14th January | The Garden Diary

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2026 – CHW (images to follow)

Terrible damage up Hovel Cart Road. The force of the wind unbelievable (but not really as I was stuck in it myself for 2 hours on the drive last Thursday).

Rhododendron sinogrande and decorum uprooted in Lower Quarry Nursery. Fine plants gone.

The first huge Pinus insignis along from Higher Quarry Nursery. The top burnt up and the trunk to follow.

Multiple rhododendrons blown over below Hovel Cart Road. A clean sweep of the whole clump.

Drive pheasant pen has ceased to exist. A clear fell here eventually. What to replant? A good acre or two here.

Another gigantic Pinus insignis along HCR. Look at the stones in the gigantic root ball.

Below HCR.

A huge ash tree above HCR with multiple nice things under it.

The very rare Meliosma oldhamii has survived now in splendid isolation!

A huge beech tree has fallen towards the main quarry smashing many historic/original rhododendrons on the way. Gigantic mess and days of careful work on this tree alone.

Today’s up-country shooting party oblivious to the Cornish storms and totally surprised. No one cares about Cornwall!

2025 – CHW

Acacia baileyana ‘Purpurea’ now properly out but not flowering much. The few flowers on A. baileyana are now over.

Another group of Camellia ‘Yuletide’ are only just starting to flower above the greenhouses while the other 2 plants on the drive are nearly over.

Loads of ripe seed on Vaccinium dunalianum var. megaphyllum.

Schefflera shweliensis (TH 3330) with good new growth.

Michelia laevifolia x Michelia maudiae ‘Eternal Spring’ with no velvet on its buds.

Schefflera trevesioides (BWJ 15158) has foliage on the top but is reshooting lower down. Cut it back or not? Decide in 6-9 months.

2024 – CHW

Colder and a north wind. Perhaps we are due some snow?

Camellia lutchuensis just coming out below Slip Rail. Not scented as yet but soon will be.

A pigeon’s nest now visible in a 2010 planted Prunus incisa in Kennel Close.

We have been watching Carpinus rankanensis for weeks to observe the late leaf fall. Still plenty of green leaves today on the 2010 planted tree.

Callicarpa pilosissima (NMWJ 14508) still fully evergreen.

Callicarpa (TH 2754) with its first berries on show.

Still the odd flower on Eucryphia lucida ‘Pink Cloud’.

The horrid remains of a drought starved rhododendron.

2023 – CHW
To the Top Lodge down to Red Linney to see which camellias are out here.Camellia japonica ‘Debutante’

Camellia x williamsii ‘Galaxy’

Camellia japonica ‘Carter’s Sunburnt’ – one battered flower only.

Camellia japonica ‘High Hat’

Camellia japonica ‘Alba Simplex’ a bit battered.

Camellia x williamsii ‘George Blandford’ above OHN looking superb.

Camellia ‘Cornish Spring’ with its early flowers hidden inside the bush. Earlier than usual.

2022 – CHW
The 1897 planted Magnolia stellata has once or twice come out in January. The buds are swelling nicely but I doubt that we will see colour this month.

The Spanish bluebells are now showing up vigorously.

Rhododendron ‘Cornish Red’ has been battered by the rain but is now attempting to come out properly.

Camellia ‘Yuletide’ almost over and rather battered too.

Massive flower drop under the record sized (unnamed) Camellia x williamsii outside the front arch. There will still be a few flowers left until April if it is a ‘normal’ spring.

2021 – CHW
A few more rogue flowers out on the Rhododendron davidsonianum hedge behind Donkey Shoe.

A large flowered Camellia reticulata which should probably have had a name hidden away near the new species of Rhederodendron. Predates the camellia planting just above/behind Donkey Shoe by the look of it. Before my time!

A young Schefflera aff. pauciflora from Crûg produces ripe berries for the first time. Never saw the flowers.

Then a viewing of the evergreen oaks above the greenhouse to marry up with those photographed recently above Crinodendron Hedge.
Lithocarpus corneus (label missing) Multi stemmed with bark much more like young Lithocarpus pachyphyllus.

Quercus wizlizenii with attractive bark. Planted 2007 and now 15-18ft tall. Similar to Quercus agrifolia in the Rookery.

Quercus unknown and not on the plan – annoying. More or less evergreen.

Lithocarpus lepidocarpus (CMBS 2003-1175). Planted 2009.

Lithocarpus corneus with deer damage to the stem. Does not look quite the same as the ones photographed earlier but in more shelter.

Another larger Lithocarpus lepidocarpus which has had more shelter. Attractive bark again. Planted in 2009 and now 12ft or more.

A good show on Camellia x vernalis ‘Yuletide’.

Circa 1980 planted Acer kawakamii (syn. caudatifolium) is dying in the Auklandii Garden and the rotten branches cut out but the rest will die soon. Another infection of a snakebark maple. Tedious but now a regular occurrence in older snakebarks in many woodland gardens.

The supposedly record sized Pittosporum eugenoides ‘Variegatum’ in the Auklandii Garden. It is now crowding out a patch of once layered rhododendron hybrids of my father’s (taken from the Rookery) but we dare not cut it down now.

Lithocarpus species currently in the Caerhays collection:
L. cleistocarpus | One elderly original. One 40 years or so old from a cutting from the original.
L. hancei | Donkey Shoe – original introduction
L. pachyphyllus | Several of varying ages – some original
L. uvariifolius | Original
L. variolosus | Nigel Holman wild collected
L. edulis | A sucker from the original tree survives – identity has been queried
L. corneus | Alan Coombes. Identity needs checking – see New Trees.
L. lepidocarpus | Alan Coombes
L. glabratus | Crûg Farm or Pan Global but looks different to one at Rosemoor?Need to find:
L. kawakamii | Tregrehan have
L. densiflorus
L. dealbatus
L. henryi

View 14th January 1897 – 2020