7th July | The Garden Diary

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CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2025 – CHW
Three adjacent gardens in a day on a whistlestop tour with Max Kendry before the cricket at Edgbaston. Bourton House Garden was described by Adam Frost in a BBC Gardeners World programme as “probably one of the BEST summer gardens I have ever seen”. I would certainly agree but why not educate with a bit of labelling?

The best hedge of Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ I have ever seen. Perfect today and well staked without a single blemish.

Galega x hartlandii ‘Alba’ a riot of colour in the white border. A new plant to me.

Cestrum elegans – the true form and not what we have sometimes seen under this name in the nursery. What grows on the top wall by the greenhouse at Caerhays must be a hybrid.

An odd way to train ivy but different.

The shade house with all sorts of things one would not expect to be growing in the Cotswolds.

A sad sight! Phyllostachys nigra in full flower and dying. This will soon, in a few years, be countrywide. Burncoose needs to stop stocking this to avoid complaints as our plants will also soon flower seed and die.

Views of the garden.

Second stop was Batsford Arboretum for a tour with Head Gardener, Matthew Hall. A joy to have Matthew show us a whole raft of new and very rare trees which I had never seen before. Only a few are shown here on what was a very extensive trip around all their huge new plantings. Many new things to try to obtain for Caerhays.

Hoheria ‘Ace of Spades’.

Celtis douglasii with fruits.

Cornus macrophylla has not yet flowered at Caerhays but here in its full glory.

Chrysolepis chrysophylla (Castanopsis) with flower and fruit. What is the correct name for this?

Carpinus coreana – the first of 4 species which are all still missing from the Caerhays collection.

Carpinus cordata.

Carpinus laxiflora var. macrostachya.

Carpinus caucasica.

Populus wilsonii

Rhamnus alnus.

We then visited the third also adjacent garden – Sezincote.

A most unusual house.

The Orangery is to the left.

Beautiful but no labels and not that much of real horticultural interest. Drought conditions! More a picnic area and wedding venue than a garden. The bizarre house is the real attraction.

2024 – CHW
Walnuts forming again this year on Juglans ailantifolia.

Trachelospermum asiaticum ‘Pink Showers’ nicely out at the sales point.

Maclura tricuspidata (BSWJ 12755) growing away well with its impressive barbs by the old dog kennels.

The felled oak tree only narrowly missed Magnolia ‘Leonora’.

The flowers finish and secondary new growth appears on Aesculus wilsonii.

Cotoneaster ‘Saint Andrew’s Blaze’ was planted in 2019 and is now a large shrub with rather odd pinkish flowers that don’t quite open.

Cotoneaster rhytidophyllus (Ogisu 95102) with its first flowers that I remember.

Cotoneaster hillieri already has ripening berries.

Cotoneaster parneyi (not to be confused with C. lacteus) – a gift from Fromefield in 2015 is also a very quick grower and now laden with flowers.

Cotoneaster glabratus looks a bit different in leaf and flower to the older plants on the drive. This one a Mark Bulk purchase.

Another Saturday and another wedding with a 3 part tent in Beach Meadow.

2023 – CHW

Decaisnea insignis is getting going in Tin Garden but no flowers yet.

Rosa ‘American Pillar’ covering the wall on the Tin Garden shed but the flowers have not opened properly in the drought.

Deer damage on Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’ nearby. Not a leaf left on the lower branches.

Cornus oblonga was a gift from David West of Fromefield. Doing well and very distinct.

More of the ripening seed pods on Cercis canadensis ‘Flame’.

Carpinus heterophylla ‘Quercifolia’ living up to its name.

Carrierea calycina, planted in 2014, has made enormous growth this year but the foliage remains different to our other 2 older plants. Longer, more pointed leaves which are darker in colour.

2022 – CHW

Quite a few shrubs flowering away in the nursery today.Blepharocalyx cruckshankii with its aromatic fluffy white flowers.

Chitalpa tashkentensis which is usually a shy flowered at a young age.

Indigofera howellii flowering earlier than usual this summer.

Holodiscus discolor can be an attractive small shrub when covered in flower.

Punica granatum ‘Flore Pleno’ also out in flower six to eight weeks earlier than usual.

Our new seed house is brimming with germination. Here a nice tray full of Taxodium distichum ‘Ascendens’.

Tail end flowers on Eucryphia glutinosa.

Well formed fruits on Passiflora ‘Snow Queen’.

2021 – CHW
The customary pilgrimage to Will Caws’ secret 40 acres of chalk downland at the base of a steep valley where normally there are several species of orchid as I have seen over the years.Due to 300 sheep grazing and a very dry spring we failed to find a single bee orchid this year and the pyramid orchids were few and far between. Nibbled or trampled by sheep as they must have been for centuries on this sort of farmland.

The views were spectacular but many of the surrounding ash trees already dead or dying. Two years from my last visit to the Isle of Wight the problem is many times worse especially in small young roadside trees.

A wild spreading mallow near the field entrance.

I wish I had brought the Cornish wildflower book for Will.

2020 – CHW
A day to look at thistles and try to match up the Latin names. I am astonished to find seven separate genus names for ‘thistles’ before we even start at the species within each genus. So this is not going to be an easy quest. Several thistles have common names which are perhaps local (eg milky dysel) and not, therefore, necessarily correct, even before we get into the botanical names and identification. I doubt we will get far today but we are getting into the thistle flowering season.Cirsium, Carolina, Onopardon, Centaurea, Carduus, Sonchus and the gloriously named Silybum! Interesting that several of these genus are not unknown to the Burncoose catalogue and there is clearly rather more to most of these genus than just ‘thistles’.SILYBUM marianum is the milk thistle and is uncommon so little chance of me finding this growing locally here. More is the pity!This is Cirsium palustre, the marsh thistle, which is quite common here in the water meadows and has spread invasively up into White Stiles field. It is a native biennial and, if left on its own and uncut in its first season, it can easily achieve heights of 6ft or so as here.

This is the even commoner Cirsium arvense, or creeping thistle, which is a pest in the parkland and coastal fields here. We used to spray infestations out but this is not allowed now in a parkland setting so one has to swipe them off before the flower sets seeds and allows them to spread even further. Sheep will nibble off the younger new growth but they soon become too prickly. This thistle has a long deep taproot and is not easily removed from a lawn. It is a native perennial and quite resistant to spray. Male and female flowers on separate plants.

This common (and fairly nasty) one is Cirsium vulgare or spear thistle which is a biennial. Growing here in a field and hedgerow. It can get much larger than this in an un-grazed environment.

Not quite so common is Carduus tenuiflorus, the slender thistle, which is an annual or biennial and, more often than not, found near the sea. Quite a nasty little number for cattle in a field but growing here only beside The Lookout as far as I yet know.

Sonchus arvensis is the perennial sow thistle growing here on the top of a coastal stone wall. It is found normally in coastal locations and was first recorded in Cornwall in 1832. Since 1999 it has appeared in 1,126 survey records in Cornwall so not exactly rare but the most obscure of those seen today.

This is what I have known since childhood as the milky dysel or milky thistle because, like a euphorbia, it bleeds white milk when cut. I am not at all sure I have identified it correctly as Sonchus asper, prickly sow thistle, which is a fairly common native annual species which grows on bare disturbed ground. This huge patch is directly below the root crop in Big Barn Hills field. Growing beside it is common Melilot which was part of an earlier wild bird mix crop and is not native although it is doing just as well as the thistles.

2019 – CHW
Another pilgrimage to Ventnor Botanic Garden. For a garden with this title they really do need to do more proper labelling. Some new planting near the entrance was relabelled but a two year old planting of New Zealand things have lost their tiny original labels.Many wonderful things full out:Fuchsia boliviana

Eucalyptus leucoxylon rosea

Puya dyckioides

Callistemon ‘Mauve Mist’

Strelitzia reginae in flower outside on a dry bank

2018 – CHW
Jaimie has found two 15 to 20 year old plants of Magnolia macrophylla in Forty Acres wood. These are wonderful pictures of a flower from Magnolia macrophylla subsp ashei which he cut today. The dark purple central markings within the flower are normally hidden when on the tree as they were at Lanhydrock 10 or so days ago. Very blue indumentum on the undersides of the huge leaves. Quite the magnolia find of the year!

An odd, misshapen flower underneath a Magnolia dawsoniana alongside a swelling seed pod.

Also flowering in Old Park is an excellent Magnolia virginiana seedling which is much better than any of the plants in the main garden.

Right next to the beehives is a pheasant’s nest; probably far too late for them to hatch off now.

2017 – CHW

First flowers out on the shy flowering evergreen Cornus hongkongensis.

Seed cones appear high up on the Magnolia rostrata – giant cucumbers!

Attractive new growth on a young Rhederodendron macrocarpum.

Schefflera alpina has extraordinary brown or nearly black new growth. I have never seen this before.

Another dead mature magnolia! This time Magnolia x brooklynensis ‘Woodsman’. No obvious cause.

Euphorbia stygiana was trimmed back on its main shoots last week to generate more side shoots which will make cuttings in late autumn. The milky bleeding from the cut stems has stopped.

Another rhododendron honey fungus casualty – this is the time of the year when these horrors show up.

Suckering growth from the base and roots on Cinnamomum camphora.

Cotoneaster exburyensis is full out beyond Georges Hut. A good show.

Finally, after weeks in bud, Styrax serrulatus is full out. Not much scent but covered in bees. When you step inside the umbrella of the tree the ‘ceiling’ is a mass of white flowers. The best thing in the garden today by miles!

An odd late (or early?) flower on Rhododendron zaleucum.

2016 – CHW
The interpretation panel for the newly restored Battery Walk Arch is up in the beach car park.

2015 – CHW
These are the wonderful coloured cliffs at Alum Bay.

2003 – FJW
(Handwritten note attached to Garden Book page)
Quercus turneri, above Auklandii Garden: a challenged wisdom tells us that it does not set acorns for 60 years. The plant at Caerhays has flowers on this month, shows signs of small fruit.

1975 – FJW
Rain fell at 7am – drought since Chelsea time. Driest June since 1925? In the evening very heavy and spectacular thunder – no damage.

1934 – JCW
Much as in 1931 and 1932.

1931 – JCW
Eriogonums and Griersonianum are excellent. Fuschias opening. American Pillar good. Maddeni flowers very fine. Styrax japonica just open. No Auriculatums open.

1924 – JCW
Some Auriculatums hybrids are opening. Styrax hemsleyanus is just over but quite suddenly Discolor are nice. Hybrid Escallonia not open yet.

1922 – JCW
Just a day or so behind 1917. Styrax wilsoni – daisypetallum – langllangense and japonica have flowers on them but hemsleyanus is over. The Wilson Discolor in the Beech Walk is just now flowering again fairly well for the first time since 1915.

1920 – JCW
All the above are over and I start for the Gott match tonight.

1917 – JCW
Lilium giganteums start. Wilson’s Fortunei’s at their best, Lonicera tragophylla is good. Azalea arborescens would be fine if we had a group of it, Mikado is over. Dracoenas just over. Escallonia pteroclaydon is good.

1915 – JCW
Abelia floribunda V.G. Rosa Brunonis are good, Lilium giganteum open but only a few bulbs now, I found the best pink form of Wilson’s Fortunei in the Beech Walk I have ever seen. L tragophylla good. Azalea viscosum on the wane.

1907 – JCW
Just back from Scotland, a very wet cold summer. All daff seed but Recurvas has just been picked. Roses good yet , have been very good. Rhodo’s have grown well. One or two Lapagerias open. Maddeni nearly over. Cinnabarinum a few flowers left, Keysii open. A few azaleas open.