2023 – CHW
Another visit to Bonython on a ridiculously warm and sunny day.
Crataegus laevigata, Woodland Hawthorn, looking especially good and laden with berries. Two mature plants above the house near the old rhododendron planting.
Seeds forming on Vaccinium dunalianum var. megaphyllum – a gift from Rod White.
Viburnum taiwanianum preparing to flower.
The first fruits that (I think) I have seen on Sorbus thompsonii. Huge leaves and large yellow fruits.
A long visit to the nursery with a client to pick out their order for delivery next week. Along the way some opportunities to photograph things between the heavy showers.Seed heads on Pittosporum adaphniphylloides.
The Beatrice Fleur Williams christening plantation of sasanqua camellias now goes in on the bank above the entrance to the Old Park where sasanquas once grew.
Belinda
Blush
Bonanza
Choji Guruma
Early Pearly
Elfin Rose
Frosted Star
Hiryu
Look Away
Marshmallow
Narumigata
Night Rider
Pink Goddess
Plantation Pink
Sekiyo
Setsugekka
Spring Fling
Survivor
Sweet Olive
Tada Meibi
Versicolor
Virginia Robinson
Yoimachi
Yume
The opening ceremony will be in February 2020.At the same time our new Cotoneaster species collection was planted below White Styles field below the path. A full list of what was planted here: -Cotoneaster erratusCotoneaster fangianusCotoneaster flinckiiCotoneaster gambleiCotoneaster glabratusCotoneaster naoujanensisCotoneaster rhytidophyllusCotoneaster rokujodaisanensisCotoneaster rubensCotoneaster schubertiiCotoneaster sikangensisCotoneaster silvestriiCotoneaster soongoricus
Cotoneaster teijiashanensis
Cotoneaster tengyuehensis
Cotoneaster thimphuensis
Cotoneaster uniflorus
Cotoneaster vandelaarii
Cotoneaster wilsonii
Cotoneaster ‘Rothschildianus’
20 of the rarest Cotoneaster species you could ever wish to find! Lots of fun checking their identities and propagating them over the next decades I hope.
2018 – CHW
Our largest Manglietia insignis split out in a gale in the spring and Jaimie’s team have been tackling this today. A sad end to an elderly record tree but we do have two others. Asia tried to propagate it when the trunk split in two when it was actually in flower in June but I doubt these cuttings will have been successful.
The second ancient Camellia sasanqua (pink) is suddenly out too.
To Bond Street for a quick review of newer plants here and one or two surprises.Eupatorium ligustrinum, the late season flowering plant which butterflies adore, is nearly over with some flower head clusters already brown and seed setting while others are still out and a fluffy white. I see this is now renamed as Agerantina liguistrina at some botanist’s whim. A plant from Mexico and Costa Rica.
Some rather dull subjects today in an admittedly dull part of the garden around the camellia foliage plantation above the Auklandii Garden. There are three possibly self sown or possibly hidden because dull plants of Photinia (I think) davidiana with nearly ripe fruit. The leaf looks a bit different to the Burncoose plants above the tennis court in full sun. Here they are in full shade.
I have tried several times to get young plants of Quercus suber away but they have always died of cold in immaturity. Here one is at last growing in a very poor position and heavily propped up by stakes. The bark is beginning to look cork like as it should.
Quillaja saponaria, the soap bark tree, is rather aptly alongside the cork oak. It is a tender evergreen of little merit and one of the dullest worst selling items in the Burncoose catalogue. Then an ilex which I had always believed to be Ilex verticellata but now I am not so sure as this looks like an evergreen to me and Ilex verticellata is deciduous. The new growth stems are black so I should easily be corrected by someone on this old plant.Looking around this whole area is shaded by four or five large sycamores which have no place here and are taking all the light. Could we fell them easily? Probably but we would gain little new planting space. Jaimie wants to ditch the nearby laurel clump this autumn which will make a little space.
1961 – FJW
First flowers Nov Pink well out.
1954 – CW
Only one or 2 white buds on Camellia sasanqua – most of whites over are Maddeni x . Royal Flush a lot out. Hydrangeas some well. All very late and a wet summer. Rockery Tree ferns picked up a bit but old ones in Drive very bad. Fuchsias nice. Some lapagerias.
1948 – CW
Returned from North. Harvest good but plenty of rain. Fuchsias very good. Lapagerias still nice. Stable white Sasanqua out and an odd bit of pink. Pound gate Yellow Hammer rhododendron has been good. Almost no magnolia seed. Some bits of Auriculatum and its hybrid. A few daffs breaking ground. A few bits of Maddeni hybrid. Both plants of best dead.
1944 – CW
The white Camellia sasanqua by stables fully out and a few pink. Rho Yellow Hammer good. A few Auriculatum hybrids left. There have been some bad storms and a lot of rain. Last week 3 big branches off the tall Insignis.
1924 – JCW
I took a nice bunch of Hippophaeoides, Scintillans, Saluensis, Russatum x Primulinum to Wilson. C panniculata nice but not good. It is the same with bloom on many things. A late and sunless season but great growth.1908 – JCW
See some Polyanthus above ground, Camellia sasanqua is open. R nobleanum open in the drive.
1903 – JCW
I saw the first of the above in flower, Sasanqua well out.
1898 – JCW
Several Polyanthus above ground.
’22 Stachyurus salicifolius has by far narrower and more elongated leaves.
’20 Mahonia eurybracteata ‘Soft Caress’ is an elegant and reliable enrichment for gardens.
’15 Quercus suber needs warm summers to ripen well, than it resists easyly minus 15 °C and more, but then with leave-drop. (In Strasbourg nearly 20m tall and well 0.5 m dbh.)