30th January | The Garden Diary

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CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2024 – CHW

Camellia japonicas now rushing out into flower all around.

Camellia japonica ‘Lulu Belle’ suddenly full out.

Camellia japonica ‘Kick Off’ just getting going.

The variable shaped flowers of Camellia japonica ‘May Costa’. I have often seen this one out several weeks earlier and had been looking out for it.

Camellia oleifera ‘Pink Icicle’ (C. oleifera x C. williamsii ‘November Pink’) is, as you might expect when you think about it, rather a mess. Quite how this cross produced a double flower is questionable?

Camellia japonica ‘Jovey Carlyon’ had a single errant flower in late November. Now it has a few more flowers. Bred at Trewithen in 1987 apparently and not Tregrehan as you would expect.

Camellia japonica ‘Faith’ also has variable sized (and a bit insipid) flowers.

Pterostyrax sp. nova (Crug 15165) is, as we have seen, semi evergreen even after the cold spell.

Camellia reticulata ‘Lasca Beauty’ has its first flower today.

2023 – CHW
Mature and immature female cones on Araucaria bidwillii (or A. angustifolia?)

First flowers out above the greenhouse on Rhododendron ‘Bo Peep’ – Pink Form.

First colour showing on Magnolia ‘Todd’s Forty Niner’.

First garden tour of the year. Belgians, French, Spanish and Czech gardeners and nurseryman led by Raf Lenaerts. Raf also gifted an assortment of Magnolias listed below:-

M. ‘Lennon’

M. delavayi (pink) x grandifloraM. figo var crassipes x (foveolata x laevifolia)

M. (laevifolia x champaca) x (laevifolia x maudiae)

M. Opipara

Plenty of flower out on a young Azalea ‘Greenway’.

First flowers out on Rhododendron ririei above the Main Ride.

2022 – CHW
Camellia reticulata ‘Show Girl’ below Rookery Path is, as usual, outstanding and very early (C. sasanqua ‘Narumigata’ x C. reticulata ‘Damanao’).

Camellia ‘Christmas Beauty’ with its first late January flower! A nice enough red and new to us.

A sister seedling to Jaimie’s cross, Rhododendron ‘Maisie’, is just out. It does not have the reddish blotches in the trumpet that ‘Maisie’ does (Rh. moupinense x Rh. chrysodoron). ‘Maisie’ is registered with the Rhododendron Society but this one is not.

Unnoticed until now Rhododendron ‘Crossbill’ is suddenly full out. I looked on Sunday but this is at the back of the original clump.

Camellia x williamsii ‘Hiraethlyn’ was cut down a few years ago and given more light. It is a splendid show today and possibly the best camellia seen today by Jaimie and I.

Tom Hudson’s wild collected Rhododendron ririei a splendid (if slightly LBGT) colour as it opens up.

Carpinus kawakamii in its full evergreen glory. The only evergreen Carpinus.

2021 – CHW
A Burncoose trip started in the usual rain but improved.

Lonicera x purpusii ‘Winter Beauty’ out in the sun in the nursery.

The herbaceous potting has been going on apace and the beds in the trade area are starting to be tidied up after the rather dramatic path widening to make it quicker to pick up plants in small vehicles.

Ribes laurifolium ‘Amy Doncaster’ nearly out. A nice red tinge to the foliage.

The new multi-span tunnel is getting there. Needs a warm still day to get the covers on.

Camellia ‘Red Dahlia’ out in the two/three year old camellia tunnel which is already emptying fast from internet orders.

Camellia ‘Sundae’ just out here but not yet in the garden at Caerhays. Poor colour as yet.

Good to see a crop of the newly introduced to the catalogue Camellia ‘Show Girl’.

Masses of rhododendron liners awaiting potting.

Santolina ‘Lemon Fizz’ – a few stock plants put aside as this is not yet for sale online I believe.

A huge single very light pink camellia outside the front door of The Copper House which sits nearby the nursery entrance. I think it is probably Camellia japonica ‘Akebono’ which was a Japanese variety introduced to the US in 1931. Certainly it is a very old plant outside the front door of what was once the office of the Williams Estates Cornish Mining Company Ltd. This was wound up in 1964 when the Copper House was sold by my father and great-uncle, P M Williams.

This huge beech tree at the entrance to The Copper House was felled by order of the highways department as a threat to the main road (A393).

A fine huge clump of the semi evergreen Lonicera fragrantissima on the roadside by the nursery entrance and near The Copper House.

A fine Picea amorika in The Copper House garden. Around 40 to 50 years old.

2020 – CHW
Now that I can see all varieties of Daphne bholua flowering at the same time it is noticeable how similar they actually are in reality. In some cases it is the colouration of the buds which distinguishes individual varieties and in some cases the colour of the fully open flower itself is the distinguishing feature. This can clearly cause a bit of confusion.Daphne bholua ‘Spring Beauty’ is very lovely.

Daphne bholua ‘Peter Smithers’

Daphne bholua ‘Perfume Princess’

Daphne bholua ‘Guardsman’ was only just coming out.

Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’

When you look at these together you can see what I mean.

I was also surprised to see nice flowers on Azalea ‘Carnival’ but of course no beautiful scent here.

2019 – CHW
Around 15 Canada geese have arrived suddenly on the lake and the swans are up in arms at the intrusion driving the geese onto the land.

My old dog, Rio, is now nearly 15 but he still manages to escape most days to the beach to see his ‘friends’. Otherwise largely crippled up there is still plenty of ‘spring’ in him at the thought of a lady.

The gales have washed much of the sand off the beach as is often the case at this time of the year.

However the sea defences and boulders have held firm so far.

Sleet and snow later in the day which did not settle here but produced 8-10in on the north coast. The magnolias outside the back yard survive intact.

2018 – CHW
A good looking order of new camellias for planting out from Trehane Nursery.

One is Camellia (hybrid) ‘Spring Mist’. A pleasant small white double flower and lots of them!

2017 – CHW
The first magnolia has just come out and it is Magnolia campbellii ‘Strybing White’.

2016 – CHW
Yet more magnolias. Magnolia campbellii ‘Lamellyn Pink’ is out on the drive and has five flowers out with 40 to 50 more to come although planted in only 2008. I am not sure if this is a scion from the superb Magnolia campbellii above the house at Lamellyn gardens which I admired shortly before Jeremy Peter-Hoblyn’s recent untimely death or a seedling from the original. It is a wonderful dark pink and, as you would expect from a campbellii, a tulip shaped flower.

Also Magnolia mollicomata ‘Sidbury’ is out in Penvergate. This was early last year and I missed it altogether. The original grows at Sir John Cave’s house, Sidbury Manor, in south Devon and dates from 1946.

1990 – FJW
C.saluenensis past best – a week of strong gales. Garden damage very bad. IN FACT THE WORST SO FAR.

1989 – FJW
STILL EXTRAORDINARY – flower of Mag Bishop Peter. Record cold in Alaska.

1972 – FJW
Cold spell hard frost – Crossbill too far out.

1947 – CW
Heavy snow, Church Hill blocked. All Western Hunt meetings stopped. I stayed in London as transport impossible and Mary at Penzance 1ft in backyard.

1944 – CW
Single Camellias almost at their best. Lady Clare opening. Double white Sasanqua below nursery window good. Some Lapagerias and first Cyclamineus out. Two yellow incomps in Tin Garden. Rho mucronulatum very good. Arboreum and Blood red opening well. Many sutchuenense x Arboreums out, also ririei. Hergest Reticulata at its best – several Reticulata species good. Crocus, snowdrops and hundreds of wild primroses.

1931 – JCW
Lutescens and Ririei give flowers. Cyclamineus give no colour yet.

1926 – JCW
Prunus conradinae in one case is half open. R lutescens and Ririei very nice. One or two Thomsonii hybrids flowers opening. Scabrifoliums the same. Cyclamineus starts.

1912 – JCW

A hard frost last night which cut the buds out of Auklandii and Aucklandii hybrids. Ice on the pond on a small part of it.

1908 JCW
C coum very good, snowdrops also. No Camellia, one trumpet shows colour. Aconites open well, a very late year. Clematis balearica very nice.

1907 – JCW
C coum were never better, snowdrops are good, far behind 1900 only 1 Camellia open.

1900 – JCW
Nearly all the Minimus, one Soleil D’or, several anenomes, a few crocus, a large lot of Coum and snowdrops, a good lot of Iris stylosa, all the Aconite, many Camellias.

1898 – JCW
I made my first x Minor with Soleil D’or, Magnolia halleana (stellata) open and flowering.