17th July | The Garden Diary

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View 17th July 1897 – 2020

CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2026 – CHW (images to follow)

To the Royal Isle of Wight Show.

Marching bands.

Dorset Horn sheep.

Suffolk sheep.

Blamey Plants were wholesale but when asked if I could visit as a nurseryman the answer was no!

Phlox ‘Romance’.

Salvia eclipse ‘Trebah Lilac White’.

Agastache rugosa ‘Beelicious Purple’.

Buddleja ‘Buzz ‘Magenta’.

Geranium pratense ‘Azure Skies’.

Campanula ‘Sarastro’.

The leaves of Geranium ‘Stormy Night’.

Salvia Eclipse ‘Trelawny Rose Pink’.

The cups.

Tables laid out for the members lunch.

Sir William Caws, still working at 82.

Robert Lovegrove.

2025 – CHW

To Honnor and Jeffrey Garden Centre which was getting a new roof and solar panels. As last year far busier than any of the others – tea rooms overflowing.

Aloe parviflora in full flower (Hesperaloe parviflora perhaps?)

Lonicera sempervirens ‘John Clayton’ with its delicate yellow trumpets.

Apple ‘Blue Moon’ with extremely dark fruits was a new one to me.

Rosa ‘Crazy Love’ – I suppose it sells and quite a colour change.

Then to the rather smaller Treasures Garden Centre where there is very little worth photographing apart from

Oenothera ‘Sunset Boulevard’.

2024 – CHW
Newly planted things in the Rookery.Quercus pinnativenulosa planted very recently in the Rookery. Attractive red new growth.

Holly berry forming on the ancient Ilex dipyrena above Rookery Nursery bed.

Cotoneaster fangianus with its last flowers and first berries.

Lindera praecox now well established with good new growth.

Euonymus wilsonii is developing into a large evergreen shrub.

Meliosma dentata (TH 4032) – a gift from Tom in 2022 with its first flower and odd leaves.

Viburnum henryi is an excellent thing.

Eleutherococcus giraldii (BWJ 8091) getting established. Odd leaves here too.

Zanthoxylum acanthopodium just getting established.

2023 – CHW
Too much for a single diary entry day I have extended the Osborne House visit to a third day.We have finally arrived at the annual planting at the front of the house.Agave and Yucca set the scene.

The clock tower has recently been restored.

The lower fountain has been subject to subsidence.

A huge clump of Arbutus unedo and Arbutus andrachne.

Arbutus fronting a clump of Ilex oak and Pinus Radiata.

The feature Cupressus macrocarpa frames the view over to Portsmouth.

Two beds of Camellia japonica – unexpected!

A few running repairs needed.

2022 – CHW

The hottest day of the year in the UK if you believe the weather forecasters. 40oC in the Home Counties and another of the dreaded Met Office ‘Red Warnings’ which they so love post COVID. Storm Eunice in January a non event red warning then. Cornwall is only an amber warning as yet but there is a strong offshore breeze and its not yet stifling?

Romneya coulteri and Hemerocallis ‘Stella d’Oro’.

Romneya coulteri full out but flopping about in the wind outside our kitchen window.

‘Eggs and bacon’ (Lotus corniculatus) in the lawn – some with orange flowers. Also known as Birds Foot Trefoil.

Nepeta, clover and ‘Eggs and bacon’ with the leaves of Alchemilla showing as well. The lawn hasn’t needed cutting in this heatwave and that is good for the insects.

Last errant flower on Azalea indica ‘Balsamaeflora’ in the Rockery.

The near black flowers of Rhododendron sanguineum ssp. didymum on the Rockery steps.

Hydrangea paniculata ‘Early Sensation’ just out with a hint of pink.

As is Hydrangea paniculata ‘Polar Bear’.

Berberis insigne var insigne now restaked upright with long new growth shoots. The re-staking a year ago, which we made into a topical tip video, has worked well.

2021 – CHW
Aristolochia sempervirens has its first few flowers three years from planting out. Most peculiar they are too. I have seen species of Aristolochia with better and larger flowers than this.

Tropaeolum ciliatum is in full flower on the castle wall and has extended on into a neighbouring camellia.

More flowers of Tom Hudson’s Manglietia insignis with its small and very pink flowers. The tree is about 25-30ft tall and has flowers all over with many buds lower down still to come out.

Vaccinum dunalianum caudatifolium with attractive new growth.

Thankfully the Magnolia dawsoniana outside the front gates which lost all its young new growth to frost has recovered thanks to this good wet summer. Some dieback but nowhere near what I had feared three months ago.

At least one of Jaimie and Michael’s magnolia crosses made this spring has produced a proper seedpod!

View 17th July 1897 – 2020