7th April | The Garden Diary

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CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2024 – CHW

Another named storm overnight and incessant heavy rain. When will this filthy run of wet weather end? Still no sign of any house martins and the water meadows flooded for the third week in a row.

The grand opening of the Cornwall Garden Society Show yesterday by a TV celebrity gardening presenter who I had never heard of. Apparently he married his bearded male partner at the Chelsea Flower Show recently. His very pampered dog got overexcited by a dalmatian during his very brief speech. Our new show director, Mark Holman, was, apparently, the best man. Not a huge crowd but a tasteful green ribbon!

Rhododendron ‘Cornish Red’ has now lost all its flowers. Bashed into submission by the rain and hail.

An evil looking sea. The tent for today’s Wedding Fair is below the castle rather than on Beach Meadow for obvious reasons.

Purchases from the show including Illicium ‘Halley’s Comet’. (Also Cotoneaster lancasteri, Philadelphus purpurascens ‘Brown Leaf’ and Picea crassifolia – all from Mr. Locke).

White and blue Spanish bluebells.

Azalea ‘Amoena’ racing out on the drive.

I stop to bemoan the premature end of Prunus ‘Shirotae’ as a result of downpours turning the flowers into a brown mush before the petals even fell. A squirrel was up the tree eating what was left of the flowers nevertheless.

Staphylea holocarpa ‘Innocence’ now fully out below the main fernery. The darker pink form was well over before this light pink form came out.

Storm Kathleen is the 11th named storm since the start of the autumn. In a typical year there are 6 or 7 named storms.

2023 – CHW
Decent flowers now on Jaimie’s new cross: Magnolia ‘Atlas’ x Magnolia sargentiana – pure. You can see the narrow tepals which are the result of using M. sargentiana pure as the pollen parent. This has only flowered once in my lifetime in 2009. It is an extremely rare and original plant from a Forrest collection so this hybrid may not be an exceptional bloom but its parentage is unlikely to have been tried by any other magnolia breeder.

Magnolia pseudokobus ‘Kubishimodoki’ now fully in flower but a bit rain battered.

Staphylea holocarpa ‘Rosea’ looking splendid above the greenhouse but with loads of rootstock suckers (S. holocarpa itself perhaps) which need removing.

The pure white Camellia reticulata.

Rhododendron arboreum ‘Sir Charles Lemon’. With the death of the older plant near Donkey Shoe Jaimie was worried that we had lots this! I see a huge plant below Hovel Cart Road as well today.

Rhododendron arboreum ‘Peter Schilling’ nearby is just as good.

Rhododendron ‘Lady Montague Group’ which I see Jaimie has done some crossing on.

Rhododendron ‘Lady Montaga Group’ — Rhododendron ‘Lady Montague Group’

First flowers out on Magnolia ‘Hot Pants’.

Variegated new growth on Aesculus carnea ‘Aureomarginata’.

First ever flower here on Magnolia ‘Wim Rutten’ which looks interesting but only just opening. (M. ‘Forrest Pink’ x M. ‘Marilyn’).

Magnolia x loebneri ‘Mag’s Pirouette’ out a bit later than some of the other named double flowering x loebneri varieties.

Rhododendron ‘Elsie Frye’ is the first of the smellies to be fully out.

Rhododendron ‘Blue Diamond’ at its very best despite all the rain.

Amelanchier lamarckii just about full out.

We have never had a name for this very late flowering white magnolia on Bond Street below the 4-in-Hand. It is so vigorous and so late that I think it must be the white form of Magnolia x veitchii called ‘Isca’ (or possibly ‘Columbus’). M. x veitchii ‘Columbus’ was named by John Bond in 1992 and that dates its planting more or less spot on as he gave us many new things after the 1990 hurricane.

2022 – CHW

Rain overnight and the leaf is rushing out.

A carpet of fallen flowers under a Rhododendron ‘Cornish Red’ clump on Hovel Cart Road.

Then to Kennel Close for an update on what has come out in the last few days.

Another decent flower or two on Magnolia ‘Lili Diva’.

Magnolia ‘Columnar Pink’ is accurately named. Not a great flower but certainly a columnar habit.

Magnolia ‘Lemon Star’ (‘Swedish Star’) is especially yellow this year and just out. A really good plant and perhaps better than M. ‘Daphne’ as it appears today.

Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’ x Magnolia ‘Serene’ with one flower left.

Magnolia ‘Sentinel’ now full out.

Prunus ‘Horinji’ full out.

Abies fraseri with flower cones for the first time that I have seen.

Betula ashburneri with male and female catkins.

Magnolia x loebneri ‘Lucy Carlson’. Pinkish when in bud then fading to white.

A young Michelia doltsopa in the teeth of the wind flowering for the first time at 12-15ft in height. Amazing how it has survived and prospered when nearby rhododendrons are suffering.

Prunus matsumae ‘Hanaguruma’ (gift from Savill Garden and Harvey Stephens) is very fine indeed today. This is not a Matsumae variety which Burncoose sells – unfortunately.

Magnolia ‘Peachy’ just out but only a few flowers as yet.

2021 – CHW
Still the cold north wind persists but only a little sleet.Old Park is still completely frosted but I do manage to see just coming out:Magnolia ‘Gold Cup’

Magnolia ‘Livingstone’

Magnolia ‘Anticipation’

Even the Gunnera manicata bed is badly frosted.

This mystery rhododendron is not quite Rhododendron arboreum spp. albotomentosum (as I had earlier guessed) as you can see from the underside of the leaves (below Donkey Shoe).

First black flowers showing on Magnolia x brooklynensis ‘Black Beauty’ – they really are black.

Enormous flower clusters on an elderly Illicum anisatum in full shade. The old plant may well be about to die since I have never seen flowers like this before and later in the year than usual.

A young Quercus gregii has lost most of its leaves in the cold winds.

Quercus fleuryi has fared a bit better.

Oreopanax sectifolius has certainly been frosted but should survive.

First flowers on Rhododendron niveum – what a colour!

First flowers on Rhododendron davidsonianum that I have seen. Here a pale form.

Symplocos dryophila full out.

Then a few more rhododendron species suddenly out.

Rhododendron heliolepis (C&N 5758) – doubtful if this is correctly named although it was an Alan Clark wild collection. I may well stand corrected! (In ririei opening.)

Rhododendron araiophyllum (C&N 5796) – first proper flowering and correct (in ririei opening).

Rhododendron wilsonae – this clump of plants is over 100 years old.

We have shown this gorgeous big leaf under various names at the Rosemoor show but settled for Rhododendron hodgsonii. The buds are an exquisite colour and then change. Good to see a few layers have taken in the old Lower Quarry Nursery. The truth is that these were a group of big leaf seedlings planted as a clump after the huge Rhododendron sinograndes here died after the 1976 drought. It is a chance seedling and not a true or pure species. Well worth a name though.

Rhododendron augustinii just out – a pale form below the main quarry.

Rhododendron valentinianum in its dotage on Burns Bank.

2020 – CHW
So now the BBC outrage is about care homes and the suggestion that the elderly might not actually be treated in hospital as they have been ‘coerced’ into signing a ‘do not resuscitate form’. We all die of something!

A friend who is incarcerated in France sends me the last but one issue of Private Eye with a good article on this subject. I had already enjoyed it, but last week’s missives are even more to the point. In a drive for the truth rather than BBC hysteria, pleading, demanding and bullying I attach a quote or two. As I have said before Boris and the government are damned if they do (with no thanks at all) and damned if they do not (because it is impossible to move that fast in reality).

When will the BBC run out of new sets of daily victims who must be instantly appeased with cash and action? Is it the intention of the media to totally bankrupt the country? When will common sense prevail?

Here are the Private Eye quotes:

[…] And yet if the government had continued with its “herd immunity” plan (as Donald Trump is doing), 260,000 people could have died with the virus. Some may have died soon of something else, but the headline figure was a little on the high side even for Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s brain. This sudden surge in demand would crash the health service; hence the decision to crash the economy instead. But could we have stopped the pandemic if we’d got a grip earlier?

Bat-shit crazy
A STUDY of the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 published in Nature on 17 March has pinned it not on mad scientists wanting to rule the world, but on bats. It probably crossed to humans in the live animal markets of Wuhan, which are still the perfect storm for transmission.
The virus was on the wall in 2003, but unhygienic veterinary, slaughter and husbandry practices, and an illegal global trade in exotic animals for food, have continued unabated. Bats are fortunately a protected species in the UK, even if Waitrose has run out of grouse. Elsewhere, they should only be sold pre-cooked, chlorinated or as part of a ready meal.

The self-employed painters have started work on painting the back yard here and are then starting on the village itself as part of the regular ongoing four to five year repainting cycle on the estate. Inevitably woodwork repairs have to precede painting so the hope is that part of our maintenance team may soon decide to come back to work in isolation.

Lockdown in the garden is not proving that tedious but writing the plant care articles for the website certainly is. Fifty done to date out of about 120 still left to do.

The wind has been in the south for a bit but still no house martins sighted yet.

Rhododendron pseudochrysanthemum just coming out. Wonderful indumentum under the leaves.

Views from the top of Hovel Cart Road towards Old Park. The birch species are well into leaf.

The very last clump of daffodils to come into flower each year in April on Hovel Cart Road.

First flowers out on Dad’s Rhododendron moorei x euchaites which has never been named. The best forms are on the drive at Burncoose.

Flowers on a young Rhododendron neriiflorum ssp. phaedropum which I think we saw for the first time last year.

Acer palmatum ‘Orange Dream’ looking good alongside the old yellowish leaves of Neolitsea sericea which will soon drop as the new growth starts.

The first pure white and pink bluebells.

On the plan this appears to be Azalea ‘Gerard’s Salmon’ (Asia may know). A very fine double flower today fading to salmon pink. The plants in this clump came back with us from the garden show at Landriana south of Rome which Burncoose exhibited at a couple of times when the children were much younger. Asia should propagate this one.

This Metrosideros which has been grown on lovingly in the greenhouse for years is destined to try its luck against this wall (where a camellia seedling has just been dug out). Forty years ago a mature Metrodsideros tree grew here and was spectacular in the summer. Asia will need to fleece it up next winter.

Akebia quinata ‘Alba’ is now a dense mat of growth 20ft up this wall. You can clearly see the male and female flowers in the same flower clusters.

This was a gift from Roy Lancaster last year. We are pretty sure it is Pittosporum illiciodes var. angustifolium which has long linear leaves and tiny pale yellow bell shaped flowers on long stalks as here.

Viburnum taitoense has attractive bronzy new growth. Another of Asia’s successes.

Raf Lenaerts’ gift of Magnolia laevifolia x M. maudiae BKR has two flowers in the greenhouse. It came in February this year. Scent good (as would be expected).

I always get muddled between Stauntonia hexaphylla and Holboellia since they appear so similar both in terms of leaves and flowers. I am pretty sure however that this is S. hexaphylla. It is one hell of an old, vigorous and floriferous evergreen climber.

A single flower on a very elderly and probably dying Rhododendron scabrifolium. Not the most impressive species I have ever seen!

Magnolia ‘Yellow Lantern’ is just coming out. A few years ago the wind split this plant nearly in two but the scar has now healed well as you can see clearly here.

Wonderful new growth buds on Salix fargesii. Planted in 2010 and now a stout multi-stemmed shrub.

New leaves on Prunus conradinae planted in 2010.

I find another 2011 planted Magnolia loebneri ‘Lucy Carlson’ which is already a large tree.

Acer morifolium already completely leafed up.

Another Prunus ‘Hally Jolivette’ is full out in the wind.

Buddleia salvifolia just coming out.

2019 – CHW
Jaimie has trimmed the laurel hedge to reopen the view of Porthluney Cove to visitors who walk down below the main quarry. We had not noticed how much the laurel had grown until it was pointed out.

A wonderful Magnolia ‘Honey Tulip’ perfectly in flower in Burncoose gardens today below the beech trees near the lawn. A tent on the lawn for the weekend wedding letting.

Illicium simonii planted out at Burncoose only two years ago is flowering nicely for the first time. Very different to the Illicium anisatum which we know well of old. Nice scent too.

Then on to Trevena Cross garden centre to look at the new awning over their shop front entrance. The listed building officer is objecting to our planning application for a new greenhouse add-on to the sales point (ie more sales area under cover at Burncoose) because he says it removes a historic ‘courtyard’. Since when was a muckyard between two old piggeries a historic ‘courtyard’? Instead we could try a similar covering which might not need planning permission?

I was taken with only two new (to me) plants at Trevena although it is a first class garden centre for varied plants. Picea pungens ‘Edith’ and Vinca minor ‘Verino’. They have an amazing range of agave, Protea and succulents and it is a proper plantsman’s garden centre not one of the bland multiples. All credit to a proper family run business who are clearly doing well. They tried mail order, but found it a hassle, so we probably both have our separate business ‘niches’!

2018 – CHW
Saturday 7th of April saw us claiming nine first prizes at the first RHS Savill Garden Flower Show in Windsor. These are shown below:

We also scooped :

Class 1 – 4th with Prunus serrulate ‘Shipotae’, Stachyurus chinensis, Pieris ‘Charles Michael’ and Osmanthus delavayi

Class 9 – 2nd with R. praestans and a 4th with macabeanum.

Class 13 – 1st picturered below, 2nd M. ‘Purple Sensation, and 3rd M. sprengeri ‘Diva’

Class 25 – 2nd with R. impeditum ‘J.C. Williams’

Savill class 2 - Rhododendron macabeanum, praestans, nivuem — Class 2 – Rhododendron macabeanum, praestans, nivuem

Savill class 5 - Rhododendron arborea niveum — Class 5 – Rhododendron arborea niveum

Savill class 6 - Azara microphillia 'Variegata' — Class 6 – Azara microphllya ‘Variegata’

Savill class 9 - Rhododendron sinogrande — Class 9 – Rhododendron sinogrande

Savill class 13 - Magnolia campbellii alba ‘Trelissick’ — Class 13 – Magnolia campbellii alba ‘Trelissick’

Savill class 16 - magnolia denudata 'Sunrise' — Class 16 – Magnolia denudata ‘Sunrise’

Savill Class 15 - Magnolia acuminata 'Butterflies' — Class 15 – Magnolia acuminata ‘Butterflies’

Savill class 24 - Rhododendron siderophyllum — Class 24 – Rhododendron siderophyllum

Savill Class 32 Win - montroseanum x unknown — Class 32 – montroseanum x unknown

Then we took a tour of the gardens, pictures and comments are here!

2017 – CHW
A rhododendron lecture and tour with 17 attendees.Rhododendron niveum in full flower. Not a colour for everyone but perhaps for the ladies. We need to clear around this plant.

Rhododendron rothschildii now full out.

Rhododendron arizelum var rubiscosum below Lower Quarry Nursery is a superb colour when just out. The debate about its name and parentage continues. I doubt this is correct! These big leaf plants were replacements for ones which died after the 1976 drought. This rules out it being a Rhododendron kesangiae as this was only introduced to the UK about then. Its colour is purple and not that of a ‘red’ arizelum.

Then off on a four and a half hour drive to the Savill Gardens for the RHS early rhododendron show with a few exhibits in the car boot prepared by Michael.

Rhododendron kesangiae exhibited from the Crown Estate. Note how different it is to our plant as above.

Magnolia ‘Phelan Bright’ on the show bench.

Out in the New Zealand garden beside the show tent we find a fine clump of Hebe rakiensis.

Prunus ‘Matsumae Akathu Kinokana’

(Bamboo) Chusquea couleou nicely pruned to show off its stems properly.

Acer negundo ‘Kellys Gold’ with flower and emerging golden leaves.

A fantastic display of Lysichiton americanum which we are now banned by Defra from including in our catalogue and selling as it is considered ‘invasive’! No ban in the Savill Gardens!

Cyrtomium falcatum ‘Rockfordianum’ beside the Temperate House.

Never seen before – Viburnum bitchiuense.

Rhododendron russatum flowering sparsely.

A bold show from Malus sieversii.

Philadelphus coronarius ‘Aurea’ glowing in the sun.

Mahonia nervosa as a mature clump and full out. The mahonia collection here is most impressive.

Primula sieboldii as a nice clump also in the sun.

Erythronium ‘Pagoda’ as a good established clump.

A massive trunk on a mature Acer davidii.

Primula denticulata just fading a little.

2016 – CHW
Another fine and dry day for the 34 members of the RHS Rhododendron, Camellia & Magnolia Group to make their tour of Caerhays and view part of the private and previously unseen Wilson/Forrest archive in their centenary year. From 10.45 to 12.00 we looked at the superb magnolias up the drive. Then an hour in the Billiard Room and Museum viewing the archive and lunch in the Dining Room and Georgian Hall. The main garden tour ended in the tearooms at 4.45 with everyone still dry and somewhat exhausted.

Caerhays centenary day attendees:Lyn Aldridge and guest

Mary Ashworth

Russell Beeson

Peter and Pat Bucknell

Barry Champion

Sarah Chesters

Wella and Katy Chubb

Colin Clark and guest

Edwards

Vaughan Gallavan

George Hargreaves

Alex Hill

Gary Long and guests

Nicky Manisty and guests

John Marston and guest

Graham Mills and guest

David Millais

Cheryl Sapote

Ray Steele and guests

Peter Watson and guest

2015 – CHW

The Spanish bluebells outside the front gate have popped out into flower. We live in the jobsworth era where Defra and the National Trust just love miseducating the public about ‘invasive’ plants. Spanish bluebells (like rhododendrons) have become hated aliens to be abused and destroyed in Dalek like fashion. Supposedly they interbreed with our native bluebells and make their progeny bigger and lighter in colour. These Spaniards have not cross bred or developed at all as a clump in my lifetime although they are surrounded by natives. I guess they were planted by my great grandfather. A year or two ago I had correspondence on the subject with the environmental correspondent of the Western Morning News. The consensus was that this was all another load of bollocks from a ministry that has just supremely cocked up the online computer system for the new European Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) which has now been abandoned in favour of paper applications with an extended deadline. Perhaps I will start the Bluebell Protection Scheme.

1934 – JCW
Magnolias as in 1930. Denudata is the best of them.

1936 – JCW
Cyclamineus at the glass door starting to open on Jan 26th was quite fresh on this day, a late season, some Magnolia kobus – stellata – conspiscua and denudata purpurescens.

1928 – JCW
Poets opening and the best daffs are all over. The blue tit forms are good. The pink Triflorums are opening. Bob’s white heath is and has long been good.

1927 – JCW
We are well behind 1926. No sign of an Auklandii yet.

1926 – JCW
Some Auklandii open. Daffs in the poets are nearly over.

1925 – JCW
No Auklandii moving. Well behind 1923 (April 8th).

1919 – JCW
A few de Graaf open. The spring seems to have conquered the cold now. The heaths are very good. The rhodo’s went a week to shake off the frost. Engelhart and Clare were here for Sunday.

1908 – JCW
The show at Truro. De Graaf just out in a hot place, very few and bad of them at the show. All flowers were rough and below the best form. PDW’s very good.

1905 – JCW
Nearly half our de Graaf open, Weardale going back. Cherries a quarter open.