10th December | The Garden Diary

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CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2024 – CHW

Assessing the damage from Storm Darragh is not too ghastly. It was a North wind so the drive took the brunt of the damage and clearing the worst of the fallen trees which we saw yesterday is well underway. Who gives these storms names? The Met Office in conjunction with the Irish weatherman I am told which is presumably where this ‘Darragh’ came from. I think we got off lightly in the garden but await news of damage to properties. Computers all down and no landline as this was severed by Battery Walk. Only 1 small overnight power cut for us.

The Rhododendron ‘Bo Peep’ clump which we cut down a year ago has not decided to reshoot much.

Despite the recent re-staking the Crataegus ‘Paul’s Scarlet’ has gone over again.

So, sadly, has the Keteleeria.

A Pinus insignis branch below Slip Rail.

Amazingly the dead Scots pine by George’s Hut is still standing.

Plenty of boughs down on the Pinus insignis by Donkey Shoe.

Minor debris above Crinodendron Hedge.

A young columnar oak snapped off and covered in blown leaves.

A large leylandii has crushed the Metasequoia ‘Amber Glow’.

The worst problem is all the leaves that have blown back onto the drive after it had all been so beautifully swept last week. The tarmac/ pothole fillers are due tomorrow is I doubt we can get the tarmac clear in time.

2023 – CHW

Still a full set of leaves on Carpinus rankanensis but it is not an evergreen. All the other Carpinus species in Kennel Close have now shed their leaves.

What a special colour the autumn show is on Glyptostrobus pensilis ‘Woolly Mammoth’.

Carpinus kawakamii is a genuine evergreen, at least at Caerhays. You can even see fresh secondary new growth here.

Here are 2 pictures of Camellia ‘Gauntlettii’ (‘Sodekakushi’) by the front door. Compare to yesterday’s offering. They are, to me, much the same although this one has been out for 3 or 4 weeks before Camellia ‘Nobilissima’.

2022 – CHW
Definitely a two jumper day and gloves. Not quite freezing here by day but a clear moonlit sky overnight will bring the second proper frost of the year.Leaf blowing nearly finished on the drive. I enquired why it needs four vehicles and was told two were contractors gathering bits of old magnolia leaf skeletons for wreaths.

The new drainage channels on the drive down to White Styles cottages. Partly old concrete railway sleepers.

A campbellii seedling glowing faintly in the light on Hovel Cart Road.

Carpinus fangiana still in full leaf. Perhaps we will get the first long catkins next spring?

As is Styrax hookeri which is surprising.

Very first few flowers out on the true Camellia ‘Cornish Snow’. Plenty of buds showing colour but the frost may well get them.

2021 – CHW
The electrics are finally attached to the new incinerator at the farm which has now to be tested and signed off by Animal Health.

Magnolia ‘Caerhays Belle’ has still not shed its leaves but very close now two weeks or so from Christmas.

A very late flowering Hedychium coccineum ‘Was To Ziya’. Interesting stem and attractive orange-yellow flowers in mid-December!

A late flower emerging on Magnolia delavayi – six months after its first ones.

The best display of (uneaten) berries I have ever seen on Cotoneaster franchetti below the tower.

2020 – CHW
Mespilus germanica with just a few ripe and well split medlars remaining on the tree. A few did not develop properly and have turned black.

Plenty of flower buds on Magnolia ‘Anya’.

Glyptostrobus pensilis ‘Wooly Mammoth’ with its winter colours. It was near green three weeks ago.

Magnolia decidua finally dropping its leaves. This species does look evergreen until now despite its name.

2019 – CHW
Work has started cutting back the ‘Cornish Red’ rhododendron on Donkey Shoe Corner where it had begun to cover the seat and encroach onto the path.

Nearby Camellia ‘Jovey Carlyon’ has its first flowers. This camellia was previously in rather more shade under a huge Abies grandis which fell down 18 months ago. The foliage has gone a bit yellowish as a result.

Red sky over the castle today.

Later in the morning the two adult swans had walked their two cygnets up to the drive; perhaps to give them the height to fly off out to sea for the first time. Adult swans usually drive away their cygnets rather earlier in the season than this. The cygnets have nearly got their full adult plumage but not quite.

2018 – CHW
First few flowers on Rhododendron moupinense by the sales point about as early as usual.

Camellia grijsii is just out on a cold overcast day with a northerly wind. No scent discernible today.

The flowers on Schefflera delavayi are over and it would seem that seed pods are forming on what was a huge flower spike on such a small plant.

2017 – CHW
After finding ‘Cornish Snow’ was out I thought I had better check Camellia ‘Winton’ by the Old Orchid House Nursery. The original plants are plastered in colour with no (as yet) frost or wind damage.

We have just replanted the old nursery bed with a set of specie rhododendrons mainly from Millais but some of our own production. Plenty of room for more! The bed was a bit stony and moss ridden after many decades of use so we have made a new nursery bed extension in the Rookery. This site is sheltered and in partial shade and we know that it can grow rhododendrons well. Rhododendron giganteum once grew here and is now replaced. It died of old age and smothering by Berberodopsis corallina which grew here on the wire netting surround to the nursery bed.

A quick look into the 12 to 15 year old new planting above the greenhouse.
Olearia solandrii has plenty of feathery seeds not that long after it flowered (see earlier diary entry). A dull plant as I said before but excellent to break up wind in an exposed clearing as here. The seeds are a fringe benefit perhaps.

Still plenty of leaves on some young magnolias and other things despite the time or year. The whole area is growing well with much of interest for the future. All looking good in brief sunshine.

2016 – CHW
Jaimie planted this Magnolia ‘Lanarth’ seedling at the top of Forty Acres wood in 1996/7.It is currently 25ft tall but you cannot see if there is any bud for next year yet as the remaining leaf canopy is still too thick.

The plant is in an area of new woodland planting after the 1990 hurricane. One day the top of the hill may have a purple blotch from afar!Time for a bit of thinning around it now though.

2015 – CHW

Jaimie mentioned that Camellia ‘Cornish Snow’ was out in his mother’s garden near St Stephens. In shoes with no time I did not get far enough to check here but I did find its sister cross Camellia ‘Winton’ just coming out above Orchid House Nursery bed. Again rather early! (Not out yet on the drive.)

‘Winton’ is Camellia cuspidata crossed with Camellia saluenensis. This was made by Hillier’s Nursery. ‘Cornish Snow’ is a Caerhays hybrid with the mother plant of the cross the other way around. ‘Winton’ is a light pink and ‘Cornish Snow’ a pure white. I prefer the white!

Alongside ‘Winton’, quite literally, and totally unknown previously to me, is what I assume from its location must be a self sown seedling of Camellia oleifera. Small flowers but very lovely really and absolutely full out (as of course is Camellia saluenensis seen a few days ago).

2002 – FJW
A cold spell began.

1998 – FJW
Wet with short spells of cold – Big Japonica camellia out on Burns Bank so is Cornish Snow near Georges Hut. All Noblissima have flowers. One flower George Blandford. Unnamed Williamsii clump above Acer senkaki are magnificent.

1951 – CW
George Stoddart came today after measles.

1948 – CW
Camellia sasanqua and oleifera going over. A few lapageria and roses left, also bits of Auriculatum hybrid and 2 or 3 Mag grandiflora. Rho reirii just coming out. Quite a lot of Cam saluenensis and 2 or 3 of its seedling. The big quarry one well out and a few buds picked 3 weeks ago. Very mild and wet. Big Mag sinensis has died, it was 36 yards round. Dead almost to roots.

1926 – JCW
We are later than the 1918 year. Cotoneaster salicifolia and Camellia sasanqua including Delavay’s decorum, and the Maddeni hybrid in the hall.

1918 – JCW
The Engine House double white camellia is beautiful. R dahuricum and R mucronulatum are fairly good.

1906 – JCW
Camellia sasanqua at its very best. Roses remain quite nice. Daffs coming through well. Lapagerias fair.