5th November | The Garden Diary

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CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2020 – CHW

Lockdown Number 2 is now in place so back to making videos for the website. Today one about the possibly oldest five Camellia sasanqua in the country with Karol behind the camera. Unbelievably tedious and totally unnecessary in Cornwall where our COVID rate is now 47 per 100,000 of population. Way below that in the north of England where it is at 170 to 250 per 100,000 AND Cornwall has been heaving with visitors since 4th July when the last lockdown formally ended.

Guests in our holiday lets are (surprisingly) allowed to stay on if they wish under the rules rather than being sent home immediately.

About 20 staff on furlough again here – marketing department, house staff, Vean staff etc but they can now work one (or more) days a week if we so wish and we can afford to pay them with no Vean or shooting income for a month (at least).

Camellia ‘Takinini’ full out by the Playhouse and an exceptional colour.

Work progressing well on the laurel hedge below Sinogrande Walk.

A few rogue flowers, as usual, on Azalea ‘Kirin’.

Ripe black myrtle berries cover the path. No wonder self-seeding everywhere is so rampant.

Acer palmatum ‘Sango-kaku’ now a true yellow and dropping.

2019 – CHW
One of our two Laburnocytisus adamii has blown out of the ground in last Friday night’s gale. Totally uprooted.

Photinia beuvardiana var. notabilis is now more or less ripe all over the tree. What a show. This is another new entry on the Burncoose website and Asia needs to collect and grow more of this splendid species.

An oak branch has hit our little new row of Camellia x williamsii ‘Les Jury’ taking out at least one of them. Planted last spring.

The gales have stripped the bark off a yew which we pollarded in the Isla Rose Plantation. It died and so did the two roses which we hoped to grow up it in the dry summer.

A fine Acer palmatum dissectum ‘Atropurpureum’ which I planted exactly where a larger old plant died some 30 years ago. My mother cut it down, dried it off and used it as a Christmas decoration all sprayed white. This one will hopefully have decade or two to go like this before it suffers a similar end.

2018 – CHW
A new batch of plants from Stervinou nurseries. Camellias and Polyspora mainly. Most are large enough to plant out immediately.

A large wasps nest appears to have fallen from an old beech tree.

Another fine autumn show from an Acer palmatum dissectum ‘Atropurpureum’.

A clump of three Enkianthus campanulatus ‘Wallaby’ in which two exhibit very different autumn colours. One is bright yellow while the smaller ‘runty’ plant has a reddish hue. Unusual or is one dying?

2017 – CHW
The clump of Rhododendron maddenii at Donkey Shoe had to be cut back as some branches had died off. Several layers moved elsewhere in the process which was unexpected.

Acer kawakamii (caudatifolium) is rotten at its base beside the drive. This fungal infection of the main stems is now a major threat to snake bark maples with several casualties here and at Burncoose.

Last few flowers on Hypericum lancasteri.

Unlike last year, loads of berries on Cotoneaster franchetti.

2016 – CHW
The darker pink original Camellia sasanqua is now full out.

Camellia sasanqua ‘Hugh Evans’ is also out in a large clay pot by the front door. Actually only one of the two here is out.

Camellia japonica ‘Noblissima’ now has two flowers out and one bud showing colour by the front door.

2015 – CHW
Below Slip Rail I find a nice surprise. Eriobotrya deflexa has enjoyed the warm and then wet summer and has produced a secondary flush of bright brownish red new growth every bit as good as the spring new growth. Perhaps flowers and fruit next year which I have never seen on this species. Eriobotrya japonica has fruited at Burncoose in the lower walled garden but the tiny oranges were never quite edible.

I had forgotten that we actually had Lindera triloba but here it is below Slip Rail exhibiting exceptional yellow autumn colour with next spring’s flower buds clearly in evidence. At the recent Garden Society dinner Rupert Eley compared this to Lindera obtusiloba and the variable leaves are clearly easily confused. However our two original Lindera obtusiloba have a rather different growth habit so I firmly believe we have both species.

What I think is Cotoneaster salicifolius ‘Pink Champagne’ has pink tinged fruits which were yellow when we last looked at this and probably then assumed the wrong name. It is also known as a x watereri variety. Help needed please? It is clearly a large spreading evergreen tree but all the others I have seen elsewhere have had red berries.

A picture to add to the styrax collection of Styrax japonicus ‘Emerald Pagoda’ growing below The Pound. It has much larger leaves than pure Styrax japonicus and was collected in South Korea in 1985. No flowers have been seen on this one yet.

Just above it is a good tree of Liquidamber styraciflua ‘Worplesdon’ which has narrow lobed leaves and is turning colour nicely allover. The book says orange and yellow colours but it looks more mixed than this to me. The original plant put here was pinched after planting. My father took Lord Falmouth to view it one day years ago and, to much merriment, the wire surround was empty! (Merriment from Lord Falmouth anyway.)

1917 – JCW
The C sasanquas have begun to open. Several bits of Oreotrephes showing flowers with perhaps a dozen other species.(Hand written note attached to garden page)
Include?.