2025 – CHW
Saw the first House Martins around the castle this morning. Having been at the show for the last 3 days they may have been here earlier. I would have expected them earlier with the SE winds which we have had.
Flowers aplenty on Carpinus japonicus.
Very different catkin flowers on Carpinus henryana.
Violets opposite the front door.
Rhododendron oreotrephes.
Rhododendron suoilenhense is the best thing in the garden today.
Rhododendron ‘Assaye’.
Viburnum tinus ‘Trelease’ which does not seem to feature in either of my Viburnum books.
Persea japonica with its first fruits.
Magnolia ‘Fairy Blush’ just showing.
Magnolia ‘Lemon Star’.
Magnolia pseudokobus ‘Kubishimodoki’.
New growth on Rhododendron stenaulum.
Tony and Sally Kirkham with Rhododendron suoilenhense.
Magnolia floribunda.
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.
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.
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.
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’
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.
