2024 – CHW
We have now been a full week with no telephone or internet connection. BT advertise widely their 24 hour guarantee to all business customers. The reality is that they are completely useless and we will enjoy making a claim against them. Meanwhile all the office staff remain at home.
The tarmac boys have made a start but ran out of tarmac before they got a quarter of the way. ‘Back Dreckly’ now means tomorrow.
Camellia x williamsii ‘Golden Spangles’ now full out by Donkey Shoe.
Camellia ‘Cornish Snow’ below Donkey Shoe now also full out and perhaps the best thing in the garden in a very dark and overcast day.
A Rhododendron pseudochrysanthum snapped off at the base in the recent wind. The plant beside it has survived being just a bit more out of the wind.
The leylandii burnt up but leaving Metasequoia ‘Amber Glow’ without its leader. I have no experience of how a Metasequoia will cope with this? Our only Halesia diptera has also been squashed but it was not looking good beforehand.
The very first flowers this year on Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’.
What is left of the leaves on the Ginkgo biloba are a superb yellow.
The leaves on Magnolia dawsoniana are still largely green.
2023 – CHW
Acer campbellii var. fansipanense.(BSWJ 8270) still with leaves and good colour but not for much longer.
Acer campbellii var. fansipanense.(BSWJ 8270) still with leaves and good colour but not for much longer.
Prunus serrulata thibetica strutting its stuff at both levels with different (now peeled) colours.
A newly planted out Rhododendron crassum with its leaves curled up as they were in the summer drought. Now its overly wet and blown about so feeling sorry for itself.
Camellia japonica ‘Takanini’ nicely fronts the orange-red branches of Tilia cordata ‘Winter Orange’ in Kennel Close. An excellent colour combination!
Little leaf drop yet on Berberis wilsoniae? Later than usual to go deciduous.
Good autumn colour and ripe fruits on Malus x prattii at Slip Rail.
Acacia baileyana almost out in flower rather earlier than usual although this is a young and vigorous tree.
2022 – CHW
Sheets of ice everywhere. The pair of swans and their one cygnet return to the lake after an absence of 6 or so weeks.
Sheets of ice everywhere. The pair of swans and their one cygnet return to the lake after an absence of 6 or so weeks.
The lower end of the lake is well frozen today.
Camellia x williamsii ‘J.C. Williams’ frosted outside the Rockery but there are always more buds to come.
Hydrangea aspera ‘Robusta’ with leaves and flowers well frosted.
Yet Magnolia dawsoniana still has green leaves.
Three days ago all the leaves on the Ginkgo biloba fell as the sunshine caught the frost. They literally crackled to the ground.
Frosted Zantedeschia aethiopica.
An immature pigeon squab dead on the lawn. Cold or the peregrine we have seen twice this week being mobbed by crows and jackdaws?
2021 – CHW
More removal of lower branches on some trees planted after the 1990 hurricane. The Nothofagus has grown well as a multi stemmed tree but was starting to shade out its neighbours.
More removal of lower branches on some trees planted after the 1990 hurricane. The Nothofagus has grown well as a multi stemmed tree but was starting to shade out its neighbours.
Rabbits chewing on fallen twigs from a Michelia doltsopa.
This deciduous azalea on the main drive at Burncoose is, yet again, out for Christmas. Unusual to say the least but there are a couple of plants here on the drive which do the same although usually in February rather than December.
Cones developing on a specimen Sequoiadendron giganteum bought in for a nursery customer. Our 2007 planted tree has not yet produced any cones.
From Burncoose garden three more fungi identified (hopefully correctly) by one of the nursery staff:
Golden Needle
Split Gill
Turkey Tail
2020 – CHW
First buds opening on the paler form of Rhododendron irroratum.
First buds opening on the paler form of Rhododendron irroratum.
First couple of flowers on Camellia ‘Cinnamon Candy’.
The old Gevuina avellana has massive dieback from the early summer drought and probably needs a haircut to reshoot from the base quite soon. Several of the tall branches on this multi-stemmed plant are nearly dead. I suspect this may have happened before.
Still plenty of leaf on a young Magnolia dealbata.
Flower buds emerging from Fatsia polycarpa which will be out soon.
The leafless Oreopanax incisus which also suffered from the drought and produced a flower (which I eventually cut out) has put on some welcome new growth from the top and plenty of side shoots from the base.
2019 – CHW
A wonderful photograph in Jim Gardiner’s Christmas card: This is a picture of Magnolia campbellii subsp. mollicomata ‘Jim Gardiner’. I guess the flowers have about double the number of tepals that you would expect to see in a conventional mollicomata. It is almost a double flower in reality; quite superb and certainly one to try to get hold of.
A wonderful photograph in Jim Gardiner’s Christmas card: This is a picture of Magnolia campbellii subsp. mollicomata ‘Jim Gardiner’. I guess the flowers have about double the number of tepals that you would expect to see in a conventional mollicomata. It is almost a double flower in reality; quite superb and certainly one to try to get hold of.
2018 – CHW
If ever anyone needed proof of why the war on squirrels is so essential here is a perfect example. A young 25 to 30 year old beech tree completely destroyed by bark gnawing above the Auklandii Garden. The central leader to this tree will now fail. Even if it does not the tree trunk will have a fundamental weakness which will one day cause it to snap off. We have caught 80+ squirrels since mid-June but this is not enough to have saved this tree from this very recent damage. The tree will now have to be felled.
If ever anyone needed proof of why the war on squirrels is so essential here is a perfect example. A young 25 to 30 year old beech tree completely destroyed by bark gnawing above the Auklandii Garden. The central leader to this tree will now fail. Even if it does not the tree trunk will have a fundamental weakness which will one day cause it to snap off. We have caught 80+ squirrels since mid-June but this is not enough to have saved this tree from this very recent damage. The tree will now have to be felled.
Sequoia sempervirens with pollen and flowers showing in December by Bramble Field Corner. An odd time for this to be performing! Jaimie cut a spray and brought it into the house for inspection as I might well not have believed him.
2017 – CHW
Two new plants for the soon to be published 2018 Burncoose catalogue and website.Schefflera gracilis is a small growing shrub here with an extended flower spike and creamy white flowers. This is not a species yet in the garden at Caerhays so I wonder where this has sprung from? Perhaps our own propagation from a gift of cuttings? It appears more tender than some species but this may well not turn out to be true.
Two new plants for the soon to be published 2018 Burncoose catalogue and website.Schefflera gracilis is a small growing shrub here with an extended flower spike and creamy white flowers. This is not a species yet in the garden at Caerhays so I wonder where this has sprung from? Perhaps our own propagation from a gift of cuttings? It appears more tender than some species but this may well not turn out to be true.
Schefflera taiwaniana we know to be perfectly hardy. It is already 15-20ft tall at Caerhays and multi stemmed. This species seems to flower with us either in late summer or in mid/late autumn. I am not really sure why but it does set copious seeds. Here a nice batch of young plants.
2016 – CHW
Euphorbia mellifera is shedding its old yellow leaves by the library window. Very attractive and not seen before.
Euphorbia mellifera is shedding its old yellow leaves by the library window. Very attractive and not seen before.
Two echiums have died without flowering in their second year. Others look fit to flower next year.
Cotoneaster horizontalis has a fine show of autumn colour now the berries have gone.
Echinops battanicus still has a surviving pale blue flower and a couple of buds still to come if we remain frost free. Unusual!
2015 – CHW
Ginkgo biloba is just passing its best colour. Despite all the wind the ‘yellow’ has held for several weeks.
The unnamed Camellia x williamsii is now full out.
So is the Camellia x williamsii ‘J C Williams’ hedge outside the Rockery.
You can just see my old dog, Rio, taking himself down to the beach to see if any of his girlfriends are there rather than coming shooting. Sex before work! Last Saturday he missed the departure of the guns trailer for the same reason and was very contrite at lunch. All the dogs are exhausted but never too tired for a bit of bitching. Saturday’s mob were a bit like that too by the look of them and I am not referring to complaints.
1984 – FJW
Very bad storms all day – Porth Luney beach enlarged – early Williamsii splendid.
1934 – JCW
Most of the lapagerias are away for the most. We put 150 small tree ferns in the nearest quarry to the castle, it was mainly done by a man in the house.
1928 – JCW
A bud of Eriogynum opening in the Hall. C speciosa opening and a few Cam sasanqua left. Hamamelis mollis ½ open. Flowers on the white C japonica Dutch Pearl shows colour.
1927 – JCW
A good few lapagerias flowers, several Rho sulfureum and lutescens, and then odds and ends of rhodo’n. A very harsh wind, next to no frost.
1926 – JCW
Hardish frost last night. Cam sasanqua holds yet. Cotoneaster salicifolia is very good indeed but requires a sunny day.
1907 – JCW
Camellia sasanqua remains, no real frost, solanum quite fair, a fair lot of daffs of all ages have moved up.
1906 – JCW
Several coums open, a good few daffs up.
1897 – JCW
Jack [Williams] picked the first wild primrose.