6th April | The Garden Diary

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CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2024 – CHW

And so to the CGS Spring Show. Of course it rains for most of the afternoon and evening. We had asked for a 3 tiered stand and 30 large vases. We in fact had 4 tiers and we actually exhibited 31 vases of cut material (when we located some vases) on the Caerhays stand.

We used named Japanese cherries in the centre flanked by Lindera, Stachyurus, and Staphylea species with a few extra varieties. The Stand list is attached.

Tilia endochrysea looking at its best.

Rehderodendron indochinense and Rehderodendron kwangtungense – I doubt either of these new introductions have been seen at a public flower show before.

Same goes for Symplocos dryophila and Symplocos aff. sumuntia.

Plagianthus betulinus and Prunus ‘Hally Jolivette’.

Plagianthus betulinus close up.

Halleria lucida is an extraordinary fuchsia like plant.

Melicytus obovatus with its multitude of tiny flowers.

Lindera communis with attractive new growth and a few flowers.

Lindera erythrocarpa has an interesting flower. The best of the deciduous Lindera species?

Prunus ‘Pink Perfection’

Prunus ‘Horinji’.

Jaimie’s magnolia entries in the class for 3 sprays:-

Magnolia ‘Apricot Brandy’.

Magnolia ‘Lemon Star’.

Magnolia ‘Peachy’.

Magnolia ‘Limelight’ (the spare one).

And our rhododendron entries:-

Rhododendron arizelum.

Rhododendron hodgsonii.

The Burncoose Nurseries stand.

2023 – CHW
Here are the links to two video clips from the recent CGS Show at Wadebridge provided by Charles Francis which show Jim Gardiner and our Magnolia exhibits and the Caerhays Michelia stand.

Michael has decided to call his new Michelia hybrid ‘White Phantom’ and an application for registration will go off shortly to Magnolia Society International.

Honey bees out and about foraging.

To Burncoose gardens to do a rhododendron promotional video.

Pieris japonica Taiwanensis Group looking good on the drive.

The splendid (ex Trewithen) form of Rhododendron macabeanum.

Alongside it a Rhododendron sinogrande not yet fully out.

Rhododendron kesangiae just emerging.

Staphylea holocarpa ‘Rosea’.

Magnolia ‘Honey Tulip’ just coming out rather early.

Rhododendron ‘Snow Lady’ some way off its best.

Rhododendron ‘Endsleigh Pink’

Rhododendron williamsianum x martinianum- it has never had a registered name.

A totally different and very elderly form of Rhododendron sinogrande on the drive with near white flowers.

2022 – CHW

White bluebells in a bluebell clump.

A large gathering for Lord Falmouth’s funeral yesterday in the cathedral (George was 102) with a few Boscawens due to enter the show at the Savill Garden on Saturday. We will still be tied up with trenches.

Badly frosted Gunnera manicata below the Kennels. As ever the bottom of Old Park has caught what little frost we have had this week. Elsewhere in the country everyone is moaning.

Unfrosted nearby however is the first flowering of Jaimie’s latest cross. Magnolia ‘Atlas’ x Magnolia sargentiana (pure species). M. sargentiana has flowered only once in 40 years and this was used as the pollen parent for this cross in 2009. You can see the elongated tepals of M. sargentiana but overall the flower is darker in colour than I would have expected from a M. ‘Atlas’ seed parent. It may yet fade. Five flowers in bud, nearly out and one more frosted.

More of the newly planted Amelanchier collection have their first flowers:

Amelanchier ‘Jenny Belle’

Amelanchier laevis ‘Snow Cloud’ (‘Majestic’)

Amelanchier grandiflora ‘Robin Hill’

Amelanchier ‘La Paloma’ F.C.C. – large flowers and large clusters.

Amelanchier laevis ‘Snow Flakes’

Amelanchier asiatica (1978-2124 H.A.) with very different leaves and flowers.

Amelanchier laevis ‘R. J. Hilton’ – pink in bud

Amelanchier alnifolia ‘Pumila’

Frosted Magnolia ‘Golden Cup’.

Dogshit on sticks!

However Magnolia pseodokobus ‘Kubishimodoki’, a little higher up the bank, is untouched by the frost.

The trench to the café for the waterpipe and three-phase electric supply to the café is now fully dug on the castle front.

And across the car park in the deep sand. Western Power turn up at 10.30 (two vans) to lay the electric cable in our trench dug at our expense. The cost of the work is £24k without allowing for our staff time or the cost of the digger and Frankie to drive it.

2021 – CHW
Ilex centrochinensis (or possibly Ilex corallina) in flower which I have not noticed before.

Rhododendron edgeworthii x leucaspis at its best.

Aucuba himalaica var. dolichrylla in full flower and quite extraordinary (from Roy Lancaster) by the playhouse. One which Asia should be propagating.

Lindera aggregata just coming into flower.

Phillyrea latifolia in full flower four years on from planting.

Rhododendron monstroseanum full out.

Magnolia veitchii ‘Isca’ above the back yard.

First swallows and house martins seen today at 6pm on a cold evening. About 20 split equally between the two species and feeding gratefully on insects very low to the ground after their enormous journey.
Date of first sightings:
8th April 2020
11th April 2019
11th April 2018
1st April 2017
1st April 2016

2020 – CHW
Do we hear any of the media praising the government for paying out, via county councils and the local rating valuation lists, the £10k and £25k government grants to all small local businesses who have been shut down and qualify (catering, leisure, visitors etc)? Of course not! Quite amazingly these grants are to be paid to millions of businesses on the business rates lists within only 13 days of the chancellor’s announcement. Well done and thank you Boris and Sunak as well as Cornwall county council.Attached is a single page summarising the report by Iain Anderson following the public inquiry in 2002 into the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak. Although written to try not to be too rude about Tony Blair and the DEFRA approach to the mass cull and lockdown of the countryside you will find familiar phrases – ‘Confidence gives way to panic’ and ‘Breakdown of trust’. Tourism businesses in the countryside got no specific government help then. Well done Boris, again, for doing so much better now!The ghastly woman on Radio 4’s Today programme continues to bleat and sneer in equal measure thinking this is good journalism.How I missed seeing Magnolia ‘Blushing Belle’ in its full glory yesterday I will never know but Jaimie did not and here ‘she’ is! This is a 2001 US cross between Magnolia ‘Yellow Bird’ and Magnolia ‘Caerhays Belle’. You can see hints of yellow in the bud and in the veining at the bottom of the tepals but not much.

The first climbing rose out in flower by the School Room window.

A hen pheasant laid an egg in a pot containing a Daphne bholua outside the front door early this morning. No wonder they are such hopeless mothers laying randomly like this rather than in a proper nest.

Overwintered young cattle just let out of their sheds into the castle front. If we still had a visitor season they would not be here.

A rather wind battered clump of Ceanothus ‘Trewithen Blue’ starting to come out.

More overnight frost really has cut back the Gunnera manicata by the dog kennels but they will still recover.

The mini digger has made a good job of levelling the top path in Old Park.

The Forestry Commission have asked us to cut off the younger shoots from the base of sweet chestnuts to avoid them getting infected with Phytophthora ramorum and eventually infecting the elderly trees. We are compliant! A Trochodendron araliodes in the background.

A flower (only one) on Magnolia ‘Ivory Chalice’ which is fair to moderate as a yellow but a reasonable name.

After a lot of thinking and digging in the reference books I think this must be a form of Prunus cerascifera, the cherry plum, which is a small hedging tree native in S. Europe. From a distance I noticed a huge hedgerow of white beside Derrecks Wood and assumed it was blackthorn or sloe (Prunus spinosa) but, close up, these are small hedgerow cherries with striped cherry bark and no thorns. The blackthorn is growing in amongst the cherry but is not out yet. It might be a hybrid with Prunus domestica, the plum, as we do find in hedgerows elsewhere, but the leaf is nowhere near that of a plum. Anyway it is startlingly good here today well away from any other cherry to cross with.

Another Prunus ‘Shirotae’ glows in Bond Street.

A good display on the ‘Pussy Willow’ (Salix caprea) under Dry Walls.

Cattle at rest beside the cherries under the tower.

Pterocarya fraxinifolia needs a ‘lot of room’ as Lord Falmouth (now aged 100) told Dad when he gave him this plant 35 to 40 years ago. Multi-stemmed and spreading/suckering everywhere. See how the cut off branch provided room for a load of vigorous new suckers to appear. At Tregothnan they cut off the suckering root growths each year to try to maintain a single stemmed tree. At Wisley they had not done this yet but will soon need to from what I saw two years ago.

The dwarfish Chaenomeles on the lawn a mass of orange-red flowers.

The mini digger has cleared and levelled the path on Sinogrande Walk.

The mini digger tackles the huge ilex stump on the tree which fell in a November gale. Jaimie moves my car from below in case it ‘got away on them’.

Camellia ‘Cornish Spring’ still with plenty of flower.

We have always called this old plant Camellia taliense on Burns Bank. I doubt that it is and may be Camellia sinensis? The old trunk died some years ago and one shoot came up, as here, from the base. The cold winds have defoliated it a bit but the flowers are pretty.

The rhododendron season is kicking off. Here a very dark form of Rhododendron augustinii is just starting into flower.

And a Rhododendron bauhiniiflorum although the older Burncoose plants were full out a week ago.

Amazingly Ilex aquifolium ‘Bacciflava’ also still has plenty of yellow berries.

Back to magnolias.
Magnolia ‘Kousious’ is now full out. Green and yellow markings on the outside of the tepals when fully out.

So is Magnolia ‘Hot Pants’ and the name now does it credit when it is full out.

First flower on Magnolia ‘Banana Split’.

Magnolia ‘Sunset Swirl’ full out too and very good now.

Magnolia x loebneri ‘Lucy Carlson’ is a UK hybrid bred by John Carlson. Pink in bud, opening pinkish, then just fading to near white. I do not think I have clocked this one before.

Prunus ‘Hally Jolivette’ just starting.

The spraying around the plants in Kennel Close has acted quickly in a dry week.

Bronzy new growth on Cotoneaster moupinensis.

Prunus incisa is just starting into flower. Note the old pigeons’ nest at head height.

2019 – CHW
Just out is Rhododendron soilenhense and perfect for entering in the Cornwall Garden Society show at Wadebridge this weekend.

Tin Garden partly planted up and watered in. Rabbit wires in place.

Prunus ‘Horinji’ just out. These few cherries in Kennel Close have grown and developed very quickly. This is the third one out here this week.

Last year the team got rid of the ivy growing up many of the deciduous azaleas on the main drive. It was smothering them and several had to be cut back hard to get at and remove the huge ivy roots. However there remained five awful flowering clumps of ivy in good azaleas by Trevanions Holly and the Four-in-Hand. I have been moaning about these for months so today I got a billhook and did the business on the lot (without digging the roots). When anyone notices it dying off I will, of course, be told that I have only done half a job and they will be right!

First flowers showing on Rhododendron ‘Elizabeth’ which is early.

Likewise on Rhododendron ‘Tessa’ (moupinense x ‘Praecox’) which is a bit later than usual. It is more of an evergreen small shrub than Rhododendron ‘Praecox’ as you would expect.

2018 – CHW
To the Savill Garden for the RHS rhodo show. Click here to ALL see the exhibits we saw during the set up after six hours on the road and a dreadful journey to Windsor, with a few highlights below:

Camellia ‘Les Jury’ which we have just planted at home

Rhododendron sulphureum – Forrest 15782 – an especially fine form and better than I have ever seen before

Rhododendron tanastylum – extremely rare!

Prunus campanulata ‘Felix Jury’ – a must-get cherry

Buxus hyrcanus – unusual to say the least

Rhododendron intricatum – very dwarf!

Perhaps a dull list but a useful pictorial reference library for the future. A far better show than seemed even faintly possible only a week ago. Crown Estates won the three main challenge cups and deservedly so. We can only have been the odd point away from the magnolia cup. If only our Magnolia ‘Albatross’ had not been knocked or blown over!

2017 – CHW
A rhododendron planting day from three nursery beds – approximately 80 plants – mainly species.Azalea ‘Hana-asobi’ in full flower. Hose in hose flowers. Behind it is one of the last surviving Azalea ‘Shin-sekai’.

Lifting root balled rhododendrons from the Orchid House Nursery bed. We have cleared this bed now and will re-fence it in the summer.

We saw Rhododendron concatenans in flower before Christmas but these were odd secondary flowers. Here is the proper job!

Another plant of Rhododendron kiyosumense full out but a month later than the one on the drive of a similar size. This is a sub species of Rhododendron reticulatum from Japan and the reference books say that there are several forms.

The elderly but huge clump of Rhododendron loderi ‘King George’ is just coming out. Smaller plants are full out already as we have seen.

Rhododendron veitchianum just coming out in Donkey Shoe.

Schefflera alpina is hidden away in a glade but doing quite well. Does not look that ‘alpina’ to me!

FJW’s cross of Rhododendron moorii x Rhododendron euchates just out by Georges Hut. This is not the best form.

At last we have a Magnolia stellata ‘Jane Platt’ which is actually true to name and pink! Several times Burncoose have been supplied with non pink forms in the past leading to hassle and replacements.

Rhododendron sinogrande ‘Lord Rudolph’ just breaking bud. Judges at shows do not like us entering this one as we (and nobody else) seems to know its origins. The old plant here grew in a crater just inside the corner of Bramble Field gate.

2016 – CHW
A mad rush to clear up after yesterday’s invasion and prepare the rhododendron archive for viewing by the RHS Rhododendron, Camellia & Magnolia Group members who visit us tomorrow for lunch/tour/archive in this their centenary year.The magnolias and other flower arrangements outside the front door have survived from yesterday in good order but the wind is strengthening now. The glass vases are not vases at all but were part of the electricity generating equipment in the Engine House at the Pound which was built pre WWI to supply two plugs per house and electricity to the estate.

Outside the front door the arum lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica), which has not turned a hair all winter, now has five flowers out.

Beside it is a clump of dwarf narcissi which are just going over but have a superb scent.

A pot of double flowered daffodils with a reddish orange centre are looking good by the door but the label has vanished.

2015 – CHW

If ever there was a competition for the most irritating visitor comment on the garden it would have to be on completion of their garden tour: ‘aren’t the primroses lovely’. Yes, of course they are, but how could you not gaze up in wonder at a magnolia or a bunch of rhododendrons! So many visitors never look up! Perhaps we should sell Easter tickets just for primroses just as the snowdrop gardens do in January/February. Then everyone could just look at their feet.

I wonder why the three Vaccinium floribundum above the greenhouse which were doing so well have suddenly all died?

MAGNOLIA 'Big Dude' 03 — MAGNOLIA ‘Big Dude’

MAGNOLIA 'Big Dude' — MAGNOLIA ‘Big Dude’

MAGNOLIA 'Tino Durio' — MAGNOLIA ‘Tino Durio’

Magnolia ‘Tina Durio’, a pure white, is the best plant in the clearing above the greenhouse. There is a larger and more impressive plant in 40 Acres. Perhaps a better shape than Magnolia ‘David Clulow’. The next plant to it is labelled Magnolia ‘Big Dude’ but it is not a very big flower and the correct plant is probably next to the big new Sequoiadendron giganteum.

RHODODENDRON 'Endslegh Pink' — RHODODENDRON ‘Endslegh Pink’

The rhododendrons are starting to rush out after a mild and mainly sunny Easter weekend. Rhododendron edgeworthii has sprung from nowhere and the huge Rhododendron arboretum (white) which is nearing the end of its life is having one last triumphant display on Burns Bank. Rhododendron ‘Endsleigh Pink’ is an old hybrid but well worth its place.

Betula albosinensis above the greenhouse just large enough to start its bark peeling. Two older specimens in Penvergate are much better and now 20 years old. Very different at present from the Werrington ‘Chinese Garden’ and ‘Bowling Green’ (now called ‘ChinaRuby’) forms of Betula albosinensis which I remember growing at Donkey Shoe as a child. The Werrington Forrest collected form (1910) had creamy white peeling bark flushed pink and maturing to coppery red. Too early to say if any of these three will be ex Werrington but I did buy both forms from Thornhayes Nursery 15 to 20 years ago. ‘China Ruby’ is now listed by Burncoose and probably qualifies as the ‘must have’ betula. Time to check the computerised planting records again.

A simply gorgeous day with 428 garden visitors and a coach load on top. Much the same numbers as we used to get on our pre 1992 one (charity) day a year of opening. 340 on Easter Sunday so the marketing of the garden is working.

1980 – FJW
5000 came for the Open Day – traffic problems.

1958 – FJW
Savill and Findlay came + 1250 for open day.

1934 – JCW
Prunus sargentiana may have 70 blooms on and all that lot have flowered.

1932 – JCW
Mag sargenti has two blooms open. Camellias at the Gun room are very good. Pink Cherry wants a day more, not an early year.

1931 – JCW
Very nearly as in 1924 two of Wilson’s denudata are showing flowers, one is pink like the mother and the other is a pinkish white. Lutescens is good again after one knock out by the frost and then another by the wind. Pink pendulous cherry is at its best.

1924 – JCW
Poets just starting, yellow trumpets fair. Been cold and dry for a long while without rain. No cherry in drive yet. Subhirtellas nice also incisa. Mag denudata not open. Not much behind 1921.

1921 – JCW
Poet’s open and daffs on the wane. No yellow trumpets left but nice Leiden and a little colour. Rho amoena at their best. Cherries in Drive very good. Magnolia conspicua, denudata and stellata are all good. The red and white Auklandii types never so good. Bob’s heath in flower and has been for a month or more.

1916 – JCW
Just as the above (1915). R fastigatum is very good at Werrington, it has been cold since February 26th.

1915 – JCW
Many daffs open but no Poets, not the M de Graaf in the drive, all the trumpets and incomps are at their best. Prunus pendula just opening. R racemosum in the drive very good but not all out.

1911 – JCW
M de Graaf is opening, a fairly good lot of Reticulatas open, sharp frost last night which cut rhodo bloom. R fargesii stood it better than others.

1899 – JCW
Lovelace, Chanas, Sir Walter Scott, White Lady etc picked for Birmingham Show. Bob saw the first swallow.

1897 – JCW
I made my first visit to Appleshaw with PDW and bought my first lot of daff seedlings.