11th July | The Garden Diary

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View 11th July 1897 – 2020

CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2026 – CHW

The Burncoose Nurseries stand at the new RHS Badminton Flower Show.

Euscaphis japonica (BSWJ 14600) settling in well in the new planting on the drive. A rare genus of only one species from Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan.

Hydrangea ‘Alpengluhen’ – we have very few decent red mophead hydrangeas.

Following on from my earlier ‘Panax’ investigation I went to see a few more plants with Panax in their names.

Kalopanax septemlobus var. maximowiczii is a Cornish Record Tree. Here in flower high up and with a huge trunk.

Then Acanthopanax aff. sessiliflorus (now renamed Eleutherococcus) with fruit heads forming on what is now a large shrub.

Our Tetrapanax papyrifer had all its leaves blown off in Goretti and is now dead. The third set of losses in 15 years of this plant. Cold got the earlier ones after a few years.

Plants with ‘Panax’ in the name are all Araliaceae (although not true ginseng). We tried an AI search and the following list emerged of those which we have not so far mentioned in this diary. Plenty more to hunt for in future catalogues and a very wide range across a wide variety of botanical species ranging from herbaceous perennials to large tropical trees.

• Astropanax: A genus of trees mostly native to tropical Africa.
• Chengiopanax: A small genus native to East Asia.
• Dendropanax: A large genus of evergreen trees and shrubs found in the Americas and Asia.
• Didymopanax: Rooted primarily in Central and South America.
• Harmsiopanax: Native to the Indo-Malayan region.
• Heteropanax: Asian shrubs and trees often kept as indoor houseplants.
• Macropanax: Found predominantly in India, China, and Southeast Asia.
• Oplopanax: Contains Oplopanax horridus, widely known as Devil’s club.
• Sinopanax: Evergreen shrubs native to Taiwan.

I think I have seen Dendropanax and Sinopanax somewhere but perhaps only in Crug Farm catalogues.

2025 – CHW

Hydrangea ‘Lady Taiko’ – planted in 2003.

Hydrangea ‘Alpengluhen’ – a good medium sized red mophead.

Hydrangea ‘Libelle’ and Hydrangea ‘Lanarth White’ growing together by the Green Gate.

Hydrangea ‘Lanarth’ – a bit different to the one on the drive with the same name but, there, growing in full shade.

Hydrangea ‘Libelle’ – I deadheaded these bushes frequently as a child with George Blandford 60 years ago.

Hydrangea ‘Taube’.

The first of the Rhododendron ‘Polar Bears’ to flower.

Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Alice’.

No problem with weevil in the Agapanthus flowers this year.

2024 – CHW

Despite the welcome rain recently and the remarkably wet summer so far more casualties of the last 2 years drought show up today.

A red jungle fowl wandering about in the newly cut Kennel Close.

I had always admired Abies delavayi with its dark blue spiky seed cones at Tregothnan. Now we have our own plant 15 years old and producing 50 seed cones.

The trunk of Styrax formosanus var. formosanus.

A now completely dead oak tree at Donkey Shoe which will have to come down.

Sadly Rehderodendron Indochinese (BSWJ 12115) flowered but then failed to leaf up and has died.

Firmiana simplex is hardly into growth in mid-July. This is just too tender for us.

The Magnolia nitida is reshooting a bit from the stems and is not as dead as I thought.

Our last original Meliosma veitchiorum is dead. It flowered profusely last year and was obviously then on the way out.

Lomatia ferruginea flowering away reasonably and a little later than usual. This small tree looked horrid in the drought years.

2023 – CHW

The Royal Isle of Wight County Show.

Met Alan Titchmarsh who was enjoying the members lunch.

Not sure what you call this?

Dorset Horn sheep.

Dutch spotted sheep.

Suffolk sheep.

Miniature Ouessant sheep once only found on an island off the Brittany coast where their size was immaterial as no wolves present. Bred for wool and special clothing.

Fancy pigeons.

Tractors aplenty.

Pigs on parade.

Mass parade of sheep.

2022 – CHW

To the nursery to help the propagation team with naming a few rhododendrons in the garden as the rhodo cuttings season is underway despite the heatwave.

The entrance has been livened up with leftovers from the Hampton Court show. A few problems with having to remove RHS prohibited plants from our stand (oaks) and we had to remove all the flowerheads from our agapanthus as they apparently had an agapanthus midge infection. This of course made the plants unsaleable and the stand received only a Silver Gilt. A similar death of nursery exhibitors as at Chelsea and Mr Weed again canvassing views but will he do anything? Rose tent only half full and not that many gardens either. Visitor numbers anecdotally down.

Primula florindae – a red form I had not seen before.

Rosa ‘Pascali’ with a tail end flower in a pot.

Hydrangea arborescens ‘Emerald Lace’ just coming out. This is an unusual form.

Tail end flower on Rhododendron hunnewellianum in the garden.

Rhododendron ‘Polar Bear’ – some plants out and some not.

Seedheads forming on a youngish Meliosma veitchiorum for the first time.

Illicium henryi in full flower but hidden away. Masses of cuttings here.

Manglietia [?] covered in flower. A 30+ year old plant which I need Tom Hudson to help identify. My guess is Manglietia fordiana (var. fordiana)?

Flowers on Eucryphia lucida ‘Pink Cloud’. The first Eucryphia to be out?

The old Hoheria glabrata on the drive is still putting on a good show in its few remaining branches.

Meliosma dilleniifolia on the drive still not out yet.

Ligustrum lucidum with better flowers than one imagines for a privet.

Superb crop of styrax species recently potted on from the main seed bench.

Tray upon tray of recently pricked out and potted on seedlings.

Puya chilensis from seed.

Unbelievable germination of magnolia seedlings this year from the main seed bench.

What a joy it is to have Cressy in charge of propagation. We are growing more than ever ourselves efficiently and successfully despite the learning curve and a few dramas in this very hot weather.

2021 – CHW
Cobaea scandens growing away on the side of a house in Seaview. I have admired this for several years but too early in the season to collect any seeds as yet. The reference books describe this as an annual but it clearly is not in a warm seaside location. A vigorous climbing or scrambling plant which flowers away for months and months. It would be a welcome addition to the Burncoose catalogue.A visit to the Isle of Wight distillery ‘brewing’ 1,300 litres of gin a day in an extension to the back of a pub. Their gin is 42% proof! Forty employees but bottling and packaging organised elsewhere.

A small vineyard below the pub.

Some hutch development nearby.

And a ‘modern’ new housing development.

The view over Brading Marshes from Robert Lovegrove’s farm.

This is the electric fenced area for lapwing breeding on the marshes by the RSPB. They may keep out foxes but the ravens and crows seem to have been left uncontrolled.

We saw a young sea eagle and a marsh harrier but too far away to begin to photograph in this 2,000 acre marsh reserve. Many twitchers on the edges. No doubt the sea eagles enjoy the lapwing chicks as well.

View 11th July 1897 – 2020