Hebe x franciscana ‘Blue Gem’ has made tremendous growth as a hedge over 4 years in the teeth of silt laden gales on the north coast of Cornwall in a garden designed by Burncoose.
Hebe x franciscana ‘Variegata’ doing equally well.

Hydrangea ‘Love You Kiss’ just emerging.

Hydrangea ‘Lanarth’ in full shade.

Hydrangea ‘R.F. Felton’ – huge flowers.

Hydrangea ‘Alpengluhen’ has proved to grow better on the drive than ‘King George’.

2024 – CHW
To Old Park to map out the next bit of clearance for Ross to undertake. This will hopefully benefit the shoot as well as making more space for new planting.Betula cylindrostachya was planted in Old Park in 2019. It is a rare species in cultivation today although collected by Wilson. In the wild it can be found from Pakistan to Yunnan province in China.

Deer have ringbarked another birch growing nearby that did not have a high level wire netting surround.

First flowers on a young Magnolia virginiana ‘Ludoviciana’.

A good young plant of Dad’s Rhododendron ‘Treberrick’.

A young replacement Acer caudatifolium (A. kawakamii) for the mature trees which have died recently in the Aucklandii Garden and on the drive.

Good new growth on the large rhododendrons planted out in the spring of 2023 in the centre of Old Park.

A couple of job adverts from 1885 and 1886.

2023 – CHW

Rather like last year but, sadly, rather earlier in June than then, I find trips around the garden disheartening as I watch decent established rhododendrons, and other fairly recently planted things, in hotter spots die on their feet in only a few days from drought. When in a depressed mood, because I see no real rain in the next weeks forecast, I begin to wonder if it is worth growing rhododendrons at all. After a glass of wine somehow the depression lifts when one thinks about new species to try in catalogues and in our nursery beds. Tom Hudson’s email today about a Litsea/ Lindera tour here soon had a similar effect.

Todays quest is to photograph 3 oaks which I looked at earlier this week with Allen Coombes which he says are wrongly named.

This has always been known for generations as Quercus myrsinifolia which grows as a windbreak hedge in the Aucklandii Garden. Burncoose have grown this from cuttings for years and sold it as Q. myrsinifolia. Alan says it is Quercus glauca and, I agree, that it looks NOW very like the Q. glauca which I photographed at Batsford Arboretum last week (and an elderly plant here in the Rookery). Hilliers says that Q. myrsinifolia is often confused with Q. glauca but the difference is that the new growth is purple-red when it unfurls (a bit later than Q. glauca). Our ‘hedge’ certainly has attractive purple-red new growth. Alan then says that the undersides of the newer leaves of Q. glabra are ‘hairy’ and we gaze through the eyeglass to prove his point. Where is the true Q. myrsinifolia then to prove that it does not have hairs on the underside of its leaves? One has to enjoy these sorts of debates as a non-botanist, non-taxonomist and enthusiastic amateur. Its not the first time this issue has been raised. If our trees produce acorns this year I must photograph them! That just might be the decider. (In fact I think I already have in past years and they are exactly as pictured on the IDS website as Q. myrsinifolia and not at all like Q. glabra).

These 2 plants have always been labelled as 2 different species of Castanopsis from seed grown from one of Alan’s wild collections. They are not evergreen and clearly not Castanopsis. How this occurred in the greenhouse c. 2000 I have no idea or even whether it was our seed/ label/ growing muddle to start with. Anyway Alan is absolutely right and identifies them both as Q. chenii (previously Quercus acutifolia).

This we had as Quercus gregii (one of several young plants here but this one a gift from Penrice) but Alan says it is in fact Quercus glabrescens. Both (if it is) have a bushy, multi-stemmed habit, pinkish new growth in the autumn and are cut back a bit in a cold winter. I accept that this plant looks in better shape than our other Q. gregii TODAY but I need to do a lot more research to get closer to understanding all the names of these new oak species. It gets more and more complicated and the number of oak experts is rather limited even if Alan is the King! Anyway Q. glabrescens seems to like a hot spot! (Sadly the IDS website doesn’t have much at present on Q. glabrescens).

Isn’t this the real fun of trying to grow and preserve these very rare old and new introductions from the wild?

2022 – CHW
A few secondary flowers on the now fully recovered large Magnolia dawsoniana outside the front gate.

A good young clump of the pink form of Rhododendron decorum outside the front gate. The last few decent flowers.

The rhododendrons planted five years ago above the drive towards Four in Hand have grown well with few losses despite it being a hot dry spell.

Ginkgo biloba ‘Jade Butterflies’ with its attractive leaves. Planted 2009.

Impressive new growth on Taxus baccata ‘Semperaurea’.

Viburnum erubescens making an attractive show below Sinogrande Walk.

Cornus angustata with rather smaller bracts.

Ginkgo biloba ‘Autumn Gold’. Planted 2009.

A tree fern on Sinogrande Walk with Rh. ponticum and Quercus ilex growing from its trunk.

The (untraceable) and dwarf Carpinus nimpoli finally getting going with red new growth.

Buddleia limitanea – a gift from Peter Moore planted 2017. Compact and rounded habit with silvery leaves. Flowers have yellow centres.

Pseudotaxus chenii growing away well now in a hot spot on a dry bank.

Ginkgo biloba ‘Mutant Weeper’ with very long and peculiar split leaves. Planted 2005.

2021 – CHW
Yesterday’s rain has been a godsend to the younger plants especially the newly planted azaleas in Kennel Close which were wilting.Cornus kousa ‘Madame Butterfly’ at its best on Hovel Cart Road.

Styrax wuyuanensis at its absolute best but a bit droopy from the rain and weight of the flowers.

Rhododendron [to confirm from planting plant update – label lost]

I have been waiting for weeks for the Viburnum hoangliense flowers to actually open. When they do there is, sadly, not that much to see. Tiny upright flowers in large flower clusters.

Flowers now full out on Huodendron tibeticum and new growth emerging.

First flowers out on the late flowering Rhododendron auriculatum. Earlier than normal.

Rosa roxburgii nicely out but most flowers battered by rain.

Raphiolepsis umbellata out but battered too.

Magnolia virginiana ‘Satellite’ just out high up.

A replacement Schefflera macrophylla with good new growth. Deer damage risk unless the netting is heightened!

Magnolia globosa has 10 or more flowers out today. The first flower was about three weeks ago.

Still plenty of flower on Michelia x foggii ‘Jack Fogg’ – two months at least in flower.

Philadelphus pekinensis in flower but not profusely as yet two and a half years from planting.

First flowers on Rhododendron maddenii below Donkey Shoe. Very like Rhododendron crassum really which is now over.

This Rhododendron keysii absolutely full out at the wrong time of the year. Fear it will now pass out.