2025 – CHW
Rain yesterday has given an Easter flush of new leaves on the trees.
The iron bench dating from the 1880’s returns after repairs and restoration. A shooting guests reversed into it in the dark 15 months or so ago and broke off the legs.
Arum lilies full out in flower already.
Prunus serrulata full of flower near the Green Gate. Up to now it has only had a very few single white flower which are easy to miss. Grown for its spectacular bark rather than its flowers!
Schefflera shweliensis (TH 3330) with a good set of new growth.
Rhododendron oreodoxa var. fargesii.
Bronze new growth on Nothofagus solandri.
Euphorbia stygiana var. sanctae-mariae is now a small tree of 15-20 feet in height. Few flowers low down now.
Magnolia laevifolia in the rain.
Magnolia doltsopa manipurensis (NJM 13010) flowering properly for the first time here. A Nick Macer collection which certainly has a different flower shape. I have however yet to see the russet indumentum on the undersides of the new leaves which I would have expected on M. manipurensis.
Magnolia ‘Fairy Cream’.
Camellia yunnanensis with wonderful new growth.
Defoliation on this previously going well 2019 planted Lithocarpus harlandii. Looks like a cold wind problem as the leaves are fine on the northerly side. We have seen this before on young Lithocarpus.
2024 – CHW
This is Magnolia ‘Golden Goblet’ planted in 2007. Not much different from M. ‘Butterflies’ but none the worse for that.
The huge clump of Rhododendron loderi ‘King George’ is now full out but, sadly, the public never realise it is there.
Below it Rhododendron wilsoniae which is always a sparse flowerer (now supposedly Rh. latoucheae).
Pale yellow flowers on Pittosporum glabratum.
The new growth on Quercus insignis really is fantastic. Red new growth is designed to deter grazing cattle, deer or goats it is assumed.
Still perfect flowers on Camellia x williamsii ‘Donation’ nearly 4 months after we had the first showing on this plant.
A newly planted Persea indica (BSWJ 12535) looking healthy.
Unusual new growth on Neolitsea polycarpa.
Similarly fine new growth on Osmanthus fragrans f. thunbergii which I have yet to see flowering.
Magnolia ‘Lois’ very fine in the sun but I think the flowers are (so far) smaller than usual this year.
Rhododendron desquamatum and Magnolia x brooklynensis ‘Black Beauty’ cut for the weekend RHS Rhododendron show at Rosemoor.
The rhododendron entries.
2023 – CHW
Another (fine) day and another tour for 27 clients of Brightwater Holidays with Colin Crosbie (ex Wisley) and my new squawk box which means I can speak to the whole group and don’t need a second guide for a large group.Pomaderris elliptica just about to flower in Tin Garden. We have 2 other young plants but I think these are another species. Yellow buds opening white?
Another (fine) day and another tour for 27 clients of Brightwater Holidays with Colin Crosbie (ex Wisley) and my new squawk box which means I can speak to the whole group and don’t need a second guide for a large group.Pomaderris elliptica just about to flower in Tin Garden. We have 2 other young plants but I think these are another species. Yellow buds opening white?
Acer truncatum var. barbinerve (planted 2010) with new leaves and flower. This is becoming a large tree.
Betula luminifera ‘White House Farm’ (ex. Nick Macer) with its first catkins. Colin Crosbie said he had also introduced a form of this species which was too early into leaf in Scotland to avoid being frosted. He now lives in Scotland and chairs the Scottish Alpine Plant Society.
Berberis wilsoniae looking superb in Kennel Close.
Plagianthus regius (formally P. betuloides) flowering exceptionally well high up the tree below Slip Rail.
Azalea ‘Greenway’ and Azalea ‘Hinodegiri’ on Burn’s Bank.
Spanish bluebells at their best outside the front gate.
A hen pheasant has made a nest in Jaimie’s garage.
2022 – CHW
The very rare Symplocos aff. sumuntia (previously believed to be S. glomerata) now in full flower.
First flowers out on a clump of young Rhododendron williamsianum.
A good newly planted white form of Rhododendron racemosum.
Planted only last year but already the first flowers on several of the clump of Rhododendron ‘Michael’s Pride’.
Despite what I said a couple of days ago Michelia ‘Allspice’ is now just out.
As is the impressive Michelia yunnanensis ‘Summer Snowflake’.
First leaves showing attractively on Mallotus japonicus.
Melicytus obovatus to show the size of the large shrub. You cannot see that there are tens of thousands of tiny flowers literally covering this plant.
Osteomeles subrotunda just coming into leaf. Attractive fern-like pinnate young leaves on this rare and unusual shrub which is said to be rather tender. Chinese origin. We await the ‘hawthorn-like’ flowers sometime in the next few years.
A few 2017 planted magnolias in the Isla Rose are about to drop their flowers and well past their best but still worth recording as those are mainly new varieties for us.
Magnolia ‘Dark Bird’ – two flowers and partly frosted. Not registered or listed anywhere that I can find.
Magnolia ‘Sentinel’ has ended up with huge flowers despite its tiny buds which curl sideways at the top. It is a Gresham hybrid listed only on the Eisenhut website.
Magnolia x veitchii ‘Avocet’ has faded to not much (M. x veitchii ‘Isca’ x M. soulangeana).
Magnolia ‘Strawberry Shake’ – unimpressive as it is here. This is another Lunaplant/Gottschalk hybrid – M. ‘Purple Globe’ x M. ‘Joe McDaniel’.
Magnolia ‘Darkest Purple’ x M. ‘Betty Jessel’ – difficult to argue that this is indeed true to name at this stage of flowering but rather dubious for this cross? M. ‘Darkest Purple’ is a liliiflora hybrid bred in Alabama in 1949 with ‘rich purple’ flowers so I may be wrong.
The elderly (and previously cut back) clump of Rhododendron hanceanum is just out above the top wall. Nice pink tinge to the buds before they open and briefly on the tips of the flowers.
We saw Magnolia grandiflora ‘Symes Select’ in flower on Christmas Day. Here, already, is the start of a new set of flowers. I suspect you could readily find a flower on one of the six different M. grandiflora on the top wall in any of the 12 months of the year.
2021 – CHW
A visit to Treseders nurseries to photograph a few new plants and buy one or two as well. My last visit was last June, and they had clearly shifted a huge amount of stock since. Everything neat and tidy and the plants in wonderful condition. A great credit to Neil Treseder’s grandson who carries on the family tradition after all the history which was so nearly lost in the 1970s.Hardy ferns – apologies for a dull list but an interesting record of many new species I had not seen before.Onoclea sensibilis
A visit to Treseders nurseries to photograph a few new plants and buy one or two as well. My last visit was last June, and they had clearly shifted a huge amount of stock since. Everything neat and tidy and the plants in wonderful condition. A great credit to Neil Treseder’s grandson who carries on the family tradition after all the history which was so nearly lost in the 1970s.Hardy ferns – apologies for a dull list but an interesting record of many new species I had not seen before.Onoclea sensibilis
Pteris nipponica
Pteris umbrosa
Dryopteris sieboldii
Pellaea rotundifolia
Blechnum brasiliense ‘Volcano’
Doodia aspera ‘Rough Ruby’
Polysticichum munitum
Blechnum nudum
Onoclea sensibilis
Grevillea miqueliana subsp. moroka in flower. The first time I had ever seen this and rather good.
Banksia marginata – a new species to me.
Chorizema cordatum with bicolour flowers. Again, an unknown species for us to try. We used to grow Chorizema ilicifolia rather well but appear to have lost it. Greenhouse plants!
Grevillea thelemanniana ‘Baby’. Ditto.
Corydalis tenuifolia ‘Chocolate Star’ in full flower. It seems to sell in the nursery before it ever gets this far into flower.
