…and garden wants rain. Cyclamen good. 1947 – CW Eat the last peaches. Still much too dry. 1941 – CW Six Magnolias out. Both forms of Grandiflora, Nigra, Conspicua, Salicifolia…

…of Yellow Hammer – Sasanqua in full flower on wall. Mag delavayi and grandiflora both have flowers, also Nigra and Conpsicua. 1934 – JCW Some Mag delavayi is in flower…

…‘Lochinch’ Harebells on the wildflower bank (Campanula rotundifolia). Campanula rotundifolia Knautia arvensis – field scabious nearby. Knautia arvensis Moth on greater knapweed. A different seed head to our Centaurea nigra….

…for growing on and planting out. – Corylus yunnanensis – Corylus ferox var. tibetica – Juglans nigra ‘Laciniata’ – Juglans microcarpa – Quercus skinneri – Quercus cuneata – Quercus humboldtii…

…JCW Most of the tree ferns have finished their growth. Henonis at full length, the best cane about 16 feet. Mitis and veitchii in mid growth, Nigra at full length….

…Daff seed picked, say 2500. 1899 – JCW Nigra up to 18 ft 3 in. Finished sowing daff seed, except Recurvas, from spores coming ripe. 1897 – JCW The water…

…Abelia floribunda very good. Several daffs not dead yet. No Nigra’s [bamboo] over 3 feet high. 1900 – JCW Romneya coutleri just opening, everything later than on the other side….

…all the seed picked, our best year for this last. 1898 – JCW Came from London after 3 weeks absence. Many Henonis [bamboo] only half grown, Nigra the same, waterlilies…

…Today we would say that Hydrangea ‘Taube’ or Hydrangea ‘Enziandom’ were the best blues. It has not got the black stems of Hydrangea ‘Nigra’ so I suppose the best guess…

…touched by the great frost. 1897 – JCW The waterlilies are at their best. Bambusa nigra at full length, Henonis at ¾ of their length, Mitis only now starting in…

…for Scotland, far behind the above. 1897 – JCW The first Tropaeolum speciosum opens, a lot of waterlilies on the big pond out, young shoots of nigra 8 feet high….

…‘Golden Torch’ Rhododendron ‘Colonel Rogers Group’ (Rhododendron niveum x Rhododendron falconeri) – I am promised a cutting. Rhododendron ‘Colonel Rogers Group’ Camellia ‘Konronkoku’ (‘Nigra’ or ‘Kunlong black’) still had plenty…

…open. Mag nigra good. Not 6 pips of Maddeni hybrids to be seen. Some Azaleas good. 1926 – JCW Loder’s White in the Rockery is by far the best thing…

…Magnolia kobus is very good. Several hybrids are well open i.e nigra, Brozzoni, alba, superba and speciosa etc. Falconeri is just opening. Auklandii is very good, much of it is…

…Auklandii’s and an Embothrium or two. Cherries good. 1902 – JCW Heterocycla, Hemonis and Nigra have been moving for some time. Clematis montana open. Bardoa picked. Cornish Rhododendron going back….

…King’ Two plants of Magnolia ‘Holland Red’ (liliiflora nigra hybrid) have flowers at the greenhouse. We had planted this out before but lost it. A smallish shrub for a good…

…tree fern trunk shows a woody core.Startling new shoots from the bamboos above the greenhouse which have appeared where the laurel has been cleared. They look like Phyllostachys nigra but…

…I had forgotten about Magnolia ‘George Henry Kern’. Planted on the drive in 1990 and now a small neat plant hidden within azaleas. The cross is Magnolia liliiflora ‘Nigra’ x…

…improve on the trip with some other magnolias springing out in the last 48 hours of east wind.Magnolia ‘Lili Diva’ (Magnolia liliiflora ‘Nigra’ x Magnolia sprengeri ‘Diva’) does not have…

…soulangeana and Magnolia lilliflora nigra and their various hybrids exhibit this characteristic. Magnolia ‘March-till-Frost’, and Magnolia ‘Star Wars’ are perhaps the best examples but the secondary flowers are often a…