14th December | The Garden Diary

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CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2024 – CHW

Damage at Burncoose tree wise not too bad but half the show tunnel cover and the magnolia tunnel covers blown away. Sadly the Schima khasiana which flowered so well in October has snapped off at the base so a Burncoose Cornish Record Tree bites the dust. A 40 foot tree to clear up.

A body washed up at Portholland on Sunday after Storm Darragh but nobody knows anything more as yet and nothing in the local news which is odd. We later hear this was the body of scuba diver who vanished off St Anthony Head on 22nd September.

Storm damage at Penvergate. Council property I believe.

Storm damage at Goviley Barn will be an insurance claim and possibly also for the barn damage at Higher Polgrain. I say again that, so far, we have got off lightly but with no phones or internet for several days there may yet be more bad news.

Last few flowers on Mahonia japonica which first had colour in late September below the Playhouse.

The elderly Pieris above the wall which was so badly affected by the drought is dying. The leaves on the lower shoots are a sickly yellowish colour.

Buddleia auriculata by the Hothead still has a few flowers. It has grown into a much larger shrub than the one at Burncoose. Too windy for any scent today.

A rogue flower cluster on Rhododendron tephropeplum also at the Hothead.

No apologies for another picture of the gorgeous Luculia gratissima.

Chorizema caudatum still has a few flowers.

The new oak trees from Pavia safely in the greenhouse now.

A Rhododendron williamsianum dying in its pot. It should have gone to be planted in the nursery bed in the summer where it might well have survived. Rhododendrons do so much better not being in pots.

Surprisingly a rooted cutting of Aucuba himalaica var dolichophylla has a flower. A gift from Roy Lancaster originally.

Lysionotus kuangensis (successfully grown from cuttings) has a flower or two.

2023 – CHW

A foul day with another south-west gale looming up. Almost unsafe and more than a little damp at the top of the garden as the trees rattle.

The 15 new magnolia hybrids from Germany as safely hidden in the cash point greenhouse. The only place we have for this number of plants is at the bottom of the Kitchen Garden.

A small leaved Cornish elm (Ulmus minor subsp. angustifolia) with decent autumn colour just above Roger’s Quarry.

Planting and wiring complete by the fallen acer and on all the December plantings out. We think that we have cracked it now and in October but all the rhododendrons and more tender things still to do.

A small Aucuba omeiensis near George’s Hut is doing well.

Quercus insignis looking good and no tender pink autumn new growth is visible this year. I don’t think I saw it in September/ October so a positive feature of the early summer drought? A frost will not now harm it.

Raf Lenaerts gift of Magnolia changhuntana x M. insignis is doing well.

As is Pittosporum glabratum beside it. Now 6-7 feet tall in no time.

2022 – CHW
The cold snap continues. The Back Yard is a sheet of ice. Freezing rain showers. Roads unsafe.Rhododendron augustinii with a few secondary flowers by Tin Garden.#

At the top of the garden little frost damage yet. Camellia x williamsii ‘J.C. Williams’ with minor damage.

Fuchsia hatschbachii still in full flower in Tin Garden.

A now virtually leafless Kennel Close.

Except for Carpinus caroliniana.

Sprayed out circles for rhododendron plantings in Kennel Close in early spring.

Camellia japonica ‘Takanini’ now full out.

2021 – CHW
Cleaning out the roof gutters which run through the roof space over the castle is not a pleasant or easy job. They can readily become blocked by a dead bird or large magnolia leaves. Here is Jaimie actually in the roof space with the new inspection covers off rodding the roof gutters to remove silt and house martin droppings accumulated over the summer. Prior to the new leadwork these inspection covers did not exist.

The view over the battlements from the castle roof.

2020 – CHW
A small smattering of rather unimpressive flowers on Osmanthus x fortunei which I have been waiting to catch. Some on the stems and a few as terminal clusters.

Araucaria bidwillii with copious new growth emerging. This tree is growing very rapidly – 14 years or so from planting.

Plenty of flower bud clusters on Acacia baileyana but no colour as yet.

Magnolia ‘Todd’s Fortyniner’ was showing colour by Christmas in the last two years and out in late January. Here it still has some leaves and the buds look still too small to surprise us again.

First rather pale and insipid flowers on Rhododendron ‘Christmas Cheer’. On time, for once; unlike in the last couple of seasons.

2019 – CHW
Camellia x hiemalis ‘Dazzler’ just coming out outside the front gate. A really good red sasanqua cross.

The record tree Camellia x williamsii which is not named is just out at the very top. Say 30ft up. Quite a bit later into flower than many of the other x williamsii camellias viewed in the last two or three weeks.

2018 – CHW
A few new plants at Burncoose today.Taxus baccata ‘Repens Aurea’ is a new golden yew. A new introduction for next year’s catalogue and website I guess.

Juniperus pingii ‘Hulsdonk Yellow’ – another new one for next year which I may have photographed already. Not very yellow at all at this time of the year.

I am not sure I have seen better coloured Microbiota decussata. At first glance the plant appears completely dried up and brown but this is simply its winter plumage.

Heucherella ‘Solar Eclipse’ may not be looking its best but you can still see why it has this name in a mild December.

I have never really taken in the spectacular autumn colour on the deciduous Eucryphia glutinosa but these were looking quite spectacular today. The edges of the leaves remain green to dark green while the centres of the leaves are red and yellow.

2017 – CHW
Correas in full flower for Christmas. What great plants these are for the greenhouse.Correa ‘Marians Marvel’ looking pristine.

Correa backhouseana just out.

Correa harrisii just starting to fade.

Ceanothus ‘Dark Star’ with flowers.

The magnolia tunnel all tidied and re-potted. See the before and after!

Solarium jasminum ‘Album’ still with flower in a tunnel.

Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Jelena’ just out. Other varieties still to show colour.

Schizostylis coccinea ‘Major’ still with plenty of flower (hesperantha now of course!).

Erica x darleyensis ‘White Perfection’ full out for Chrismas.

Erica x darleyensis ‘Kramers Red’ likewise.

2016 – CHW
Camellia x williamsii ‘J C Williams’ just out through the arch. A little late this year.

The elderly clump of Rhododendron mucronulatum is also out nearby. About its usual timing.

2015 – CHW

Big tidy up in the Auklandii Garden underway with tree pruning, camellia pollarding and removal of deads. The large yew has been pollarded too, about 20 years since I last remember it being done. Lots more light for other things to grow better without letting in the wind.

1934 – JCW
I saw two Camellia speciosa buds showing flowers. So far no frost, no big wind smash, but it has been very rude weather.

1933 – JCW
Just the hardest frost I can remember, I expect all the fuchsias are dead and the flower buds in all our soft rhodo’s.

1932 – JCW
Erica darleyense is starting to open, had a record smash for one tree’s work on the Engine House nursery.

1926 – JCW
No Erica darleyense yet. Hamamelis mollis ¼ open, the rest much as in 1922, the Maddeni hybrid in particular.

1922 – JCW
Erica darleyense, Berberis polyantha, Cotoneaster salicifolia are the best things and a nice lot of flower on one. R cyanocarpum and one Maddeni x Roylei, this last has been out for six weeks.

1919 – JCW
Some Hamamelis is in full flower. Clematis cirrhosa is open well.