2024 – CHW
Another storm and plenty more rain which I observed from my bedroom!
Pomaderris apetala still not out in flower although the buds have looked ready to open for a good month.
The ancient Chaenomeles below Slip Rail now at its best.
Camellia x williamsii ‘Celebration’ by George’s Hut now at its absolute best and, like so much at the very top of the hill in the garden, completely unfrosted.
Attractive bark and swelling buds in the sun on Salix fargesii.
We saw Rhododendron stenaulum (Rh. moulmainense) in flower 10 days ago. Now full out and still unfrosted although Jaimie says we had -7° to -8° last week.
2023 – CHW
Cold weather has departed.Rhododendron mucronulatum at its very best.
Cold weather has departed.Rhododendron mucronulatum at its very best.
Spanish bluebells sprouting already.
Snowdrops here emerging slowly.
Last flowers on Camellia ‘Yuletide’.
Still double bud coverings intact on Magnolia ‘Delia Williams’.
2022 – CHW
Despite the first night’s proper frost (-4°) a few more camellias are coming out on the drive. Dry and overcast with a cold nip in the air.Camellia ‘Debutante’
Despite the first night’s proper frost (-4°) a few more camellias are coming out on the drive. Dry and overcast with a cold nip in the air.Camellia ‘Debutante’
Camellia ‘Desire’
Camellia ‘Carter’s Sunburst’
Camellia ‘Magnoliaflora’
Camellia ‘High Hat’ – later out than usual
Camellia ‘Margherita Coleoni’
Camellia ‘Lady de Saumarez’
Camellia ‘Mathotiana Alba’ – rather early
Camellia ‘Adolphe Audusson’
2021 – CHW
Sarcococca ruscifolia with berries and flower on the greenhouse steps.
Sarcococca ruscifolia with berries and flower on the greenhouse steps.
Sarcococca orientalis with pink tinged anthers showing from the flower heads and then white flowers.
Sarcococca wallichii flowers are over but the odd black berry remains.
I forgot yesterday that we also have Sasa (recently renamed Sasaella) ramosa (formerly Arundinaria vagans or Pleioblastus viridistriatus var. vagans just to really confuse you). If left untrimmed this would grow to around 3ft tall but it does no harm spreading here on a bank on the Main Ride with two clippings a year with the strimmer. It does spread quickly but so what.
The Camellia sasanqua x saluenensis chance seedling which we first saw last week has a better flower.
Compare it in size and colour to the nearby pure Camellia saluenensis to see how good our new seedling actually is.
A few more flowers out on Magnolia campbellii var. alba ‘Strybing White’ on a sunny day with blue sky.
The lower down buds still have both outer casings. The second photograph shows one bud frosted.
Tetrapanax papyrifera ‘Rex’ cut to the ground again in the cold. The side stems and the main stems are suddenly leafless. This was not a very hardy form or clone compared to the one on the earth bank hedge at Burncoose; never turns a hair and is flowering now as is a large one in a garden in Trevarrick.
Camellia ‘Cinnamon Sensation’ in shade. More pink in the flowers in full sun.
Our old Magnolia virginiana in full leaf as you would expect. The bluish undersides to the leaves are good in the sunlight. Bark interesting too.
I fear the frost has got the lower down buds on Magnolia ‘Bishop Peter’ which would normally be showing colour soon.
The seed heads on Platycarya strobilacea look splendid in the sun.
These 40 or so named camellias on Burns Bank came from California as cuttings in the early 1960s. They all need cutting down so we can again see them properly but we have only started on the bottom three for now as it would let in too much under draft to the garden above until the new shelterbelts get going. They are all on a plan Philip Tregunna produced 40 years or so ago but no chance of sorting them all out properly without a huge haircut. They were once good new varieties but, I fear, many have now been superseded by later breeding.
Camellia x williamsii ‘Caerhays’ flowers a good six weeks later than the fairly similar shaped (but with different colouring) ‘George Blandford’. The first flowers are high up on the top of the bush and hard, as yet, to photograph properly.
Rhododendron arboreum subsp. delavayi spotted as being just out today above the Main Quarry. Impossible to photograph as yet.
2020 – CHW
Polyspora axillaris var. tonkinensis with its first flowers out at about 12-15ft tall.
Polyspora axillaris var. tonkinensis with its first flowers out at about 12-15ft tall.
Polyspora longicarpa WWJ 11604 now full out but showing a bit of mild scorching at the tips of its leaves.
Jaimie and the team have started work on trimming back the laurel hedge along from Rogers Quarry. Just before he retired, some four years ago, Kerry Burns trimmed the lower bit but now a proper job right to the top of the hedge is well underway.
2019 – CHW
Camellia ‘Cinnamon Candy’ is really very good! About three or four years from planting.
Camellia ‘Cinnamon Candy’ is really very good! About three or four years from planting.
First colour showing on Magnolia ‘Sweet Sixteen’ which was decimated by The Beast last year.
First two, and very unexpected, flowers on Magnolia ‘Plum Pudding’. Magnolia ‘Ians Red’ is usually the first of the New Zealand magnolias to flower but nothing showing on this yet. ‘Plum Pudding’ is normally much later.
2018 – CHW
First flowers on Magnolia ‘Ethel Hillier’ found by Jaimie in Forty Acres wood. An exposed position and blown open I think.
2017 – CHW
The newly planted Camellia ‘Cinnamon Cindy’ is just out by the Podocarpus salignus clump. No scent yet and clearly rather tender. Bought from a French nursery and well worth its place and propagating. I need to look up its parentage but the leaves suggest a Camellia sasanqua cross. The UK is missing out on all the new camellias hybridisation work around the world deriving from the newly discovered Chinese camellia species due to import restrictions and the dreaded Nagoya Protocol. How do the French manage to cheat? In a decade or three the UK will be miles behind in the world of camellia breeding if it is not already. The International Camellia Society yearbook arrives today and scarcely a mention of the UK when it comes to the registration of new varieties of camellia worldwide. All rather sad but at least the x williamsii camellias stand the test of time because of their early flowering and floriferousness. The yearbook refers to 32 species of camellia from Vietnam one of which is aquatic in habit! The International Camellia Society has 1,800 worldwide members. The RHS Rhododendron, Camellia & Magnolia society about 900. China now dominates membership in the camellia world after the US as I suppose it should!
The newly planted Camellia ‘Cinnamon Cindy’ is just out by the Podocarpus salignus clump. No scent yet and clearly rather tender. Bought from a French nursery and well worth its place and propagating. I need to look up its parentage but the leaves suggest a Camellia sasanqua cross. The UK is missing out on all the new camellias hybridisation work around the world deriving from the newly discovered Chinese camellia species due to import restrictions and the dreaded Nagoya Protocol. How do the French manage to cheat? In a decade or three the UK will be miles behind in the world of camellia breeding if it is not already. The International Camellia Society yearbook arrives today and scarcely a mention of the UK when it comes to the registration of new varieties of camellia worldwide. All rather sad but at least the x williamsii camellias stand the test of time because of their early flowering and floriferousness. The yearbook refers to 32 species of camellia from Vietnam one of which is aquatic in habit! The International Camellia Society has 1,800 worldwide members. The RHS Rhododendron, Camellia & Magnolia society about 900. China now dominates membership in the camellia world after the US as I suppose it should!
2016 – CHW
Despite a little frost on Saturday morning (the first for the winter) Magnolia ‘Todds Forty-Niner’ is virtually untouched. It has not moved on much in a fortnight and there is some slug and hail damage. However the plant is at least sensible enough not to open fully in mid January. The plant has a good shape and appears to be slow growing as well as floriferous.
Despite a little frost on Saturday morning (the first for the winter) Magnolia ‘Todds Forty-Niner’ is virtually untouched. It has not moved on much in a fortnight and there is some slug and hail damage. However the plant is at least sensible enough not to open fully in mid January. The plant has a good shape and appears to be slow growing as well as floriferous.
A southerly gale rages overnight.
2001 – FJW
Rain and gales returned after short cool snap.1972 – FJW
First snowdrops seen after boys return. Geo Blandford out well – as is J.C.W. A flower on Keysii – flowers Bo- Peep. 2 Cornish Snow on drive. Returning Loder cup.1964 – FJW
Charles had nice harvest of snowdrops. George Blandford 1/3rd out.
1943 – CW
Half a dozen flowers on Cam reticulata Mary Williams fully out. First red cup in Tin Garden.
1923 – JCW
Hamamelis going over, first Caerhays daff open in the Orchard, many crimson scarlet hybrids show colour, R irroratum is opening. R scabrifolium, lutescens, baileyi, two forms of dahuricum – moupinense, several Caucasicums, a bit of Oreodoxa, some Rubiginosum and 3 cherries.
(Hand Written note attached to page)
I put a little mineral phosphate on the following shrubs going W to E through the new planting in the order given.
Viburnum fragrans, Magnolia salicifolia, Quercus spicata, Quercus glabra, Farrers Oak, Nothofagus dombeyi, Betula albo sinensis of Wilson, one cherry not the true Pilosiuscula.
1922 – JCW
In advance of 1918. No Aconite as yet, snowdrops good, Rhodo’s much as in 1914.
1918 – JCW
Very much behind the above, a few snowdrops and a very few nobleanum starting, the Hamamelis is at its best.
1914 – JCW
A few snowdrops and Aconite, some good rhodo’s in flower in all three woods, mostly based in the blood red arboreum line of stuff, hybrids or pure, but flowers of R micranthum, keysii, lutescens, yunnanense, chrysanthum and barbatum show, whilst R mucronulatum remains very good.
1903 – JCW
Many days behind 98, the coums are very good, no crocus but imperati, picked six minimus.
1898 – JCW
Odd flowers of Clematis indivisa have been out for a week. Weardale above ground, hundreds of crocus open, snowdrops at about their best, very fine and mild.
1897 – JCW
Snow and very hard frost last night, but no ice on the big pond, strong NE wind.