7th August | The Garden Diary

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View 7th August 1897 – 2020

CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2026 – CHW

Steve has taken these pictures of new plantings beside the sea wall in Penzance. If arranged by the Council a masterly bit of garden design but what will it look like after a few storms next winter? Nevertheless clever use of Verbena, Rudbeckia, Stachys & Stipa.

Rhododendron excellens has benefited from watering.

Rhododendron stamineum with drought leaf drop.

Rhododendron davidsonianum with drought die back.

A young Rhododendron keysii dying in the drought.

The HQ Nursery bed is not looking too bad after frequent watering.

Rhododendron formosum in HQN half dead.

Drooping seed heads on a drought suffering Viburnum rhytidophyllum.

The big leaf Rhododendrons below Lower Quarry Nursery are in a terrible state despite watering.

Rhododendron grande on HC Road dying.

2025 – CHW

Cutting and hand hooking now finished in Old Park.

Prunus lusitanica subsp. azorica going ahead well. A gift from Gorwell or perhaps a cutting from them.

Fokienia hodginsii which we grew from seed in 2018. I do not think it is true to name unless, perhaps, this conifer has different immature foliage.

Quercus hypoxantha doing well after deer damage in earlier years.

Nothaphoebe cavaleriei also doing well in Tin Garden.

2024 – CHW
Magnolia ‘Star Wars’ performing again in August.

A sad story from the archives dated 31st July 1958.

Magnolia ‘Apollo’ is nearly as good (in August) as M. ‘Star Wars’.

Hoheria angustifolia was full out at Ventnor but only now just starting to show here.

Magnolia ‘Todd’s Forty Niner’ covered in secondary flower.

Jaimie cut a spray of Magnolia ‘Star Wars’ for the front hall where it looks splendid.

The 3 stages of the developing flower on Hydrangea paniculata ‘Skyfall’. Greenish to white.

2023 – CHW

New chimney stack on the stable flat. Jackdaw proof and, we hope, no more smoke escaping from the side of the stack.

This top grafted Crataegus laevigata ‘Gireoudii’ with its variegated leaves had sprung a large sucker from the rootstock. The sucker was in fact Sorbus intermedia (Swedish Whitebeam). I had not realised that the sucker was coming from the top graft itself and not the base. Quite a job to cut it out amid the prickles.

A top grafted Sorbus reducta with seed turning already.

One bit of Rhododendron schlippenbachii looking as though it is on the way out in this clump on the drive.

Metapanax davidii with two flowers. Not one to write home about as I may have said before.

Last flowers on Rhododendron ‘Royal Flush’. I guess held back by the drought.

A seed head on Pittosporum adaphniphylloides – just the one.

Our best and oldest Polyspara has died. Not drought but possibly cold last December when it was in flower or honey fungus. When we dig it out the answer may be clearer.

2022 – CHW

A charity open day at Leslie Barker’s garden in St Austell. Perfect as ever but this year the lilies are at their best while the Thalicitum are over. Last year it was the other way around.

Lilies superb!

Phlox ‘Bright Eyes’ and Crocosmia masonorum.

Phlox ‘White Admiral’ and Astilbe ‘Federsee.

The scent of the sweet peas was overpowering. A wonderful crop of flowers despite the dry summer.

Leslie’s begonias.

Buddleia ‘White Profusion’ behind Dicksonia antarctica – a good combination.

A fine bed of Lilium superbum. These used to grow here outside the back yard and I would like to revive a patch somewhere.

Is this Persicaria tenuicaulis? Suspect not as it is in full flower now. P. tenuicaulis is the only species which is listed that grows as small as this as a rockery plant.