17th December | The Garden Diary

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CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2024 – CHW

Last week Lizzie and I attended Peter Bickford-Smith’s funeral at Stithians Methodist Church. A good turnout for one of Cornwall’s tru e characters who stood up well to the loss of his Trevarno Estate and his conifer collection. Trevarno was (according to Peter) the first place in the UK to flower the Mexican climbing hydrangea – H. seemannii. I remember a viewing after dinner there where we admired it by torch light with its bulbous white flowers. Trevarno has a superb Agathis australis, which I had then never seen before. I wonder if it still survives today under Russian ownership?

Trevarno (after Peter’s time) used to be a Great Garden of Cornwall and open to the public full time but has since become very private. Peter could be incredibly kind and generous but also unbelievably rude and one never know which Peter was actually going to turn up. Simon Rogers read the eulogy which was fairly tame and Micky Bickford-Smith delivered the tribute as only a Bickford-Smith could.

A Rhododendron ‘Countess of Haddington’ blown over at the garden entrance.

Camellia sasanqua ‘Show Girl’ has produced new flowers after Storm Darragh.

In a group of Camellia cuspidata only one is in flower.

The one in flower has a cascading habit while the others are more upright. This suggests that they were originally grown as a batch of seedlings.

A disaster! Our UK record tree Eurya japonica has blown over. The one next to it is dead but we still have a self-sown seedling in the Auckland. The fallen tree has plenty of flower bud but there is rot at the base of the trunk. Still worth cutting it down to say 5-6 feet to see if it will reshoot. We need to keep an eye out for more self-sown seedlings.

2023 – CHW
The wonderful wreath at the front door which Jaimie and Michael have made again this year.

Here is an email from the RHS relating to the findings about the 3 Gunnera samples they took from here in 2015.
You really could not make this up! I must remember never to participate in future RHS research projects.So now all our 120 year old beds of what we always thought was Gunnera manicata are now condemned to die as invasive weeds. Where are the signs of invasiveness after 120 years? There are none.Barking, woke, nonsense yet again from Mr. Weed’s Royal Horticultural Society.As a response to coverage of this story in the Sunday newspapers a significant number of Gunnera orders were received by Burncoose.An article in The Guardian is shown here.

2022 – CHW
The lake even more frozen this morning.

The new replacement water pipe and manhole over the stopcock at Treberrick Farm now in place in the dry weather. Perfect for pipe laying but less perfect for a field of winter wheat.

Camellia japonica ‘Nobilissima’ now well frosted

The one flower on the Arum Lily now deceased.

First colour showing on Daphne bholua ‘Limpsfield’.

The Echiums have taken a real battering in the frost.

Hydrangea aspera ‘Kawakamii’ well frosted too.

2021 – CHW

The third day of strong east winds. The ground is drying up and it feels wintery with the prospect (distant) of snow next week. First flowers out about 10 days ago on Camellia saluenensis (paler form only as yet)

Camellia x williamsii ‘ George Blandford’ now fully out.

Camellia pruning by the Acer griseum.

2020 – CHW
Reevesia sinica with still tenderish secondary new growth at the top. Now 6-8ft tall.

Despite trimming some lower branches a Magnolia ‘Princess Margaret’ has nearly fallen over and part of its roots have rotted off. Still buds showing for next spring though.

Roy Lancaster’s Christmas card said he was using a picture of our Eriobotrya deflexa in a spring article in The Garden.

Surprisingly attractive peeling bark on Maackia chinensis.

Hidden away behind Georges Hut I find another large flowered Camellia ‘Cornish Snow Michael’ nearly in full flower. So easy to miss these mature but concealed plants. Perhaps the best thing out in the garden today.

One of our young Magnolia caveanas in a totally sheltered and secluded spot has leapt ahead four to five years on from planting and is now 10-12ft tall.

Pieris ‘Charles Williams’ (my uncle not me!) with early bud clusters.

2019 – CHW
First flower buds ever on Jaimie’s 2005 cross of Magnolia ‘FJ Williams’ with Magnolia campbellii. Will this be an exciting new Caerhays hybrid or a 15 year disappointment? We should know by March but you must not entirely judge a new plant on its first flowers in the first year or two. One for our marketing team to be aware of perhaps for a spring media story.

Keeping the gardens ‘tidy’ is obviously desirable but look how much the woodpeckers have enjoyed this bit of dead wood. The new woodland management scheme will (one day when we qualify for it) require proof that we are leaving deadwood for exactly this purpose. Petty but common sense in a woodland garden context.

2018 – CHW
The Polyspora are now fully out and a major and welcome addition to the garden around Christmas.Polyspora longicarpa (WWT 11601) has large spreading white flowers and a similar spreading habit as a shrub.

Polyspora axialis f. tonkinense (BJW 11750) has similar flowers but is a much more upright and larger tree. Now 12-14ft tall and threatening much more.

Camellia ‘Sugar Dream’ has its first flower and is a delicate pink.

An old wasps’ nest in a Camellia ‘Debbie’. Surprising where wasps will make a nest on occasion.

More unusual fungi!

2017 – CHW
The Isla Rose Plantation is now all rabbit wired and staked. Starting to take shape for the future!

A new French camellia very similar to Camellia sasanqua ‘Narumigata’ but labelled Camellia sasanqua ‘Pink ?’ is out. More pink blotches than ‘Narumigata’ perhaps.

Corylopsis ‘Spring Purple’ has a few buds very close to opening.

Polyspora longicarpa, which had struggled to get established, is now flourishing with plenty of flower.

2016 – CHW
Our new squirrel traps bring an instant result!

2015 – CHW

Rhododendron ‘Winter Intruder’ has shot out on the drive while Rhododendron nobleanum is now nearly over. ‘Winter Intruder’ was my father’s hybrid between Rhododendron delavayi and Rhododendron nobleanum. It is a good dark colour and these three plants were moved here as layers from the Rockery. Older plants flank the nobleanums on the upper side of the drive.

Alongside are three rather poor plants of Rhododendron ‘Christmas Cheer’. A rather insipid colour here and lacking the pink tinge which makes the clump at Burncoose hedge so attractive. A poor neighbour to ‘Winter Intruder’.

Next door again are a fine young clump of Camellia ‘Winton’ strutting their stuff in this exceptionally mild December.

2000 – FJW
First frost last night.

1997 – FJW
Snow. Stormy night.

1979 – FJW
David returned as a school monitor!!

1975 – FJW
C.H.W awarded Langdon scholarship to Worcester College, Oxford. First year for sometime when camellias coming out well.

1944 – CW
Camellia sasanqua still has pink and white flowers. Double form out – also a few flowers of Speciosa and its hybrids. Also Engine House double white. Hamamelis beginning to be good. Rho mucronulatum coming out and lutescens. Several lapagerias. All wall fuchsias cut some weeks ago, not in Tin Garden.

1934 – JCW
No sign of daff buds or real rhodo bloom, and no frost or ice so far. No real frost yet.

1933 – JCW
No sign on daffs except the Devon polyanthus. We have had ice on the pond for 3 or 4 days, and about 100 ducks.

1905 – JCW
A good few daffs above ground in the pans and in the open. Cam sasanqua hangs on. Several coums open. An odd wild primrose, a good lot of lapagerias.