘Felix Jury’ – 1st

Oemleria cerassiformis – 2nd

Any evergreen shrub
Araucaria angustifolia – 1st and the Alun Edwards memorial cup for best exhibit

Early Rhododendron competition

Any three species one truss of each
R. grande, arboreum & macabeanum – 2nd
Any species one truss
R. arboreum – 2nd

Any species one spray
R. moulmainense – 1st
R. arboreum – 2nd

Any species of falconera or grandia one truss
R. macabeanum – 2nd

Any species of triflora one spray
R. siderophyllum

Any hybrid one truss
R. Unknown – 2nd

Any tender species or hybrid one spray
R. ‘Maisie’ – 1st

Early Magnolia competition

Three different species, hybrids or cultivars in three vases
M. ‘Caerhays Belle’, M. ‘Philip Tregunna’ & M. ‘Lanarth’ (Seedling) – 1st and The Lamellen Cup for best exhibit

One species, hybrid or cultivar one vase
M. ‘Philip Tregunna’ – 1st
M. campbellii ‘Alba’ (Seedling) – 2nd

M. ‘Fairy White’

Single bloom any species, hybrid or cultivar
M. ‘Felix Jury’ – 1st and the Brother Vincent cup for best single bloom

M. ‘Valentines Torch’Three different Blooms
M. ‘Lanarth (New Zealand form), ‘Bishop peter’ & ‘Felix Jury’ – 1st

M. ‘Valentines Torch’, ‘Wakehurst’ & ‘Darjeeling’Single spray of Kobus, stellate or x loebneri species or hybrid
M ‘Wildcat’ – 1stCamellia competition
An arrangement of Camellias shown for effect – 1st

Any anemone or peony cultivar of Japonica one bloom
C. ‘Mark Allen’ – 3rd

Any three Reticulata species or hybrids one bloom of each
C. ‘William Hertrich’, ‘Lila Naff’ & ‘Royalty’ – 1st

Any Miniature one bloom
C. Lipstick – 1st

Any Reticulata species or hybrid one bloom
C. ‘Royalty’ – 1st & The Rosemoor award for best exhibit in Camellia classes

Three blooms of the same cultivar
C. ‘Dona Herzilia de Freitas Margalhaes’ – Highly Commended

Royal Horticultural First Class Certificates (FCC) were awarded to Magnolia ‘F.J. Williams’ and Camellia x williamsii ‘Caerhays’.

Our other entries of camellias and Rhododendron ‘Maisie’ (AM) for awards did not receive any further commendation.

Our other entries & R. 'Maisie' — Our other entries & R. ‘Maisie’

2022 – CHW

Camellia japonica ‘Kerguelen’ with its variegated foliage looking better than usual after winter. Only small flowers.

Camellia reticulata ‘Miss Tulare’ with even more enormous flowers than usual.

The yellow flowered Michelia floribunda (as we call it) out high up at about 60ft.

Camellia ‘Gay Baby’ just out.

Magnolia ‘Joe McDaniel’ flowering as well as I have ever seen it above the Crinodendron Hedge.

The unnamed deciduous azalea on the drive which is always out in February to March. Also one at Burncoose. No one has ever been able to name this.

Magnolia ‘Apollo’ out already. Normally April and one of the last New Zealand bred magnolias to flower.

Magnolia ‘Margaret Helen’ just coming out on the drive. The one on Hovel Cart Road is already nearly over.

First leaves showing on a sycamore by the drive fernery that I have seen this year.

2021 – CHW
Everything is rushing on in the warmth and sun. A day makes a huge difference as to what has popped open and if you do not explore daily you will miss many good things.Two 30-year-old plants of what I think are very probably Rhododendron monstroseanum. One is much darker than the other but, as you can see, the flowers fade.

A 20-25ft tall and upright growing Camellia reticulata ‘Buddha’ with blue sky behind it.

A very dark and much pinker form of Rhododendron ‘Crossbill’. Very good and worth propagating just above the Umbellularia californica and lying on its side as a plant (Asia to note please for propagation).

Got the light right to photograph Magnolia ‘Bishop Michael’ together with Magnolia campbellii alba in Rogers Quarry. Normally the bishop is over before alba is showing.

Magnolia ‘Hawk’ out on Burns Bank. Quite similar to Magnolia sprengeri diva really.

The best magnolia by far today is the just open Magnolia ‘Felix Jury’ on Burns Bank. We have two other plants, but this is the most sheltered.

Acacia cultriformis is now nearly full out.

Magnolias behind the castle today!

Camellia ‘Emperor of Russia’ with odd white flecking in some flowers. A very old variety but none the worse for that and late flowering.

Placing out the large rhododendrons from Rookery Nursery into their final planting positions. The huge root balls are carried by two people in an old sheet to avoid damaging the root balls. A job you can only do when the ground is fairly dry, and we normally do not find time to do this job until April. COVID has meant that these plants are in the ground a month earlier with more chance of rooting out quickly in case we get a dry time in May or June.

A Magnolia sargentiana ‘Blood Moon’ with a single flower. Nice enough but not as good or different as some argue.

Camellia reticulata ‘Debut’, a new one to us.

Camellia ‘Sweet Jane’ is really rather splendid. Another new variety from Stervinou.

2020 – CHW
Another cry off from the forthcoming gardening weekend by Maurice Foster who sends me three pictures from his garden in Kent. Magnolia sargentiana robusta (Caerhays Dark Form), Magnolia ‘Philip Tregunna’ and Magnolia campbellii ‘Trelissick Alba’.

Magnolia sargentiana robusta (Caerhays Dark Form),

Off to Old Park with the cancellation of yet another large garden tour from Hortus. We have planted at least 200 named magnolias in this wood since clearing it some eight years ago.

Magnolia ‘Theodora’ just coming out. This is one of Maurice Foster’s hybrids – Magnolia ‘Dark Shadow’ x Magnolia campbellii subsp. mollicomata. There is white on the inside of the tepals when open.

Magnolia ‘Felicity’ on ‘Eric Savill’ looks poor, dull and uninteresting. M. ‘Felicity’ is Magnolia sprengeri ‘Diva’ x Magnolia ‘Wada’s Picture’ and ‘Eric Savill’ is the Savill Garden form of M. sprengeri. ‘Felicity’ and ‘Eric Savill’ look good magnolias but this mix is not!

Michelia ‘Fairy White’ continues to grow quickly and is producing a good show as before. ‘Fairy Cream’, which is beside it, is only half the size and nowhere near out yet.

Magnolia ‘Early Rose’ is a Magnolia campbellii x Magnolia liliiflora cross bred in New Zealand by Oz Blumhardt in 1970. It is well established and starting to put on a decent show. The name is not really that appropriate 50 years later.

Magnolia ‘Anticipation’ is a near pure white with slightly recurved flowers. Not that exciting but making a show despite hail damage. It is an American bred plant with the cross with Magnolia cylindrica being unknown. Not a lot of difference between ‘Angelica’ or ‘Pegasus’ really.

Magnolia ‘Livingstone’ is good. Oddly Jaimie bought a small grafted plant of this at Rosemoor on Saturday. Magnolia sprengeri ‘Diva’ x Magnolia ‘Vulcan’.

One of the two original and pure white Magnolia campbellii ‘Alba’ in Old Park looking splendid from a distance today.

Magnolia ‘Lotus’ is yet another ‘white’. Not as good as ‘David Clulow’ or ‘Manchu Fan’ I think. This is a New Zealander as well – Magnolia ‘Mark Jury’ x Magnolia x soulangeana ‘Lennei Alba’ – and the same parentage as several of these named ‘whites’.

First sycamore with full leaf this year.

Cutting back the Magnolia grandiflora below the lawn has taken the team less than two days. All chipped and blown back onto the roots as a rich mulch for the future.

2019 – CHW

Much excitement over the weekend. A huge sweet chestnut tree fell at the nursery entrance and it took two days to clear.

Meanwhile three cups at the Rosemoor Show and an RHS Award of Merit for Jaimie’s Rhododendron ‘Maisie’. Click here for more Rosemoor images.

Magnolia ‘Petite Chicon’ just showing colour in Old Park. We have another older plant which is actually white in flower. This is the correct thing and very vigorous indeed in its growth rates.

Camellia x williamsii ‘Laura Boscawen’ as a hedge in the estate office car park at Tregothnan. This was bred by David Trehane and is similar to ‘Debbie’ but rather darker.

Magnolia ‘Apollo’ looking very fine at Tregothnan.

Wonderful new growth on Eriobotrya deflexa.

‘Flowers’ which are merely separate clusters of anthers and stamens on Cercidophyllum japonicum.

2018 – CHW
More garden touring with Roy Lancaster (6 ½ hours over 2 days) as we try to keep ahead of the snow. Sunshine and 500+ people in the gardens until 1.00.An ancient Gaultheria – perhaps G hookeri is spotted by Roy. A Wilson introduction in 1907. Perhaps G. tetramera?

Cephalotaxus fortunei – a male form with copious flowers already exuding clouds of pollen.

A female plant of Cephalotaxus fortunei with just a few flowers (some open) at the tips of the twigs. So we have 3 young make plants in the Kennel Close and only one female.

A bay hedge (Laurus nobilis) blasted to bits in Kennel Close by the east wind.

Abies delavayi with sappy white new growth shoots.

Sorbus aff. ligustrifolium flowering for the first time with us. Roy has seen this in China. Pale yellowish flowers.

Photinia macrophylla with a few fruits still holding on the tree which should be evergreen but which has lost its leaves in the wind.

Roy with what I thought was a Gardenia. He says it’s a Photinia!

Photinia prionophylla (VK record tree) which might in fact be Photinia glomerata (the latter not often known in UK cultivation). Roy is adamant it’s the former and grows it at home.

Euonymus morrismernsis with new growth and white scales on its older leaves.

Rhododendron praestans just coming out.

Then the snow came down for 3 hours. Camellia ‘Lady Clare’ and Camellia ‘sodekashuki’ have flowers amid the snow! Roy is now happily stuck in the Wilson and Forrest archives making copious notes. The snow has some positive points.

2017 – CHW Magnolia breeding at Caerhays lecture and the table all set up for action. Then a tour with the 21 attendees.

Castanopsis concolor with its first chestnut like seedpods appearing on a young tree.

Magnolia ‘Lanarth Surprise’ sadly just over and on an overcast day.

Magnolia ‘Genie’ just out and particularly fine.

Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’ (again) as a contrast. ‘Genie’ wins again in my opinion.

Camellia ‘Alpen Light’ – first flowering after planting last year. Aptly named.

Rhododendron fargesii full out in the quarry.

Then off to Tregrehan.First sighting of Euptelia pleiosperma in flower. Amazing rare new introduction. Flowers a little like an Acer negundo. Our plants go out next week.

Illicium simonsii – one of many at Tregrehan with very different habits. This one especially good by the tennis court with the flowers standing proud rather than hidden by the leaves.

Sarcocca wallichii with fruit very late on.

Maesa ? in flower. Very rare with a leaf like ehrethia – very tender.

Polyspora established as a tree which ours are not yet.

Schefflera taiwanense – nice bark.

Arbutus xalapensis with extraordinary bark. Entirely new species to me.

Rhododendron barbatum – a true form as the barbs prove although the flower colour was varied.

Acer sikkimensis in flower just beside the melliodendron which was out at the top.

Rhododendron davidii – new to me and a delicious pale colour.

Camellia ‘Mrs D W Davis’ with huge undamaged flowers.

Our gardening weekend and the first of two tours here during the day. Present were:

Roger & Teresa Harvey
Rod & Mary White
Toby & Jennifer Greenbury
Mark & Justina McKeever
Susyn Andrews & Brian Schrire
Stephanie Harrod & Mike
Tom Hudson
Sir Richard & Mary Carew-Pole
Ludovic & Natalie de Montille
Humphrey & Miranda Ocean

Overcast but none of the forecast heavy rain. Magnolias probably a week past their absolute best except on the drive which is always later by seven to ten days.

Jaimie discovered a thrush’s nest with three eggs in laurel in the rookery last Friday.

The best new magnolia seen this year is Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’ x ‘J C Williams’. Superb as you can see on the Hovel Cart Road bank.

Meliosma beaniana just coming into flower.

An unknown symplocos species for Susyn Andrews to identify for us.

Rhododendron ‘Crossbill’ full out.

2016 – CHW
An escape for an hour after a long hour of missing website pictures with Karol.At the end of Bond Street are two good Betula albosinensis ‘Bowling Green’. This is a graft from the original at Werrington on the bowling green which also features on the front cover of the latest edition of Hillier’s. There is a third in Penvergate. I bought these from Thornhayes nursery 20 to 25 years ago and gave two to Mike for Werrington. The tree was a numbered Wilson introduction I believe (W4109-1910). Amazing bark.

A few magnolias stand out in Old Park viewed from the drive with ewes and lambs in White Styles field below.

Magnolia ‘Rouged Alabaster’ is quite nice close up in a cold place but flowering well and has missed the north winds last week. In my mind I thought it was Magnolia ‘Sayonara’ which is similar.

A rogue Rhododendron ponticum seedling is full out above the main fernery. Clearly one we and Defra missed a few years ago and one for the chop when we remember. Very early none the less – say eight to ten weeks!

This is labelled Pseudotaxus chenii but it looks more like a podocarpus to me and it is nothing like the three small plants of this name in the greenhouse? Perhaps it is a pseudotsuga?

I have not ever seen cones of Sciadopitys verticellata on the old plant at Burncoose but here, on Sinogrande Walk, we have a 2008 small tree doing exactly that in a hot, dry and exposed location. One from last year and more developing. At Burncoose the tree grows in full shade which it likes.

Liquidamber styraciflua ‘Oconee’ still has the odd leaf left. You can now see what an odd habit this tree has after last autumn’s explosion of colour in a ‘ball’.

Four newish camellias planted in 2008 on Sinogrande Walk which I had forgotten about but which are new to us and well worth propagating this summer:

Camellia ‘Annie Waylam’ is a good paeony form and better than many. No idea who she was.

Camellia ‘Midnight Magic’ is known and deservedly in the Burncoose catalogue. Slightly sparse flowerer here but a good dark red.

Camellia ‘Sundae’ has an odd trailing habit and fades off to pink but is sufficiently unusual to be worth growing. I thought it was Camellia ‘Bokukan’ from a distance but it is a much larger flower and a different colour.

It is too cold a spot for Camellia ‘Spring Festival’ which is suffering and there are no flowers on Camellia ‘William Bartlett’ which were also planted here at the same time.

2015 – CHW
One of the most magical hours this evening in the garden one could ever imagine with Magnolia campbellii just about to go over but catching the fading sun on its topmost flowers 80 feet up. Everything else absolutely spot on. Hopefully it will stay calm and mild until Serena’s wedding on Saturday. Cutting flowers tomorrow with magnolias aplenty.

Most of the rhododendrons from Higher Quarry Nursery (50 to 60) planted in Old Park today and looking good. The main planting of the wild collected species from Orchid House Nursery will have now to wait until after the wedding. Room for several hundred plants yet.

The Magnolia ‘Lanarth’ seedling near Rookery Gate is coming out and (as previously said) needs a name. Jaimie assures me he planted it and not Philip in 1995. Apparently Philip bollocked us both 20 years ago for planting it where the flowers would ‘always’ be blown away. The flowers are very much intact today but slightly smaller than Bishop Michael in the quarry and not quite as frilly (ie more erect) or quite as dark but it is still an exceptional plant by anyone’s estimation.

What clots we have all been not to wander further when on planting days.

perfect large rhododendron area — Area perfect for planting Rhododendrons.

There is a perfect large rhododendron planting area where we ripped out the laurel out above Mr Rogers Quarry. Good job Jaimie did not take quite everything from Higher Quarry Nursery to Old Park. Sort this tomorrow first thing.

Two male weirdos in the garden (first for the year) who claimed to have come all the way from Australia. Two chuck-outs after closing time after entering from not the proper entrances. Fired a few shots (at crows) plus a dozen dogs with ours and Jaimie’s in the garden may have seen them off by 6pm.

Three coaches due for two tours today but one of the three drivers in convoy refuses to turn in at Gorran High Lanes claiming our lanes are too narrow and takes the party shopping in Truro instead. New bus, idiot driver and imbecile passengers to put up with this but three incumbents get off and are rescued by Mary from the roadside and so come anyway. 21 do not. Four staff and house guide waste a good hour and a half over this bus driver pantomime so they (the very latecomers who did arrive) get a bloody quick lunch and tour. The perils of our narrow lanes despite spending at least £15k ourselves sorting Rescassa corner for much larger buses than those we had today. The driver of the bus who braved the lanes might have used the word ‘tosser’ about his colleague who would not but we absolutely cannot have any Jeremy Clarkson behaviour can we! It would have made my (lengthy and hectic) day to have met the shopping driver.

2001 – FJW
Early Magnolias at their best – wrecked by east wind 2 days back.

1979 – FJW
No Magnolias in flower. No leaf on Michelias or L pachyphylla. -75% leaf off Auklandii, Sinogrande, Gigantium.

1965 – FJW
Great frog activity in the moors.

1959 – FJW
Went to Lanarth with Tregunna. Mollicomata indescribable – the petals lose lustre as soon as they drop. Dombeyii and Davidii very fine plants.

1935 – JCW
Lutescens is fairly good. Reticulata fairly good flowers.

1929 – JCW
Lutescens is far the best thing we have. Neriiflorum, Thomsonii, Barbatum, Irroratum are all fairly good, but we lack flower buds. Daffodils are only just starting.

1926 – JCW
Staphylea holocarpa shows bud, 6-8 kinds of cherry. Reticulata fair. Lutescens opening. Calophytums wane. Sutchuenense gone or nearly so. Lutescens and Argenteum wane. Auklandii showing colour for some days. Erica hybrida remains good. About the earliest year we ever saw. M de Graf shows.

1901 – JCW
Narcissi ‘Sirius’ just shows colour, a few Ciliatums open, a good few useful seedlings to try, one flower of 25 open, no other incomps near it, forced open Sirius in heat from the bud for Cl.

1900 – JCW
The seedling Ciliatum opening, none of the things on the opposite page are nearly open except Sirius, Snow.

1898 – JCW
Golden Bell came out.

2 thoughts on “18th March”

Georg Ruf says:

23rd August 2022 at 1:58 pm

2016: The small conifer isn’t Pseudotaxus; this looks more like Torreya nucifera, the small shrub is something different, Pseudotsuga comes nearer. For images of Prumnopitys andina, Pseudotsugae and Pseudotaxus chienii see hubertus-nimsch.de under ‘Beiträge zu Koniferen’, then scroll down. Further rbge.org.uk, contents. Greetings
Egbert Talsma says:

6th July 2017 at 2:16 pm

The Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’ x ‘J C Williams’ (see 18th of March) is this a seedling or a graft? I know that Michael Gottschalk from Kelkheim, Germany made several of this crosses. A few have been named already.
This is a very nice colour indeed.

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