2nd June

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CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2019 – CHW

A large group of Belgian and French horticulturalists and gardeners. A four hour trip around which was enjoyed by all. Slow going which is exactly how I like to look at a new garden and unknown new plants.

Some wild orchids in the long grass above the greenhouse. Really rather rare here.

Lithocarpus lepidocarpus with strange new growth. Still only 4ft tall although planted in 2007.

Persea thunbergii new growth which speaks for itself.

Magnolia acuminata ‘Seiyu’ with bluish buds and yellowish flowers.

Just a single flower on Rhododendron bureavei this year but it looks well.

Acorns forming on Quercus lamellosa in profusion. Nothing has ever come of these before. They shrivel and never develop.

A low down flower on Magnolia rostrata.

The red flowers are over on Juglans ailanthifolia and seed pods are forming quickly.

The undersides of the new leaves on Salix moupinense are silvery.

Rhododendron catawbiense (or very similar) hidden away at the top of the garden. It is expendable and there are better things either side of it.

Reddish-pink new growth and early leaves on Quercus crassifolia. The silvery underside to the new leaves is good too. This is one of a few of the newer evergreen oaks which we all should be growing.

Pterostyrax psilophyllus in flower. Its leaves have three lobes and this used to be called Pterostyrax leveillei. Some plants of P. psilophyllus have leaves without the three lobes as here. The flowers are about halfway in size and shape between Pterostyrax hispida and Pterostyrax corymbosa but out a bit before or alongside the leaves.

Enkianthus hirtinervus now full out and splendid. The very last of the Enkianthus species to flower.

2018 – CHW
A young Acer macrophyllum now just in leaf in the new Isla Rose Plantation. I fear it is not in the right place and needs moving next winter.

Pterocarya macroptera var insignis does not look terribly different in its first leaf form to the Pterocarya fraxinifolia growing by the sales point which came from Tregothnan 35 or so years ago.

Pterocarya tonkinensis does however look very different in leaf. If these two survive here in the Isla Rose Plantation they will one day be enormous trees. I wonder if these species will produce numerous root suckers like P. fraxinifolia always does? Blackish bark with white spots on this new species to us. Seems very vigorous.

A good bit of tree pruning on a young beech tree to let in more light to the adjacent clump of Rhododendron nuttallii which is nearly out in flower.

This extraordinary but rather tiny and insignificant flower belongs to Euonymus moupinensis in the Auklandii Garden. The flowers seem to be growing out of the centre of the leaf (like a helwingia) but they are actually stalked back to the base of the leaf. A very odd species which we might do well to propagate.

Attractive reddish new growth on Stewartia pteropetiolata and reddish stems to the new leaves. Re-growing vigorously after major leaf loss in ‘The Beast’.

Philadelphus satsumi is a new species to us and highly floriferous. One for Asia to propagate definitely.

Wachendorfia thrysiflora in full flower in a pot in one of the greenhouse holding frames for new plants to go out in 2019.

2017 – CHW
The Great Gardens of Cornwall meeting today is at Lamorran Gardens above St Mawes. 35 years ago when Burncoose worked on a project here it was all exposed to the elements. Today the garden is shrouded in dense growth and small damp glades of exotic, rare and tender plants which you seldom, if ever, see surviving outside the greenhouse. A unique and wonderful plantsman’s paradise and the smallest of the genuinely Great Gardens of Cornwall.We have a quick tour after the meeting:The tallest and largest Clianthus puniceus I have ever seen which has been flowering since January.

A cruise ship waiting off Falmouth docks from a vantage point in the garden.

Fuchsia boliviana growing happily outside. We should try too.

Bilbergia nutans, a succulent, which I once grew as a child in pots in my greenhouse.

Unknown exotic bilbergia/orchid (?) growing happily out of the side of a palm tree.

Cyathea medullaris – one of two mature tree ferns of this species here.

The scented Rhododendron liliflora which I had never seen. Amazing scent and peeling bark.

This rhododendron is apparently a cross between Rhododendron excellans and Rhododendron nuttallii. Looks more of the latter?

Exbucklandia populnea in maturity! Amazing! We tried this twice as did Tregothnan who also lost it two times. Tregrehan have it but not at this size. Extraordinary new growth. From the tropics of India, Malaya and Indonesia. Not even faintly frost hardy but doing well here.

Another Cyathea medullaris, the Black Ponga, from New Zealand. Here it has a bit more light and a fatter stem. 15 to 20 years ago we all thought we could grow this spectacular species (and others) outside in Cornwall. We have now found out the hard way that you cannot even with a few degrees of frost.

At the top of Lamorran Gardens Robert Dudley-Cooke has recently planted a rose garden with 175 varieties – mainly old historic ones. His desire is to prove that you can grow a decent rose garden in Cornwall. I forget the name of this one with a variegated flower. All newly planted and about to flower.

2016 – CHW
Off on an oak collection review with Beatrice Chassé of which I will write more when I get her findings and renaming after her two day visit.Along the way I spot two flowers on Rhododendron ‘Crest’ (Hawk Group) just coming out.

Then Magnolia ‘?’ which I had not seen this year which was more interesting than the Quercus glaber (new name) alongside.

Similarly the new Rhododendron lindleyi clump from Glendoick next to Quercus oxyodon. These have smaller flowers and more pink in the bud than our own seed raised plants from Charles Michaels Nursery.

White campion flowers and the normal pink by the playhouse are a riot.

2015 – CHW
So an investigation of Magnolia sieboldii and more newly planted forms.Firstly Magnolia sieboldii ‘Ming Pyong Gal’. Quite a nice large flower but one wonders if this is just ‘a good form’ or if there is a bit of Magnolia sieboldii sinensis in it?

Magnolia sieboldii 4 — Magnolia sieboldii ‘Mishko Renge’

Magnolia sieboldii ‘Mishko Range’ — Magnolia sieboldii ‘Mishko Renge’

Secondly Magnolia sieboldii ‘Mishko Renge’. The flowers hang down a bit more than you might expect of sieboldii and are on the large side but hardly reddish stamens as sieboldii sinensis should have.

Thirdly one of several sets of Magnolia sieboldii from seed in the garden. Lots of small flowers which are not all out at once and which hang at right angles to the twig/branch rather than hanging down. The central cluster of stamens is very clearly a light pink. A spreading habit, easy to grow, and with abundant pink seedpods if you get there before the squirrels.

Then off to Belvoir Castle for a board meeting and an inspection of our multiple woodland plantings there at dusk and dawn.

Magnolia sieboldii 10 — Magnolia sieboldii

Magnolia sieboldii 9 — Magnolia sieboldii

Magnolia sieboldii 8 — Magnolia sieboldii

Magnolia sieboldii 6 — Magnolia sieboldii

Magnolia sieboldii 5 — Magnolia sieboldii

Magnolia sieboldii 3 — Magnolia sieboldii

Magnolia sieboldii 2 — Magnolia sieboldii

2001 – FJW
The rain that had begun in mid September and kept going until May 1st. Record rain in many places.

1926 – JCW
Auklandii pure is going back fast and zuelanicum x not come out yet, the soulei x campylocarpum very very pretty. The Davidia not quite open.

1911 – JCW
Recurvas not open as much as in 1909. Daff crossing over. Montana ⅓ open and so Auklandii’s.

1909 – JCW
No recurvas yet, a little of Campylocarpum. Auklandii not quite, ⅓ cushion Iris, frost at night, nearly finished crossing.

1906 – JCW
All recurvas open and late recurvas seedling. Rhodo yunnanense, campylocarpum, thomsonii, falconeri, auklandii, royali, augustinii, dalhousii (nearly) etc, etc. Crimson Hookeri shows colour. Roses opening in beds. Cushion Iris nearly all out, and crossing mostly over.

1901 – JCW
Picked some recurvas, sent two fine Poet flowers to Appleshaw.

The Garden Diary

A Cornish garden diary from Caerhays Estate over 100 years

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