20th November | The Garden Diary

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CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2024 – CHW (images to follow)

The Camellia saluenensis by Tin Garden is now full out.

Tilia kiusiana just gets better!

Liriodendron chinense is approaching its best.

Magnolia obovata ‘Pink Flush’ develops black leaves as they prepare to drop.

Pinus ponderosa completely ringbarked by a roe deer. The wire netting surround was not tall enough. I hope we have not recently removed too many wires on young plants?

Carpinus rankanensis is, as usual, one of the last of the genus to turn colour and drop its leaves.

Pterostyrax levellii has reasonable autumn colour.

Woodpeckers enjoying the rotting trunk of an old Scots pine.

Eriobotrya deflexa continues to be impressive.

Eriobotrya japonica has rather dull new growth by way of contrast.

2023 – CHW

Depressing to find yet more storm damage hidden away. Only a fortnight until the start of leaf blowing and now so many more days on tidying up fallen trees and branches when the worklist of new seasonal winter jobs awaits.

Will these sheltered stumps of Rhododendron ‘Saffron Queen’ survive? Perhaps where there are a few surviving shoots as here. No rush to dig these stumps out anyway.

I am even more confident that Rhododendron ‘Nancoor’ will rehsoot. Young and vigorous 20 year old plants and some shrubs survive as you can just about see here.

Obvious wind movement in this massive trunk on a Pinus radiata. Warning signs of impending collapse perhaps but we have seen this before on this same tree over the years.

The seeds have set on Schefflera delavayi but they are not yet black and ripe.

Schefflera pauciflora (WWJ 1199) with ripe and unripe seeds.

Ripe and shattered seed on Hoheria sexstylosa ‘Pendula’ only 8 weeks after flowering.

Seed heads on Hoheria populnea ‘Variegata’ are still green and unripe 4-6 weeks after flowering.

2022 – CHW
A brief visit to Burncoose to inspect improvements undertaken recently by the landscape team.

Storm damage to a tunnel.

The newly revamped and much extended lean to greenhouse at the top of the walled garden.

A new second cash point and till area in the shop to cope with busy periods when two till operators are needed.

Christmas wreaths already on display. We are running a course in wreath making on 1st December.

The new roof water collection tanks have arrived.

Callicarpa japonica ‘Leucocarpa’ with its white berries.

Helleborus x sahinii ‘Winterbells’ out in flower already.

White Cyclamen in profussion for a Channel Island customer.

Mahonia x media ‘Charity’ nicely out in flower.

Mahonia x media ‘Winter Sun’ likewise.

The last of the fine yellow leaves on hamamelis mollis in a tunnel.

2021 – CHWQuercus dentata ‘Carl Ferris Miller’ going through its metamorphosis of leaf colours. The leaves do not drop until the spring.

First flower high up on Camellia x williamsii ‘Jury’s Yellow’.

As is often the case a few secondary or premature flowers on Rhododendron ‘Cornish Red’. This one is by the Auklandii Garden but it is normally seen also on the clumps by Four-in-Hand.

Near ripe seeds on a young Sorbus dunnii.

Nyssa leptophylla now quite excellent.

Disanthus cercidifolius gets even better!

The fallen Catalpa bungei Duclouxii Group (as it is now renamed) has been pruned back and re-uprighted to reshoot which I expect it will with vigour.

Magnolia rostrata seeds still not quite ripe.

Lindera sericea (BSWJ 11123) is quite the best yellow autumn colour (albeit fleetingly) in the garden today. Lindera umbellata nearby has already dropped completely. Planted in 2014 and very clearly now a multi-stemmed large bush.

Its leaves nicely match a nearby secondary flowering of Rhododendron cinnarbarinum Concatenans Group.

Leaf drop under the two original Acer henryi.

The castle with some autumn colour behind it on an overcast day.

You can just make out Liriodendron chinense at 10 o’clock to Pterocarya fraxinifolia in the foreground.

2020 – CHW
The new replacement camera has arrived much more quickly than expected and I can catch up on what was missed since the aquatic accident in the mule on Monday. I may well take time to work out the settings and take some poor pictures to start with as you will see. It is the same camera but an upgraded version costing £2,600. The price has not changed much over the years and the lens is the expensive bit and not the camera itself.Camellia x williamsii ‘J. C. Williams’ is nicely out now by the Rockery.

First proper flowers on Rhododendron mucronulatum.

First flowers this year on the original and paler Camellia saluenensis by the ladies loos.

Likewise on Rhododendron lutescens by the quarry. Not secondary flowers but the real thing!

Camellia x williamsii ‘November Pink’ looking splendid. See the size of the trunk of this tree now. The best thing (by far) in the garden today and filmed as part of a vlog.

Still colour on Hydrangea aspera subsp. robusta outside the front gate. What a long laster this is.

The Ginkgo biloba is changing colour but has remained green for longer than I expected.

Ivy shoots which have formed a mat of aerial roots in the darkness at the base of a sycamore which Jaimie was pruning below the old Hardy & Berts Nursery Bed (they were the gardeners who created it in the (?) 1920s).

2019 – CHW
First flower this season on Polyspora longicarpa already on the ground. Another bud opening and loads more buds to come.

A branch blown off high up one of the elderly Magnolia salicifolias. Lots of minor mess like this to clear up after the storms.

Acer sikkimense is developing wonderful striated bark. Growing quickly with reddish new growth still evident. A fantastic new introduction.

Camellia reticulata ‘William Hertrich’ with huge seed pods. We have already collected all the lower ones.

Flower buds just showing on Fatsia polycarpa. Out by Christmas I expect.

2018 – CHW
Jaimie has pollarded two large camellias by the Podocarpus plantation. If we can dig these out this might clearly make a wonderful site for smaller young rhodos.

A collection of rhododendron self-sown seedlings has appeared around the stump of a dead rhododendron. One is very clearly a sinogrande although the others look like Rhododendron ponticum.

Flower cones on the Cedrus deodara ‘Pendula’ at Tin Garden. This is the first time we have seen this on this 30+ year old tree.

2017 – CHW
A visit to the nursery to have a good walk around and enjoy the autumn colours.The young plants of Puya venusta have grown on extremely well in a year.

Autumn colour on Stachyurus praecox better than I have ever seen it.

Exceptional too on Parrotia persica ‘Vanessa’.

Camellia x williamsii ‘Mary Jobson’ full out in the camellia tunnel but not yet showing outside here.

Camellia ‘Takanini’ was out at Caerhays well before Christmas last year. Seems to be a very early variety.

First flowers on Viola labradorica ‘Purpurea’.

Unusual to find a flower on Datura sanguinea in November!

Berries on a new species of lonicera to us – Lonicera crassifolia which is clearly evergreen.

Autumn tints on a young Meliosma veitchiorum in the garden. I had not picked up on this before.

Camellia x williamsii ‘November Pink’ full out by the mist houses.

Azalea ‘Kirin’ with a few unusually premature flowers.

Lagerstroemia indica ‘Rhapsody in Pink’ living up to its name.

Cornus florida ‘Daybreak’ with a wonderful mix of autumn colour.

Prunus nipponica ‘Brilliant’ and it is!

Another new plant to us for the new 2018 catalogue: Viburnum ‘Blue Muffin’

Pyrus colleryana ‘Chanticleer’ with splendid orange, red and yellow colour in the cash point today.

Cotinus ‘Grace’ is equally good alongside it.

Deutzia crenata ‘Nikko’ with a lovely reddish-purple hue as well. One does not normally think of deutzias as having autumn colour.

Trachelospermum jasminoides has leaves which are now entirely red with no green at all. What a specimen plant for the greenhouse in November!

2016 – CHW
Horrendous storms last night which cut the phone lines when a tree fell on them at Battery Walk. The police arrived at midnight so the ‘Redcare’ phone disconnection system actually worked. They came in 45 minutes unlike the ambulance service on a call out for Dad recently who took two and a half hours while he lay incapacitated on the stairs half naked and complaining. Useless twats!

The Styrax japonicas ‘Emerald Pagoda’ which had such huge flowers in June is putting on a fine display of autumn colour below The Pound. I need to catch up on the rest of the styrax species before it is too late. Up to now they have all still been very green in leaf.

2015 – CHW

I had seen Rhododendron nobleanum out from the shooting trailer for a day or two but not had time to photograph it properly until today. It is not out properly or fully and a poor colour implying the buds have been blown open in recent gales. Part of this ancient clump has been smashed by a falling small dead oak so a bit of work to do here after the shooting season. Lots of ivy to deal with here too. Still it is open two months earlier than recorded in the Garden diary in the 1900 to 1930 period. Climate change or just a run of mild winters?

2002 – FJW
Flowers on Rho nobleanum – many still on wall Delavayi – still very wet.

1991 – FJW
First dry day of the month – only Sasanquaa and Yellow Hammer.

1987 – FJW
First flower seen on November Pink.

1960 – FJW
Saw flowers on Drive Nobleanum. Lapageria still hangs on. Hare active on lawn. White heaths on bank have been out for some time. No colour on Liquidambar.

1929 – JCW
Bits of the following rhodo show flowers – Decorum, Trichocladum, Radicans, Lutescens, Keysii, Intricatum, Burmanicum, Racemosum, Saluenensis, Parviflorum, Sanguineum. Lapagerias and Camellia sasanqua are nice.

1928 – JCW
Two good Magnolia delavayi blooms are open. Some white Maddeni by brown gate. Many lapagerias. Some C sasanqua. One Decorum. Several Neriiflorum. Bob’s heath.

1920 – JCW
A nice lot of lapageria, bits of many rhodo’s in flower say 30. Sasanqua fair. Erica darleyense begins to be good.

1915 – JCW
A very few Sasanqua buds this year. Lapagerias nice. We have bad frost but nothing to stop planting. The white camellia at the Engine House just open.

1905 – JCW
A very hard frost last night, a good bit of ice on pond. C sasanqua out, it has been very good. Several roses left now. Are digging 150 pits in the wood by electric light engine for the Arboreum x Fortunei.