4th January | The Garden Diary

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CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2024 – CHW

Camellia japonica ‘Adolphe Audusson Variegated’ in its many variations.

First flower high up on Camellia japonica ‘Adelina Patti’.

Last year I was rather impressed with this chance seedling found growing under Ilex x meserveae ‘Blue Prince’. It is clearly predominantly C. saluenensis but with some addition – perhaps the nearby sasanqua? Trewithen have named one or two similar seedlings. My view this year is that it is not as good as I had thought but the flowers are nearly over.

The very last tiny flowers on Camellia sasanqua ‘Hugh Evans’.

Camellia grijsii full out.

Camellia ‘Cornish Snow’ very fine but the wind has spoilt the show a bit.

Camellia ‘New Venture’ just out. Bred by Philip Tregunna.

A small runty plant of Camellia x williamsii ‘Donation’ is suddenly out by Higher Quarry Nursery. Nothing at all on any other ‘Donations’ and I have been looking!

Even stranger are a couple of tiny rogue flowers on Camellia japonica ‘Kitty’ which can be full out in May/ June and have the odd flower in July.

2023 – CHW
Worth another look at the first flowerings of the 3 new Sarcococca species. We saw two only a day ago.Daphne bholua ‘Limpsfield’ starting to open. No scent in the heavy rain today.

Sarcococca coriacea (HWJK 2428) still in tight bud.

Sarcococca zeylanica (BSWJ 10199) almost out.

Sarcococca balansae (BSWJ 7285) in bud and flower now.

None of the 3 are exactly show stoppers! All quite similar and seem to be growing into large spreading shrubs with trailing stems. We now have at least 7 species here.

I have never seen this quite large flowered single Camellia sasanqua before in flower growing in full shade above the far end of Rookery Park. Is it a sasanqua ‘Narumigata’ with little pink showing in the flower in the shade? A very ancient plant from well before my time here.
The large pine branch below Engine House now burnt up. We are disrupted at this point as Lizzie’s Labrador ‘Nutty’ decides his spring mating season has arrived and he disappears down the Coastal Path. Recapture taken 1½ hours and we are both pissed off at our perambulations of the garden being disrupted.

Lord Falmouth’s (gifted, stolen and then replanted) Liquidambar styraciflua has lost its branches on one side from the pine branch.

However Podocarpus parlatorei has lost only its header and is already recovering and reshooting vigorously at the top of the small tree.

The roe deer have consumed the very last green shoot/ leaf on this young Schefflera rhododendrifolia and recently too. Our other plant is already too large for them to get which is a blessing. This one is nibbled each year.

2022 – CHW
Camellia x williamsii ‘Inspiration’ now fully out.

As is Camellia reticulata ‘Mary Williams’.

First flower out on the yellow form of Rhododendron ‘Bo Peep’.

Now that it is properly out I can see this is Rhododendron ririei and not a Rh. grande seedling as I had thought yesterday when consulting the planting plan.

Seeds on Sophora ‘Sun King’.

Rhododendron ‘Winter Intruder’ now at its best on the drive.

2021 – CHW
I had neglected to look at the old 1897 planted Camellia x vernalis ‘Dawn’ for 10 days and it is now full out and quite splendid in the sun today despite the recent frosts. The flowers are slightly irregular in shape and often shatter and get blown away but this is a special piece of Caerhays camellia history.

Cytisus ‘Porlock’ with a good show of flowers (again).

Clematis armandii now has several flowers high up on the castle wall. We saw the first a month or so ago.

Garrya elliptica ‘James Roof’ now at its finest despite some wind scorching on its leaves. A very intricate display within each long tassel. A splendid plant for a dark and cold castle corner.

2020 – CHW
I could not resist photographing Daphne bholua ‘Garden House Ghost’ again now it is full out. The scent is now also simply gorgeous.

The scented narcissi outside the dining room are just starting into flower but no scent as yet. They are usually pickable at Christmas time so a bit late this year. This is Narcissus papyraceus or Narcissus ‘Paper White’ from Spain and southern France.

A ripe black fruit on Sarcococca salignus by the front gate. I seem to have missed the flowers which are now well over.

No sign of a snowdrop or a wild daffodil out yet despite what I read in the newspapers about snowdrops flowering last year in November/December in various parts of the country. A daily check from now on as time permits.

2019 – CHW
Michelia ‘Fairy White’ already has flowers showing colour and tons of buds still covered with their attractive orange furry casing.

Plenty of buds all over Rhododendron lindleyi which will not be out until May.

A strange single flower out on a yellow deciduous azalea below Donkey Shoe. An aberration but I need to check the plant on the drive which often flowers now and there is one at Burncoose too.

First flowers on the huge Camellia ‘California Sunset’. This is only its second year of performing properly.

2018 – CHW
A trip to below the Engine House.Magnolia ‘Star Wars’ is out if you can call it that! Many flower heads blown off and rotting in the recent gales. In fact very few buds left for the main flowering season in two months or so. I guess these flowers, although poor in colour, are actually spring rather than summer or autumn ones. As such this is the first magnolia to be ‘out’ this year (2018). Sorry the picture is so poor.

A clump of seedling Eriobotrya japonica (fourth japonica in three days!) planted on an old bonfire where I thought they would never live or thrive. Massive rabbit damage year on year to the stems and trunks but still they prosper.

A rather stunted and poor Schefflera rhododendrifolia which is struggling. Not sure what has eaten the leaves. Looks more like vine weevil or tortrix moth than slugs?

Cephalotaxus harringtonia var koreana has excellent yellow needles in parts. Very slow growing with a fastigiate habit.

Very few buds either on Magnolia sprengeri ‘Diva’. Almost a year off.

Rhododendron ‘Wine and Roses’ (a group of three) showing off the undersides of their leaves.

Not quite yet ripe seed heads on one of Tom Hudson’s wild collected Rhododendron ririei which I collect for Asia. Worth returning in case the ones I grabbed do not dry off and shed properly.

2017 – CHW
A hydrangea inspection day as a repeat of last January’s. Hydrangea ‘Joseph Banks’ still holding colour in January! Less so than last January perhaps.

Likewise Hydrangea ‘Madame Mouilliere’ still has good white mopheads amid many other dead flowers. We have seen flowers on this clump and photographed them several times through last year in this diary starting in May I seem to remember.

A Hydrangea quercifolia clump still with a full set of green leaves in January. It is not an evergreen and yet here, in a windy site, there is still little sign of autumn colouring. Very odd!

2016 – CHW
The tiny Magnolia ‘Lanarth’ planted in 1955 opposite the Georgian Hall is, for the first time ever, plastered in bud. It has only ever twice had three to five flowers before. However now the buds are swelling and their secondary outer ‘coats’ have been shed.

Since we have been on a magnolia flower quest here are two more (different) Magnolia grandiflora cultivars. I think one would call these ‘late’ in this odd season but I did photograph the same plants with flowers in February and March last year so not that ‘odd’ perhaps. Magnolia ‘March till frost’ still has a flower as well as most of its leaves. However this is a poor tail end secondary flower and not a new spring one. The plant lives up to its name as we have not had a frost yet! Another youngish plant also has a flower or two below the main ride.

1972 – FJW
Cold spell started.1959 – FJW
B.N.A saw first primrose, November pink good – garden very late.1953 – FJW
There are still buds on Mag Grandiflora and Eucryphia pinatafolia has flowers. Heaths good – Early pink forms of Saluensis and Hamamelis. A few Sutchuenense hybrids. A good pink one in beech walk best. Frost has cut an odd early Rho Thompsonii but not scarlets which are beginning. Camellias taliensis and oleifera almost over. No Thompsonii x Arboreum out.

1931 – JCW
Much as in 1930 C speciosa is better and we have had nice Gardenia flowers up to 7 inches across. R venustum has supplied house flowers for two months.

1930 – JCW
Mucronulatum is very good, Camellia speciosa is opening in the wood and in the walk. The Hamamelis is very fine indeed, much of the wreckage of the storm of Dec 5th has been cleaned up in the New Planting and the men have done a fine work seeing the shooting parties and Christmas.

1928 – JCW
Much behind the above owing to 3 weeks of cold. Mucronulatum is not open but Hamamelis is.

1927 – JCW
H Mollis is very good, Thompsonii x Arboreum a fair lot, one Sutchuenense hybrid flower, but there are no buds to speak of in this section. A few irroratum are opening, mucronulatum has a lot of flower.