15th June | The Garden Diary

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CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2025 – CHW (images to follow)

Heavy rain overnight and a drizzly day which is good news for the nursery where I met APHA (Plant Health) today.

Anemone ‘White Swan’ much earlier into flower than expected.

Callicarpa bodinieri ‘Profusion’ also very early to be out.

Bergenia ‘Morgenröte’ also out absurdly early.

Desmodium elegans out on time but not that impressive.

Clematis heracleifolia ‘Cote d’Azur’ flowering better than I have even seen in the climber tunnel. Not that it is a climber!

Small plants of Lithocarpus glaber in flower in one of the tunnels. Perhaps a bad sign for these plants?

Cornus pumila with flowers which I had not seen before. This forms a mounded bush of up to 6 feet in height eventually.

Just one flower on Philadelphus ‘Petite Perfume White’. The Chelsea Plants of the Year have just arrived but only one flower to be seen on the small plants.

Viburnum x hillieri ‘Winton’ full out in the nursery as it is at Caerhays.

Passiflora ‘Damsel’s Delight’ not that different from P. caerulea but nice enough.

Azalea ‘Michael Hill’ growing on the edge of the Burncoose Nurseries car park – nearest the tunnel entrance. At cutting time we can never remember which is which.

Azalea ‘Alexandrer’ also in the car park – top centre. Both these are dwarf growing x nakaharae hybrids.

2024 – CHW

The preparations of the Caerhays Charity Fete are well in hand for tomorrow.

Then to the church to see the 2024 Flower Festival with the grandchildren. The entrance adorned with Cornus ‘Satomi’. All sponsored by Burncoose Nurseries. The theme is Cornish industries. The scent overwhelming.

A National Trust exhibit with silk/ plastic flowers.

A tractor – farming.

Mining tin and lithium in Cornwall.

Cornwall Seaweed Company.

Fishing.

Cornish Cream.

Cornish Apple Growing.

China Clay.

Rhodda’s Cornish Cream.

The pulpit crammed with roses.

Cornish slate – Delabole.

Cornish granite – Lantoom.

Cornish pasty.

St. Ewe free range eggs – Caroline George.

Traditional stained glass.

Sticker Woman’s Institute – Destination Wedding.

Beside the seaside.

Tregothnan Tea and more Cornus ‘Satomi’.

Lost Garden of Heligan.

Flowers from Farm artisan.

2023 – CHW

Aesculus californica is suddenly full out too in the heat. A week ago nothing.

The Slip Rail Cornus kousa ‘Satomi’ showing how the lower shaded bracts do not turn pink.

Podocarpus henkelii and Aesculus wilsonii.

A less hidden than usual show of flowers on Styrax japonicus ‘Pendulus’.

A very rare Mexican Clethra keels over in the drought.

All the plants returned to Burncoose now that the gardens are shut for another year.

2022 – CHW

Styrax hookeri has not got many flowers this year.

Styrax obassia also hides its panicles of flowers under the canopy of foliage.

Calycanthus ‘Aphrodite’ flowering well in Tin Garden.

Deutzia monbeigii now producing a good show. More flowers than leaves on this smallish shrub and the leaves are tiny and inverted.

Philadelphus pekinensii is another species swift to form a good clump. Here perhaps in too much shade for best flowering but the three four year old plants are already almost grown together.

Catalpa duclouxii in full flower at 20ft. Our old plant is dead but these root suckers have battled to the light.

Chionanthus virginicus just coming out. It needs more sun to flower better as the one at Burncoose does. Slow growing and only about 10ft tall after 30 years here.

Swelling flower buds (and some just out high up) on Hydrangea seemanii.

2021 – CHW
Boris has decided to extend what is left of the lockdown regulations to 19th July. We were to have been ‘free’ on 21st June. I cannot see major consequences for the businesses here as the holiday season is upon us. The gardens shut for the year on Sunday with £1,956 raised from gardens entry and car parking for Cornwall Hospice Care.A pot full of Salvia ‘Love and Wishes’ outside the front door which replaced the now planted out Daphne bholua ‘Mary Rose’. Only eight weeks to get this show.

Pheas painting one of the front gates. The other side misses the sun and only needed a touch up.

White wisteria in a yew tree in the Rookery as seen from the lawn.

Our very old Acer maximowiczianum (Acer nikoense) is covered in winged seed heads. I suspect this is its last ‘hurrah’ before passing out.

The white wisteria from the Rookery Path side.

Susyn Andrews thinks that this ancient gaultheria on Rookery Path opposite the Rhododendron falconeri is Gaultheria hookeri (Vaccinum wardii).

Rhododendron ‘Tally Hoo Group’ is nearly over.

2020 – CHW
Good flowers on Magnolia grandiflora ‘Main Street’.

Pseudotaxus chienii is doing well on Sinogrande Walk. The white berry yew has yet to produce any fruits but is now about 4ft tall. In fact we have no idea yet if it is a female tree. Burncoose now stocks this dwarfish slow growing variety. Quite a difference between the arrangements of the older leaves and the new growth. I had forgotten that we had this established here in full sun; a hot and dry location.

Phellodendron japonicum is supposed to have corky bark but not yet. I had not spotted this new species to us before but it is doing well on Burns Bank.

I was confused by Amelanchier bartramiana and Amelanchier florida earlier this year hoping that their fruits might turn out to be different as I could see little difference in their flowers. A. florida has slightly more pinkish red fruits on more drooping stems as far as I can see today but the difference is, so far, slight.

Two out of three casualties in our deliberately closely planted trio of Betula albosinensis ‘China Rose’ (in the Isla Rose planting) due to the recent drought and last summer’s.

Pterocarya tonkinensis has moved in the wind and needs re-staking. Its bark is not that different (as a young tree) to the Phellodendron above.

First flowers coming on Cornus drummondii ‘Sunshiny Drops’ from America (where else a name like this!). It is said to be stunning as are the fruits so we will see. Gift from Jan-Willem.

Rhododendron megacalyx is pink in bud opening white and you can clearly see the huge calyxes here.

2019 – CHW
The St Michaels Caerhays flower festival themed as “Poldark’s Cornwall” has involved and brought together many people in the community who might otherwise not be churchgoers. A wonderful theme, superb standard and a delight to enjoy over three days culminating in the Caerhays charity fete tomorrow. The explanation of each arrangement was written by Gillian Fraser and is attached for anyone wanting to read more.

Matt Semmens had remade the ironwork on the bell tower door for the occasion.

‘Mining’ with the copper ingot. Clever!

“Ursula’s Baptism”. The font was decorated using an excellent colour combination of leptospermum, Thalictrum, pale pink Alstroemeria and Euonymus japonicus ‘Silver Queen’.

‘Tall Ships’ – superb.

Above the collection box.

‘Game keeping’ with the figures showing more than a passing resemblance to John & Caroline George. Slightly unchurchlike but splendid!

‘Fishing’ – modern and a glorious flower combination.

‘Gaming’ – notes not real!

‘Smuggling’ in the alcove – very clever.

The lectern also with beautiful flower combinations involving pinks, Hebe, callistemon and leptospermum in ‘The Apothecary’.

Beside the altar a magnificent ‘Transport’ with a cart and unusual but effective combinations of Hosta, laurel, ferns, chrysanthemum and Alstroemeria.

‘Smithy’

“Warleggan’s Bank” with coins and yellow lilies.

‘Grand Ball’ – Shasta daisies and Veronicastrum I think in the centre.

“Demelza’s Kitchen”

‘Country Inn’ by the lectern with wonderful use of ‘curly’ sycamore seeds.

The Burncoose sponsorship board.

‘Bodmin Market’ at the entrance.

The entrance decorated.

Dad and Mum’s graves awaiting the return of the headstone and granite surround but with sweet william and a wreath.

Quite a view over the River Luney valley for them both to enjoy!

2018 – CHW
Karpinus kawakamii restored to life and new growth after The Beast had, we thought, rendered it dead. The light pruning from six weeks ago has helped.

Leptospermum lonigerum full out and a blaze of white.

This I think might just be the true Magnolia ‘Yuchelia’. It is labelled as such and only just out now. I will be forwarding these pictures to my friend who pointed out my longstanding error and the impossibility of our original plant being true to name based on its parentage.

2017 – CHW
Garden visitors keep muttering that there is ‘nothing to see’. Although an early flowering year they simply do not take the trouble to look around even with a 2For1 entry offer.

Rhododendron viscosum on the drive. I have never taken in this elderly late flowering species here before. The one at Burncoose is paler and a bit later to flower. Nice scent.

There are three separate clumps of Rhododendron indicum on the drive. Perhaps some are Rhododendron nakaharae types? There are three distinct pink forms here and they flower sporadically over a long period.

This is a late evergreen azalea with orangeish flowers. More in a big clump by the Fernery. No idea of a name.

Another clump of low growing indicum or are they dwarf enough to be nakaharae? More assorted colours here as they cover the entire bank.

Another forgotten but now sizeable and mature Styrax japonicus ‘Pink Chimes’ hidden away in the back of the drive. Not quite as pink in bud or when first out as the one on the bank by the Trevanion Holly but a weeping habit here as there.

Deutzia ‘Strawberry Fields’ is just going over by the Hovel. Superb as usual.

First flowering of three small Rhododendron cumberlandense. One more red than the others which have a yellowish orange flash. Could the red one be Rhododendron flammeum instead? Both are native species to the southern USA.

The best thing in the ‘nothing to see’ garden today may well be Cornus kousa ‘Doubloon’ which is far further out than most others. Huge bracts which completely obscure the leaves. What a sight!

2016 – CHW
Here are the latest leaf pictures, studio taken by Karol, of Michelia floribunda and Michelia doltsopa from Tregrehan. These show that the former species has a leaf petiole or leaf ‘scar’ of circa 50mm in length while the latter has a ‘scar’ of only circa 20mm in length. Apparently this is the only way to separate these two pretty obviously identical species in terms of habit, leaf size/shape and flowers. My paper disputing this conclusion is nearly finished and I hope to promote some argument.

2015 – CHW
Another wander up the top part of the drive. Just by the start of Hovel Cart Road is yet another rather good deciduous azalea with no name. There are several still out but you have to hunt them down amid the greenery.

Deutzia ‘Strawberry Fields’ by the Hovel Turning is one of those shrubs which can readily leap out of a smaller garden into a woodland context. For what it is worth I do not think you will find a better deutzia despite all the recent new species introduced by Roy Lancaster and others.

We have just missed Sorbus folgneri ‘Emiel’ in flower at Red Linney. This was a selection by Pavia nurseries and has attractive drooping new growth. Good autumn colour apparently but I have not noticed as yet.

After all the phytophthera ramorum scares I thought we had removed every larch on the place but I now discover, up from Red Linney, three cracking plants of Larix kaempferi which are looking good. This Japanese species has exceptional yellow autumn colour so we hope for the best.

One forgets just how large and attractive the flowers on young Quercus ilex can be. The avenue on the top drive do not all flower at the same time nor do all the trees yet seem to be old enough to do so.