2024 – CHW
The Isla Rose Plantation is now 7 years old and Jaimie’s team have been uplifting lower branches on young trees and removing wire netting surrounds from those larger plants which no longer need protection. Also clearing out the weed growth from inside the remaining smaller plants which do still have wire netting surrounds. We will spray around everything again in the spring.
A brand new wooden sluice gate has just been installed by Mark Pheasey at the lower end of the lake.
I have been inspecting the Camellia japonica ‘Sode-Gashuki’ (‘Gauntlettii’) beside the front door daily to see the first flower. Jaimie has however found early flowers on what he has called Camellia japonica ‘Nobilissima’. I am not at all sure if there is actually that much difference between the two but would concur that these are indeed C. ‘Nobilissima’. Very early indeed again this year!
Vaccinium corymbosum in the Isla Rose Plantation is now at its absolute best.
2023 – CHW
A fine show of secondary flowers on the RHS Plant of the Decade – Viburnum plicatum ‘Kilimanjaro Sunrise’.
A fine show of secondary flowers on the RHS Plant of the Decade – Viburnum plicatum ‘Kilimanjaro Sunrise’.
Cercidiphyllum japonicum just turning. This was a 1991 replacement for the Record Tree destroyed in the 1990 hurricane in the same spot.
Hoheria sexstylosa ‘Crataegifolia’ with ripe and falling seeds.
× Gordlinia grandiflora with buds opening.
Zanthoxylum armatum (NJM 1108) has slightly fallen over perhaps due to the weight of its many peppers. The spines remain as spiteful as ever.
First few flowers out on Camellia sasanqua ‘Hugh Evans’ – a month early above Rogers Quarry.
Plenty of flowers for next spring on Lindera megaphylla.
Last week Edward Bolitho said his Camellia sasanqua ‘Narumigata’ was out at Trengwainton a month early. I checked ours in Rogers Quarry and it is just out as well.
The second and later flowering Schefflera delavayi is now full out in Donkey Shoe.
A little autumn colour on Quercus robur ‘Fastigiata’.
A good crop of early flower on Camellia costei.
2022 – CHW
A few more Malus awaiting planting in the old Kitchen Garden have spectacular fruits.Malus ‘Neville Copeman’
A few more Malus awaiting planting in the old Kitchen Garden have spectacular fruits.Malus ‘Neville Copeman’
Malus ‘Indian Magic’
Malus ‘Halloween’
Malus ‘Royal Beauty’
Malus ‘Golden Hornet’ – the heaviest fruiter of all at a young age
Malus ‘Rosehip’
Here is the accumulating pile of Malus with one more delivery from overseas to come.
Secondary new growth on Persea thunbergii.
Tom Hudson gave us two of these plants (TH4465) which he said were from a very primitive evolutionary past. He then said he had given us the wrong name. I had not seen it flowering but it looks like a Rhus in flower.
Berries now coloured up on Zanthoxylum armatum (NJM 11.080)
Good colour on a 12 year old Acer japonicum.
Athrotaxus selaginoides growing away well.
The other Tom gift is labelled Rhus chinensis but its leaf form is nothing like our plant with this name. Note the suckering well away from the main trunk.
First poor flower on Camellia sasanqua ‘Dazzler’.
2021 – CHW
Nyssa leptophylla with the odd bright red leaf so far and the customary deer nibbling lower down.
Nyssa leptophylla with the odd bright red leaf so far and the customary deer nibbling lower down.
A young Magnolia cavaleriei var. platypetala doing well inside its deer protection.
As is Podocarpus chingianus.
A totally unexpected late flower or three on Stewartia pseudocamellia. Secondary flowers or a sign of weakness in this old veteran? The flowers are high up on an old branch from the main stem.
Eucryphia moorii still full out with bumblebees in attendance.
2020 – CHW
Another day at Burncoose in the sun this time.Akebia trifoliata with pleasant autumn colours which I had not picked up on before.
Another day at Burncoose in the sun this time.Akebia trifoliata with pleasant autumn colours which I had not picked up on before.
Abutilon ‘Nabob’ still has some flowers.
Abutilon ‘John Thompson’ looking good as well with loads of flowers.
Oxydendrum arboreum has fully turned colour now. What an impressive tree this is.
Nyssa sinensis with two stages of autumn colour showing.
Calycanthus x raulstonii ‘Hartlage Wine’ has a good yellow hue.
Cercis ‘Ruby Falls’ is changing nicely too.
Catalpa bignonoides ‘Aurea’ with secondary new growth in the show tunnel.
Rhus typhina ‘Tiger Eyes’ with flower but the autumn colours have nearly gone over.
Our stock plant of Pseudowintera ‘Red Leopard’ is the best thing in the nursery today as regards autumn colour. Outstanding!
Aconitum ‘Newry Blue’ in the sun.
A few camellias with early flowers in our tunnel of saleable three litre plants:
Camellia x oleifera ‘Winter’s Joy’
Camellia x oleifera ‘Winter’s Joy’
Camellia ‘Cornish Snow’
Camellia ‘Takanini’
Rhus glabra with a flower but, as yet, no autumn colour.
2019 – CHW
Camellia sasanqua ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ just out above the greenhouse by Orchid House Nursery.
Callicarpa dichotoma coming into flower in the Isla Rose Plantation. Odd that this species is flowering just when the others seen recently are fruiting. This group have grown well two and a half years on from planting.
Attached here is a long missive from Susyn Andrews about the renaming of Symplocos aff. sumuntia which was previously thought to be Symplocus glomerata. The map shows the location of all Symplocos species in the garden here.
2018 – CHW
Magnolia kobus ‘Octopus’ has a few seed capsules with just a couple of ripening seeds in each.
Magnolia kobus ‘Octopus’ has a few seed capsules with just a couple of ripening seeds in each.
Magnolia ‘Atlas’ x ‘Vulcan’ has one chubby seed pod.
Cornus alternifolia with attractive reddish-black autumn colour.
2017 – CHW
First flowers out on Camellia sasanqua ‘Narumigata’.
First flowers out on Camellia sasanqua ‘Narumigata’.
Excellent red autumn colour on Rhododendron cumberlandense.
Camellia sasanqua ‘Winters Snowman’ just out as well. A good covering of flower this year but the other three varieties alongside are not showing yet.
2016 – CHW
Jaimie took this picture of the last flowers on a plant of Indigofera yunnanense [Paul Bonavia has pointed out that this is in fact NOT an Indigofera but Desmodium praestans] growing above Hovel Cart Road. A rather more decisive colour than other Indigofera varieties which can be rather pale and insipid. We looked at another new species in the greenhouse recently (Indigofera howellii).
Bergenia ‘Sunningdale’ flowering absurdly early on the lawn by the tower with full leaf still on the plant. The flower is actually almost over.
Chaenomeles speciosa ‘Geisha Girl’ has, for the first time, small round yellow quinces which are already starting to drop. They are well hidden in the low growing shrub and not yet smelling unpleasant.
Symphoricarpos albus has clusters of white ‘snowberries’ on the lawn although in full shade here. My mother made us dig these up as children but quite a clump has survived her efforts.
2015 – CHWSome flowers today! On Burns Bank Camellia sasanqua ‘Winter Snowman’ has sprung out in a week from when I last passed by. One of nine different sasanquas planted here in 1999 this is the only one showing. By sasanqua standards a very large double flower.
Schima wallichii (or perhaps it is Schima khasiana?) is about to become the best thing in the garden. I have planted several species including Schima argentea and do not see that much difference in the three species which are supposedly identifiable. This is an older ?1950s plant which most probably came from Trewithen gardens originally. Their huge clump will be a sight soon and set seed which ours never have to my knowledge.
1994 – FJW
Dry spell came to an end.
1931 – JCW
Poor lot of rhodo’n flower bud. Fuchsia, lapagerias, hydrangea are all our flowers except cyclamen.
1925 – JCW
Clematis cirrhosa a few flowers. C panniculata is excellent. Delavayi and Decorum good. Haematodes also good and one Maddeni in the 40 Acres. Cyclamen are going back. A great set of flower bud on most rhodo’s. Roses nice, one bed renewed after 15-20 years. Shall put in General McArthur.
1908 – JCW
Clematis cirrhosa is very good.
I correct my coment from yesterday and confirm that Jan de Langhe gives photos like your Podocarpus chingianus, whereas Ch. Earle gives this as near macrophyllus, obviously wrongly.
Fitzroya cupressoides is obviously the ‘British Type’, typical the drooping branches and mostly the leader too, more so as propagated by cuttings. The normal types grow upright and are present at RBGE, as types of Prumnopitys andina.
Both conifers are dioecious and need plants of different sexes to produce seed. With Prumnopitys the sexe of the plant is already seen from autum on as the male catkins are visible upright and branched on young twigs. Female cones, upright on branched stalks, are visible in spring.