10th February | The Garden Diary

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2025 – CHW

Open to the public again for 2025 with about 6 magnolias showing.

This big leaf rhododendron blew over a year or two ago but some roots remained and the plant is slowly trying to upright itself. Layering is now the best bet.

The end of the laurel cutting and even the bit above Roger’s Quarry.

Wind blown over evergreens above Higher Quarry Nursery and Crinodendron Hedge. Restaking is needed.

More pictures of Magnolia sprengeri var. diva ‘Fire’.

Flowers out on Viburnum wilsonii.

The surviving Schefflera macrophylla also now needs a stake. Otherwise it will suffer the same fate as the larger original plant.

2024 – CHW
Below the Green Gate there are 3 superb cherries today – damp and wet.Prunus okame which is a slow grower and still only a large bush/ small tree.

Prunus conradinae which is further out than the one seen yesterday but also a slow growing small tree.

Prunus ‘Kursar’ is much more vigorous a tree and now 15-20 feet. Planted in 2006 and now showing up well from the lawn.

The hydrangeas by the Green Gate need dead heading but new growth is well under way.

Jaimie cutting some flowers from high up on Rhododendron stenaulum.

For posterity here is a list of the

plant gifts from Raf’s visit last weekend;
Prunus mume ‘Dawn’
Magnolia figo hybrid
Magnolia ‘Little Starlet’/ unknown parentage, most likely a hybrid between M laevifolia and M compressa
Magnolia sp. Ogisu 700 / Magnolia sinensis Ogisu 700, from Sichuan
M. yuyuanensis x insignis
M. xinganensis – syn. Synonyms Manglietia oblong
Magnolia laevifolia x maudiae ‘Eternal Spring’
M. elegans – syn. Magnolia elegantifolia
Magnolia guangnanica – syn. Michelia guangnanica

2023 – CHW
A visit to Burncoose; the first for a couple of months because of the shooting season here which ended on the 1st February. All looking good and tidy with several major improvements undertaken over the winter months.

Our liner order arrives from here France today. Very well packed but it will take someone a day to unpack it ready for potting.

A new bay in construction for our green waste compost.

A new rainwater collecting tank on the side of the large order packing shed.

The new roof of The Copper House is nearly finished. The new chimneys stand out well.

New paving slabs laid outside the sales point.

The office gutters feed into this new emergency water tank.

The new lean-to glasshouse in the walled garden is complete and double the size of the older one.

The 6 main tunnels in the walled garden pristine, well stocked and ready for spring sales.

The bottom glasshouse is now a weaning house for rhododendron cuttings and seedlings.

An air blower as it was near freezing last night. All larger tender plants now moved to the new top lean two greenhouse.

New netted screens to reduce wind blow into the Acer areas.

Good new labelling all round as well.

Additional beds for herbaceous plants and a new bed for deciduous azaleas.

2022 – CHW

Two things to look for today. I had expected to find Rhododendron sutchuenense in flower but they are not quite out yet. In the diary in the 1920s they were very often full out before now. Secondly I had stupidly forgotten to go and look at the huge (seedling) Magnolia campbellii above Crinodendron Hedge.

Camellia x williamsii ‘Debbie’ now has a few decent flowers on several plants.

The Magnolia campbellii seedling is about 25% out. The flowers are still smaller than usual (or last year) with signs of being blown open early in the colouration which has stripes of darker/yellowish colour which will fade as the flowers develop.

Still plenty of tight buds low down.

The very last few flowers on Clethra pringleyi.

AND obvious deer damage lower down the shrub.

2021 – CHW
My Labrador, Nicky, is a greedy individual but he has now taught the rest of the pack to eat camellia flowers on the ground and even off the bush. They must taste nice and not just for the pollen. I do not ever remember dogs doing this in the past. Perhaps Nicky is just bored of me photographing them and is just expressing his displeasure?I think this is Semiarundinaria fastuosa below the old dog kennels. We saw it flowering here in the summer and some of the clumps growing on an old stone faced earth bank (hedge) here are now dead. Other new young clumps already have flower buds. However younger clumps look fine still. I have taken a full set of pictures in case the whole lot dies.

Camellia x williamsii ‘Mary Jobson’ now full out despite the biting east wind.

Compare the leaf form on this Ilex cornuata to the one a couple of days ago. Some flower buds as we saw three months ago too but no berries.

Frankie removing camellia stumps to make way for a new rhododendron planting area later in March or April.

No mess as the ground is suddenly dry. Frankie is the brother of the former head gardener here, Philip Tregunna. All Tregunnas do a fantastically neat job!

Sadly the east wind has blown a couple of Magnolia campbellii flowers half open and, inevitably, when out prematurely, they are white not pink. The rest of the higher up buds seem ok for now.

On the 1980s plans this is shown as Camellia ‘Christmas Daffodil’ which I cannot find in any of the three pictorial reference books. Possibly, on the plans, it could be Camellia ‘Daintiness’ but this is not correct. The flowers have irregular darker pinkish blotching in the petals. [Problem solved! It is C. x williamsii ‘Hiraethlyn’. We have young plants in the greenhouse which I photographed in the diary earlier in the year and I have sorted the muddle on the plan. ‘Hiraethlyn’ is a Bodnant hybrid from 1950. I had considered C. ‘Apple Blossom’ or C. x williamsii ‘Burncoose Apple Blossom’ but the latter is a mounded tight bush.]

The snowdrops once from the Vean are a fine clump.

Cyclamen coum has naturalised itself in assorted colours all over the bank and these are now showing up well alongside the first primroses.

Despite the cold this is a clump of campion which has, so far, escaped the previously mild winter.

I gather that Magnolia campbellii subsp. mollicomata ‘Sidbury’ is out in Penvergate. Just half a dozen small flowers blown open in the east wind. Magnolia campbellii ‘Lamellyn’ on the drive will not be far behind.

View 10th February 1897 – 2020

3 thoughts on “10th February”

Richard Barrett says:

10th February 2019 at 6:04 pm

I remember Mr Tregunna included me in a brief tour when I was in the county back in 1981 or so. He showed us a Magnolia delaveyi which your great grandfather would stare at for some time to set his eyes to the colour green before judging the colour of his hybrid flowers. A memorable day, two great men of Cornish gardens.
Mrs Lesley Hands says:

22nd February 2018 at 2:40 pm

Hello Charles, I used to help your Nanny look after you and David when you were very little people. Your Nanny was Marilyn and Gill Prance looked after David. We used to take you along Cliff Path to Portholland and spend the day on the beach there. My Auntie was cook for the Castle, Mrs Gordon Trudgeon, (MrsGore) and Uncle Gordon was one of the gardeners. I seem to recall a young man called Philip working in the Estates Office too. What very happy memories. Hope you are keeping well. Kindest regards, Lesley Hands
1. Charles Williams says:
  
  19th April 2018 at 3:39 pm
  
  Dear Lesley
  
  Delighted to hear from you.
  
  Philip Tregunna was the head gardener here for 40 plus years. He died about eight years ago.
  
  I well remember Mr & Mrs Gore. What characters!
  
  Best wishes
  
  Charles

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