24th May | The Garden Diary

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2025 – CHW

Blue tits nesting in a bird box outside the gardeners shed in the Back Yard.

Jaimie’s pictures of the huge oak limb in Old Park.

Decaisnea fargesii below Slip Rail. No flowers yet on Decaisnea insignis in Tin Garden.

Magnolia ‘Southern Belle’ nearing its best.

Tetrapanax papyrifer ‘Rex’ doing well in Tin Garden.

Magnolia ‘Porcelain Dove’ just out. Our plant failed to make it onto the Chelsea Stand because it did not come out in time.

2024 – CHW
First tassel flowers on one of our young Pterocarya macroptera var. insignis trees.

A young Sorbus gonggashanica putting on a good show.

Magnolia ‘Summer Solstice’ now at its very best.

Aesculus assamica.

Aesculus flava f. vestita.

Aesculus x ‘Dallimorei’.

Styrax japonicus ‘Emerald Pagoda’ just about to start.

As is Viburnum dentatum ‘Blue Muffin’.

And the 3 lobed Pterostyrax psilophyllus var. leveillei.

Just time today to do a little planting above Red Linney after the digger has cleared the stumps this week.

The Rhododendron davidsonianum above HQN have all now been cut down.

The stumps gone now too behind the original Magnolia ‘Caerhays Surprise’.

Sadly the leafless Magnolia nitida has only struggled into new growth in a few lower branches. Droughts again!

Laurel stumps all gone above the greenhouse.

2023 – CHW
Wonderful red-purple new growth on Osmanthus yunnanensis.

A young Camellia trichocarpa with a good amount of new growth.

Rhododendron ‘Polyroy’ (Millais Nurseries) more plastered in flower that I have ever seen.

Rhododendron ‘Royal Flush’ – Pink (ours) is really not that different. Fewer flowers in the trusses. Both for cuttings and a reminder for Asia.

Neolitsea aciculata (TH gift – Taiwanese) with impressive new growth too.

This Magnolia ‘Caerhays Belle’ has twice tried to flower in the autumn and paid the price with much dieback.

The original Aesculus wilsonii is leafing and flowering better than I dared hope. I had thought it was on the way out last summer.

Magnolia x foggii ‘Jack Fogg’ is not much different to M. figo. A little pink on the flower tips instead of rather more purple.

Rhododendron ‘Royal Flush’ – Yellow (centres – yellow in bud).

Rhododendron ‘Royal Flush’ – Pink but slightly different to the one earlier.

Rhododendron hotei with few flowers this year.

The Magnolia doltsopa by George’s Hut is now totally leafless as the new growth starts to emerge.

2022 – CHW

Thankfully a gold medal for the Burncoose stand.

The stand looks wonderful and the Cornus ‘Venus’ the showstopper.Vanda ‘Platinum Jubilee’ – an orchid named for the royal event.

The day is marked by three severe thunderstorms and a clap of thunder directly overhead causes some visitors sheltering in the Great Pavilion to scream out loud. Plenty of flooding and our seed sales rack gets wet.

Trade is as furious as I can remember for several years with four of us flat out on the stand. The three Cornus on the stand together with Calycanthus ‘Aphrodite’ and the Embothrium cause endless enquiries and the seed buying overseas visitors are back.

2021 – CHW

First decent flowering of a young Syringa wilsonii. Attractive but not that unique I suspect.

New leaf on Lagerstroemia limii.

Susyn Andrews confirms this as Photinia beauvardiana with its lovely brown new growth and hawthorn flowers coming. Semi evergreen but leafless after this spring.

Viburnum prunifolium in flower.

Laburnocytisus ‘Adamii’ in full flower.

Rhododendron yakusimanum ‘Koichiro Wada’ performing well.

Rhododendron ‘Crosswater Belle’ finally getting established and starting to flower properly. Very slow to get going and does not like cold east winds at all!

The full name of this holly is Ilex cornuta ‘Burfordii’. We had got as far as Ilex cornuta and noticed the considerable lack of spines in comparison to our other plant of I. cornuta but needed Susyn to put us right.

Abies delavayi with male flowers and a (hopefully) receptive female seed cone.

Eucalyptus leucoxylon ‘Rosea’ just coming into flower although we do not, as yet, see any pink! An attractive and unusual species which was cut to the ground by cold in its youth but is now putting on a show.

View 24th May 1897 – 2020