23rd September

FJ Williams Profile Picture
FJW 1955-2007
CH Williams Profile Picture
CHW 2015-
JC Williams Profile Picture
JCW 1897-1939
C Williams Profile Picture
CW 1940-1955

2024 – CHW

To the greenhouses where there are already 5 species of camellias in flower.

Myricaria germanica has grown exponentially over the summer. A Mark Bulk purchase from last winter. Feathery foliage but horrid prickles.

Myricaria germanica
Myricaria germanica
Euonymus maximowiczianus (E. sachalinensis) with its first seed pods.
Euonymus maximowiczianus (E. sachalinensis)
Euonymus maximowiczianus (E. sachalinensis)
First flowers on Illicium parviflorum ‘Forest Green’. Small yellowish flowers which are, so far, in pairs.
Illicium parviflorum ‘Forest Green’
Illicium parviflorum ‘Forest Green’
Camellia brevistyla var. rubida (ex Tregrehan) covered in small flowers in the greenhouse.
Camellia brevistyla var. rubida (ex Tregrehan)
Camellia brevistyla var. rubida (ex Tregrehan)
Camellia brevistyla var. rubida (ex Tregrehan)
Camellia brevistyla var. rubida (ex Tregrehan)
Camellia lutchuensis has one flower at present.
Camellia lutchuensis
Camellia lutchuensis
Corylus chinensis has very stand out leaves that can readily be recognised.
Corylus chinensis
Corylus chinensis
Mahonia ‘Meteor’ with 3 flowers – not that impressive!
Mahonia ‘Meteor’
Mahonia ‘Meteor’
Mahonia ‘Meteor’
Mahonia ‘Meteor’
Corylus ferox var. tibetica has a very different leaf form.
Corylus ferox var. tibetica
Corylus ferox var. tibetica
The shrubby and trifoliate Campylotropis macrocarpa with its first flower and loads of buds to come. A new plant never seen before here from Korea, China & Mongolia. Where did Asia get them? Seed I assume?
Campylotropis macrocarpa
Campylotropis macrocarpa

2023 – CHW
Magnolia seed heads already ripe and shedding in September. Not unusual for M. sinensis or M. wilsonii in September but very early for tree magnolias. This one is Magnolia ‘Mr. Julian’.

Magnolia seed heads
Magnolia seed heads
Magnolia seed heads
Magnolia seed heads
First fruit clusters appearing on a young Carpinus polyneura. An interesting shape and habit at the tip of individual twigs. The red new growth had been the best feature of this species but now a second stand out attribute.
Carpinus polyneura
Carpinus polyneura
Carpinus polyneura
Carpinus polyneura
Carpinus polyneura
Carpinus polyneura
Cabinet in place for our 4 new electric car chargers.
Electric car charge cabinet
Electric car charge cabinet

2022 – CHW

I thought I would share with you here our reasoning behind the plans to replant the new cleared old Kitchen Garden with a collection of flowering Malus species and varieties.

Clearance of the conifers planted in the Kitchen Garden in the late 1950s by my father had been scheduled and planned for the spring of 2020. The pandemic delayed the start of the work until February 2022. It was undertaken by two local contractors based and living on the Caerhays Estate who completed the work in May after a wet weather delay in March.

For some years we have all been considering the possible uses and planting plans for the Kitchen Garden to enhance the visitor experience in the spring open season (currently) from mid-February to mid-June each year.

The conifers were planted originally to put an end to vegetable production for the castle which was then being undertaken by two elderly garden staff. The operation of a vegetable garden supplying the house was obviously uneconomic then and remains so today. The old kitchen garden was and is inaccessible to machinery and far too far away from the main house to ever be an integral part of the main garden. The vegetable gardens at the Lost Gardens of Heligan are very much part of the historic house and gardens and sit in close proximity. The situation at Caerhays is very different.

We therefore rejected the idea of restoring a working fruit and vegetable garden to its former status on the grounds that it would still be totally uneconomic. Even with huge capital investment in the full restoration of the greenhouses, storage and potting sheds vegetable production would still be impractical in this location.

A better approach seemed to be to create something totally new and different for visitors to the 140 acres of woodland gardens. Consideration was given to a collection of Chilean native plants but rejected on the grounds of wind and frost exposure in the valley in which the old kitchen garden sits. Many Chilean plants are frost tender.

We then thought about what Caerhays has very few of in terms of Asiatic/Chinese plant introductions from the early 20th century which might form a new collection that might, one day, grow on to become another Plant Heritage national collection. Caerhays are already one of the holders of a national collection of magnolias (Magnoliaceae) and, also, Podocarpus (Podocarpaceae). We settled on malus as being the genus least well represented here but the plan is for flowering and fruiting (or non-fruiting) crab apples rather than apple trees themselves. Malus fit well into the woodland garden flowering season here as they perform in May and early June. Long after the Asiatic magnolias pass their best and well after most of the cherry trees (prunus) leading to the old kitchen garden have finished flowering.

Thus, late season visitors to Caerhays would have something spectacular and completely new to look at. There is only one other national collection of ornamental malus in Kent which specialises in varieties of eating apple rather than flowering ‘crabs’. A list of the malus which have already been acquired together with a list of those species and named varieties offered by various nurseries is attached. A national collection does not happen overnight and it may well take years to assemble (and grow from seed) all the wild species and more modern hybrids from many countries around the world. The qualification process to become a national collection is not easy but it can certainly be an aspiration for a historic woodland garden like Caerhays.

The plan will be to plant in groups of three of the same variety with spacings and the final layout determined by ultimate size and the necessary space for each to mature. Several crabs are well suited to training on the old kitchen garden walls in the same way as apples, pears and peaches might have been pleach trained in traditional kitchen gardens. By no means all crabs turn into small trees and some remain shrubby.

All however need a hot and warm environment to thrive. Exactly what the now cleared old kitchen garden currently offers. Malus seem a sensible compromise for a traditional food producing kitchen garden being turned into something well in keeping with its historic origins.

Obviously the Kitchen Garden will need something else for visitors to enjoy earlier in the spring. In the 1880s and 1890s JC Williams, my great grandfather, was heavily involved in the breeding of early flowering and other Cornish daffodil varieties. In his lifetime he produced thousands of new varieties and at least 50 remain available today in commercial daffodil production by large and small specialist growers. The plan is to reintroduce as many of these original daffodil varieties to the restored old kitchen garden as possible over time.

Natural England and English Heritage offered generous grant support towards a number of capital restoration projects at the start of a new 10 year ELS/HLS agreement with Caerhays Farms in 2013. A large part of the grant was used towards renovation of the then derelict old dog kennels directly below the Kitchen Garden wall. Major repairs were also completed to the eastern garden wall and smaller repairs and wall capping was possible on the southern and northern walls. Work was obviously hampered by access difficulties. These have now been removed with full clearance of tree and scrub cover both within the garden and outside it.

The estate’s formal undertakings to Natural England / English Heritage from 1992 included ensuring that any derelict buildings did not fall into even greater disrepair. This proposal is the latest in a long series of restoration projects stretching from the Vean (derelict), the Nash arch in Battery Walk and repairs to the tower on the castle lawn.

Without grant funding in 2013 the Kitchen Garden walls would be in a far worse state than they are today.

With the clearance and replanting plan envisaged here, the old kitchen garden now has a purpose and objective going forward. Old Park wood was opened to the public for the first time in 2013. The old kitchen garden should be able to follow the same course by 2024 when replanting is complete. If further grant support was forthcoming to repair and stabilise more of the old walls then public access might have to wait until this work was complete.

2021 – CHWAn examination of the berries on our 2019 planted Cotoneaster species collection. Around two thirds had berries of some sort. Three or four species had as yet unripe berries and one had berries dropping. Many of the names are unpronounceable.Cotoneaster wilsonii which performed well last year is a standout species.

Cotoneaster wilsonii
Cotoneaster wilsonii
Cotoneaster thimphuensis
Cotoneaster thimphuensis
Cotoneaster thimphuensis
Cotoneaster thimphuensis
Cotoneaster thimphuensis
Cotoneaster flinkii
Cotoneaster flinkii
Cotoneaster flinkii
Cotoneaster flinkii
Cotoneaster flinkii
Cotoneaster rubens
Cotoneaster rubens
Cotoneaster rubens
Cotoneaster rubens
Cotoneaster rubens
Cotoneaster rhytidophyllum
Cotoneaster rhytidophyllum
Cotoneaster rhytidophyllum
Cotoneaster rhytidophyllum
Cotoneaster rhytidophyllum
Cotoneaster tengyuensis
Cotoneaster tengyuensis
Cotoneaster tengyuensis
Cotoneaster tengyuensis
Cotoneaster tengyuensis
Cotoneaster ‘St Andrew’s Blaze’ (gift from Fromfield) – far from ripe.
Cotoneaster ‘St Andrew’s Blaze’
Cotoneaster ‘St Andrew’s Blaze’
Cotoneaster ‘St Andrew’s Blaze’
Cotoneaster ‘St Andrew’s Blaze’
Cotoneaster teitiashanensis – unripe.
Cotoneaster teitiashanensis
Cotoneaster teitiashanensis
Cotoneaster teitiashanensis
Cotoneaster teitiashanensis
Cotoneaster erratus – quite excellent and covered in berries.
Cotoneaster erratus
Cotoneaster erratus
Cotoneaster erratus
Cotoneaster erratus
Cotoneaster erratus
Cotoneaster erratus
Cotoneaster raoujanensis – not ripe.
Cotoneaster raoujanensis
Cotoneaster raoujanensis
Cotoneaster raoujanensis
Cotoneaster raoujanensis
Cotoneaster rokujodaisanensis – unripe.
Cotoneaster rokujodaisanensis
Cotoneaster rokujodaisanensis
Cotoneaster rokujodaisanensis
Cotoneaster rokujodaisanensis
Cotoneaster hillieri
Cotoneaster hillieri
Cotoneaster hillieri
Cotoneaster hillieri
Cotoneaster hillieri
Cotoneaster ‘Rothschildianus’ – unripe.
Cotoneaster ‘Rothschildianus’
Cotoneaster ‘Rothschildianus’
Cotoneaster silvestrii
Cotoneaster silvestrii
Cotoneaster silvestrii
Cotoneaster fangianus
Cotoneaster fangianus
Cotoneaster fangianus
Cotoneaster soongoricus – red berries turning brown and dropping already.
Cotoneaster soongoricus
Cotoneaster soongoricus

2020 – CHW

The peculiar and decidedly nasty climber from New Zealand, Rubus squarrosus, has found a home in a shady corner by the front gate. In three years it has developed in size enormously and you can clearly see its long new shoots. Gloves essential!

Rubus squarrosus
Rubus squarrosus
Rubus squarrosus
Rubus squarrosus
This is a fungus peculiar to old and dying beech trees called ‘Southern Bracket’ or Ganoderma australe.
Ganoderma australe
Ganoderma australe
Ganoderma australe
Ganoderma australe
Ganoderma australe
Ganoderma australe
Sorbus randaiensis with its first fruits above the Hovel.
Sorbus randaiensis
Sorbus randaiensis
I think this is ‘Spindleshank’ on dead oak tree (Collifia fusipes).
Collifia fusipes
Collifia fusipes
I struggle with this one growing on a dead scots pine. It may be ‘Bleeding Conifer Crust’ (Stereum sanguindentum) but the description does not really tally. It looks like a ‘Crust’ (Stereaceae) but perhaps it is not yet mature?
I struggle with this one
I struggle with this one
I struggle with this one
I struggle with this one

With no rain for a fortnight and hot weather not an ideal time (yet) to be fungi hunting with the new book.

Crataegus schraderiana now has fully ripe berries and is a really good show.

Crataegus schraderiana
Crataegus schraderiana
Crataegus schraderiana
Crataegus schraderiana
Acanthopanax aff. sessiliflorus with its usual fine clusters of fruits.
Acanthopanax aff. sessiliflorus
Acanthopanax aff. sessiliflorus
Acanthopanax aff. sessiliflorus
Acanthopanax aff. sessiliflorus
Sorbus prattii has now been renamed in Hillier’s as Sorbus munda. Yet another change! White berries all along the stem. Not a vigorous plant with us.
Sorbus prattii
Sorbus prattii
Sorbus prattii
Sorbus prattii
Photinia villosa var. laevis with loads of fruit.
Photinia villosa var. laevis
Photinia villosa var. laevis
Photinia villosa var. zolleringeri with rather less.
Photinia villosa var. laevis
Photinia villosa var. laevis
The 10 or so new Hedychiums are planted below the tower and below the Rabbit Warren.
Hedychiums
Hedychiums

2019 – CHW
A sudden strong easterly wind has downed all the beech mast and sweet chestnuts all over the drive. This made me wonder if there were any ripe fallen acorns on Quercus lamellosa but sadly they had all fallen a month or so ago when still immature and not really anywhere near ripe. Conversely the large Quercus acuta above Rogers Quarry still has plenty of larger acorns still in place on the tree and not yet ripe enough to drop in the wind.

Despite being cut back in the spring Buddleia lindleyana has reshot vigorously and is now in flower. What a colour!

Buddleia lindleyana
Buddleia lindleyana
Ross has felled another large beech tree. Three more big ones, a sycamore and an ash still to go.
beech tree
beech tree
This Clethra pringleyi is still not quite out in flower although another plant has already finished. Too much wind to get a decent picture.
Clethra pringleyi
Clethra pringleyi
Clethra pringleyi
Clethra pringleyi
Styrax japonicus ‘Evening Light’ living up to its name. Wonderful near black foliage.
Styrax japonicus ‘Evening Light’
Styrax japonicus ‘Evening Light’
Styrax japonicus ‘Evening Light’
Styrax japonicus ‘Evening Light’
Light pinkish secondary new growth on Rhododendron rhabdotum with the odd ripening seed head below it.
Rhododendron rhabdotum
Rhododendron rhabdotum
Rhododendron rhabdotum
Rhododendron rhabdotum

2018 – CHW
Tiny cones forming on Saxegothaea conspicua on just the odd branch. Quite a surprise as I had thought that ‘Prince Albert’s yew’ had berries? The reference books say these cones are in fact soft and prickly ‘fruits’ so there we are. Well worth a look in a week or two as I have never seen this before on any of our several young trees or the record tree at Tregullow gardens. I should ask James Williams.
Saxegothaea conspicua
Saxegothaea conspicua
Saxegothaea conspicua
Saxegothaea conspicua
Malus yunnanensis var. veitchii with one crab-apple only left to see. The pheasants have eaten the rest. A Wilson introduction from 1901 planted here in 2001. First fruits that I have ever seen on this smallish and now multi stemmed tree.
Malus yunnanensis var. veitchii
Malus yunnanensis var. veitchii
Seed pods from last winter’s flowers on Polyspora longicarpa. The first time these have formed on this young plant while the buds are swelling too and will be out by November? Ripe and collectable in December/January hopefully or perhaps earlier?
Polyspora longicarpa
Polyspora longicarpa
Secondary autumn flowers on Styrax wilsonii which I have never seen before. This young plant has grown well with some shade in this year’s drought.
Styrax wilsonii
Styrax wilsonii
Styrax wilsonii
Styrax wilsonii

2017 – CHW
David West from Fromefield Nurseries thought this was Cotoneaster frigidus ‘Inchmery’ when I photographed it last year. The fruit is not plentiful and certainly is not ripe yet but it is yellow now and seems to want to turn pink. I must remember to send fruits to David.
Cotoneaster frigidus ‘Inchmery
Cotoneaster frigidus ‘Inchmery
Cotoneaster frigidus ‘Inchmery
Cotoneaster frigidus ‘Inchmery

2016 – CHW
A new to us Daphniphyllum glaucescens has made an excellent small tree. Very different leaf structure to other species and clearly likes being in full sun.
Daphniphyllum glaucescens
Daphniphyllum glaucescens
Daphniphyllum glaucescens
Daphniphyllum glaucescens
Daphniphyllum glaucescens
Daphniphyllum glaucescens
The rare Nyssa ogeche is also doing well beside it unlike the one on the drive which is much older but has constant dieback each winter. It has not sold well yet in the nursery so we need to see what this species can do in semi maturity to make us recommend it. Odd but distinct leaves with a blueish hue.
Nyssa ogeche
Nyssa ogeche
Nyssa ogeche
Nyssa ogeche
Nyssa ogeche
Nyssa ogeche
Sorbus ‘Elenarae’ has also been well nibbled by deer but it has most attractive spotted bark on the new growth together with reddish new growth. I need to look up who gave us this oddity or did I buy it? Not in Hillier’s or New Trees.
Sorbus ‘Elenarae’
Sorbus ‘Elenarae’
Sorbus ‘Elenarae’
Sorbus ‘Elenarae’
Sorbus ‘Elenarae’
Sorbus ‘Elenarae’

2015 – CHW

A few seeds and berries today.

Stachyurus praecox, although nibbled by deer, is displaying large green seedpods on long tassels. Strangely next spring’s new flower spikes are already much in evidence.

Stachyurus praecox
Stachyurus praecox
Stachyurus praecox
Stachyurus praecox

Sorbus folgneri ‘Emiel’ has fruits forming in profusion but they have yet to turn orange and red. One to look out for if the pheasants leave them alone.

Sorbus folgneri ‘Emiel’
Sorbus folgneri ‘Emiel’
Sorbus folgneri ‘Emiel’
Sorbus folgneri ‘Emiel’
Stewartia rostrata is starting to run its trademark autumn colour with leaves turning reddish black and its seeds developing red calyxes. I cannot think of another tree which turns this extraordinary colour and pleasantly early in the autumn too.  We have a whole section of plants to buy that are wonderful for autumn colour at Burncoose.
Stewartia rostrata
Stewartia rostrata
Stewartia rostrata
Stewartia rostrata
Stewartia rostrata
Stewartia rostrata

2005 – FJW
Picked the first Camellia sasanqua flower.

1998 – FJW
Harvest complete. Latest for a long time.

1917 – JCW
Just as above, the rhodo’s now open are Decorum, Neriiflorum, Scintillans, Felonateium, 10278, Flavidum, Intricatum, Rupicolum, Hippophaeoides, Trichocladum, Fastigiatum and Barum (=10423).

1916 – JCW
Hydrangeas, cyclamen and cassia are all good. Lapagerias nice, several (6-7) species of mountain rhodo’s in flower.