2026 – CHW (images to follow)
Some Acers with a bit of Autumn colour.
Acer takesimense is good.
Sorbus parvifructa.
Acer rubrum ‘Red Sunset’ was better a fortnight ago.
Taxodium Distichum ‘Falling Waters’ still not quite there.
Acer japonicum has improved from what we saw a fortnight ago.
Acer pseudosieboldianum.
Photinia niitakayamensis has much better colour than the related P. davidiana.
Photinia davidiana ‘Thunder’s Dwarf’ as a young plant with its first berries.
2025 – CHW
57 large evergreen azaleas from Rookery Nursery planted in groups below White Styles as planned to make a better show here for visitors.
Brassaiopsis dumicola with its strange drooping flower heads.
Camellia sasanqua ‘Setsugekka’ in Bea’s Christening Plantation.
Camellia sasanqua ‘Île Wrac’h’.
Camellia sasanqua ‘Elfin Rose’.
Camellia sasanqua ‘Blush’.
Camellia sasanqua ‘Survivor’.
Camellia sasanqua ‘Pink Goddess’.
Camellia sasanqua ‘Versicolor’.
2024 – CHW
Magnolia ‘Yaeko’ is now nearly leafless but still the flowers come.
Camellia taliensis full out now.
Ligustrum confusum with berries and flower buds for next year.
Ligustrum strongylophyllum by way of a contrast with no seed heads despite it flowering well in the summer.
Ilex perado subsp. azorica (BSWJ 12526) – a female form with its first berries and some secondary new growth. Asia should propagate this as it would make an excellent windbreak.
Rogue flowers on Rhododendron davidsonianum cut down to reshoot last summer.
Camellia sasanqua ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ suddenly full out and spectacular.
2023 – CHW
A tree fern growing well in the centre of a rotting oak tree stump.
A tree fern growing well in the centre of a rotting oak tree stump.
Clearing the run off ditches before Storm Ciaran.
x Rhaphiobotrya ‘Coppertone’ with a couple of flowers. It is supposed to flower in late spring or early summer.
The variegated leaved Ginkgo shows no autumn colour as yet.
Sorbus japonica is shedding its leaves but not yet its berries.
Sorbus hupehensis virtually leafless.
Malus ‘Jelly King’ with ripe fruits.
2022 – CHW
A huge Pinus insignis tree twists, turns, and falls at the Red Linney on the drive last night in the gale.
A huge Pinus insignis tree twists, turns, and falls at the Red Linney on the drive last night in the gale.
A Magnolia ‘Sayonara’ is shredded to a single stem but Magnolia ‘Felix Jury’ escapes – just – by inches!
Cutting back a Magnolia ‘Ann’ which was encroaching on the Main Ride. It will reshoot but needed doing.
Acer palmatum ‘Sango Kaku’ (‘Senkaki’) at its autumn best in the sun. Absolutely splendid!
Camellia ‘Nobilissima’ has two flowers out beside the front door. Much earlier than usual, I suspect, but need to check The Diary.
2021 – CHW
A trip to the greenhouse to find a few plant presents for gardening friends this week.Seeds now ripe and splitting on Hedychium coronarium.
A trip to the greenhouse to find a few plant presents for gardening friends this week.Seeds now ripe and splitting on Hedychium coronarium.
Malus tschonoskii showing autumn colour in the frames. I plan to grow a collection of flowering ‘crabs’ in the Kitchen Garden after it is cleared out next spring.
Malus transitoria with very different autumn tints.
Grevillea ‘Robyn Gordon’ flowering away. Sadly too tender to plant out.
Plectranthus argentatus nicely in flower. A touch of blue in the individual flowers on the flower spikes.
Acer calcaratum with unusual shaped leaves.
A cutting grown Camellia vernalis ‘Dawn’ in full flower in the greenhouse. The 1897 plant on the lawn will not be out before December if this is a normal year? So far a mild and wet start to November.
A new piece of cut yew to prop up the big leaf rhododendron at the start of Rookery Path. The old one (rhododendron) had split and collapse was imminent.
Fine autumn colour on Diospyros kaki.
2020 – CHW
Work well underway pruning the huge laurels below Sinogrande Walk.
I seem to have missed the best of the colours on Parrotia subaequalis.
Camptotheca acuminata is another of those very rare new introductions which is described in New Trees. This was planted in 2007 and has had some dieback. It comes into new growth in the autumn as you can see here which can be its undoing. It is now about 15ft tall.
The tree has anti-cancer properties. Tregrehan did have a plant but New Trees records it as ‘fizzling out’ in a warm but dry location.
The tree has anti-cancer properties. Tregrehan did have a plant but New Trees records it as ‘fizzling out’ in a warm but dry location.
A couple of Nyssa trees not performing terribly well. The redder one is ‘Wisley Bonfire’.
Nice ripening seedpods on one of the old original (white) Rhododendron arboreums.
Jaimie has uplifted the lower branches on this quick growing Acacia cultriformis to give the camellias more room.
Hydrangea aspera subsp. robusta still looking good with its long lasting white flower heads.
2019 – CHW
I am puzzled by the autumn colours on Stewartia monodelpha in Kennel Close. Three plants are photographed here.
I need quite some persuading that we actually have three plants of the same species and that, perhaps, the first one is true and the other two are not or perhaps the first one is something else and the other two are correct? Stewartia pseudocamellia Koreana group is nearby and totally different. More work with keying these three out next year when they are in flower.
This is the excellent Stewartia henryae which is a cut above the autumn colours of any of the three supposed S. monodelpha above.
2018 – CHW
A new Camellia sasanqua ‘Showa no sakae’ in flower above the Auklandii Garden. Very serrated leaves and a good scent. This came from Stervinou nurseries in France a couple of years ago and is a welcome addition to the 25 or so different forms of Camellia sasanqua which we grow. Tregothnan have the best collection in an avenue along from the main house. Worth a trip to go and have a look if time permitted.
A new Camellia sasanqua ‘Showa no sakae’ in flower above the Auklandii Garden. Very serrated leaves and a good scent. This came from Stervinou nurseries in France a couple of years ago and is a welcome addition to the 25 or so different forms of Camellia sasanqua which we grow. Tregothnan have the best collection in an avenue along from the main house. Worth a trip to go and have a look if time permitted.
2017 – CHW
A few autumn colours to look for:Fine autumn colour as usual on Euonymus elatus. I am a week too late for its best.
A few autumn colours to look for:Fine autumn colour as usual on Euonymus elatus. I am a week too late for its best.
Rosa roxburghii has still to turn colour properly and may not have a show this year. Very few hips.
Kalopanax septemlobus has a yellow carpet on the ground but plenty of green leaves too. A generally poor year for autumn colour as no cold mornings or frost yet.
Berberis wilsoniae has no autumn leaf tints yet but the berries are turning red. Plenty of berries only where the plant has access to full sunlight.
2016 – CHW
Cercis siliquastrum can have wonderful yellow autumn colour but not here today. It catches the west wind too much by Tin Garden.
Cercis siliquastrum can have wonderful yellow autumn colour but not here today. It catches the west wind too much by Tin Garden.
The Ghent azalea clumps in Kennel Close have had a tidy up and their rabbit wires removed. Slow growing indeed.
Tilia cordata ‘Winter Orange’ is now exhibiting its orange twigs even more clearly than a fortnight ago. A fine plant now.
Not sure what this multi-stemmed sorbus is either but there is a clump of four below Slip Rail. Another batch of Werrington seedlings I think and there may be another set of these below Magnolia JCW on the drive. Need to check.
Nearby Liquidamber styraciflua ‘Worplesdon’ is turning purple at the top with odd yellow leaves at the bottom. The original plant here was stolen much to Lord Falmouth’s amusement when dad went to show it to him perhaps 30 to 35 years ago.
Azalea ‘Greenway’ has three pink buds. Often an odd out of season flower on this variety.
2015 – CHW
I have just missed the very best of the Acer palmatum ‘Senkaki’ (now ‘Sango kaku’) clump planted in 1913 and now Record Trees. I cannot decide if the spring new growth is more beautiful than the autumn colour. Both are more than impressive but may well soon be blown away.
Rhododendron ‘Chink’ is having a go at an autumn second flowering but here only on one branch of this semi dwarf variety. Again the flowers, such as they are, seem darker than in the spring. This seems a common feature of second ‘comings’ and might make an interesting article one day for publication. Do rhodos second flower all over the country or just in milder climates? How many species exhibit this odd trait?
1950 – CW
Pink Saluenensis hybrid in Big Quarry out and also Cam taliensis above Orchid House.
Pink Saluenensis hybrid in Big Quarry out and also Cam taliensis above Orchid House.
1934 – JCW
A daff or two shows its nose, much as in 1912.
A daff or two shows its nose, much as in 1912.
1929 – JCW
The best Acers in the Drive near the Cattleshed are very good. A few lapagerias, some Camellia sasanqua. On most of the plants, a fine autumn for colour.
The best Acers in the Drive near the Cattleshed are very good. A few lapagerias, some Camellia sasanqua. On most of the plants, a fine autumn for colour.
1912 – JCW
Very few daffs moving. Primula malacoides is nice. Camellia sasanqua a few on the big plant. Cyclamen leaves good, very little flower. Cassia good, lapagerias fair, roses several.
Very few daffs moving. Primula malacoides is nice. Camellia sasanqua a few on the big plant. Cyclamen leaves good, very little flower. Cassia good, lapagerias fair, roses several.
1907 – JCW
One of the Jonquil King A crosses is up in the Tin Garden. Camellia sasanqua buds have damped off. Papa Gontier remains quite nice. Lapagerias and cyclamen are good.
One of the Jonquil King A crosses is up in the Tin Garden. Camellia sasanqua buds have damped off. Papa Gontier remains quite nice. Lapagerias and cyclamen are good.