Another set of fungi in Old Park to try to identify in my new book. Perhaps Hydropus floccipes.

Clethra pringleyi nicely out in the nursery.

Clethra tomentosa ‘Cottondale’ making a good show. Larger flowers than the one in the garden here.

Vitex agnus castus just out. Our large plant near Slip Rail has still to show.

Acer campestre ‘Evenly Red’ showing autumn colour of no great note as yet.

Callicarpa kwangtungensis in full flower.

Sycoparrotia ‘Purple Haze’ just turning.

Diospyros lotus laden with fruit in a pot in the nursery. I have not seen this before.

Oxydendrum arboreum now out in flower. Slow to come out from when we last saw it.

Nyssa sylvatica ‘Wisley Bonfire’ with great colour already and may drop soon in pots.

Weinmannia trichosperma in flower in the show tunnel. I think it normally flowers in the spring. I have seen it out at Tregothnan in May. It may actually be Weinmannia racemosa?

Sorbaria sorbifolia flowering late in the show tunnel.

2019 – CHW
Another Sorbus gonggashanica in Kennel Close with more developed and larger fruits than the one we looked at a week or so ago.

Crataegus schraderiana with a few fruits more in the lee of the wind than in the face of it where the flowers were probably damaged in the spring. I have spent quite some time trying to find this plant recently as it is not with the rest of the Crataegus species in the new collection. About 5-6ft tall now with perhaps 30 to 40 fruits which are still far from ripe. I had a response in the diary a year ago from someone wanting to know about the fruits which I need to look up and now respond to. The leaves are downy and grey green. This species comes from Greece and the Crimea.

Magnolia ‘Yakeo’ is one of the most regular second flowerers of any magnolia but the slugs have not helped.

Aesculus woerlitzensis with just a few conkers. Asia propagated some of them last year when there was a bigger crop. Single conkers usually; occasionally doubles.

Acer campestre ‘Elsrijk’ is suckering hard from the roots but is making a fine tree. Planted in 2009 this Dutch named selection makes a conical feature tree as it is here.

Two Camellia ‘Adolphe Audusson’ with plenty of seeds just below Tin Garden. Worth Asia trying these as we might conceivably get a new hybrid from them.

Eucryphia lucida ‘Pink Cloud’ still has just a few decent flowers left.

An even better secondary show on another clump of Rhododendron ‘Blue Tit’.

Viburnum rhytidophyllum now nearly full out but no butterflies feeding yet.

2018 – CHW
More pottering about in Kennel Close.Aesculus woerlitzensis has a few seed/conker pods swelling away. Asia may have grown some from seed last year.

In a year when there are almost no magnolia seeds after The Beast a surprising find on a young Magnolia ‘Sweet Sixteen’. Note ripe yet by any means.

Aesculus californica also has a few smallish seed pods as it did last year. For Asia to observe and collect when ripe.

Crataegus ellwangeriana ‘Fire Ball’ with just a few fruits. The only one of our six new Crataegus species to fruit this year. Same reason as the magnolias!

Quercus mongolica has late new growth with smallish leaves while the older ones are huge in immaturity.

See how pathetic these Gunnera are after the drought albeit self-sown on a dry bank with no shade or water. Last year the leaves were 4-6ft tall.

2017 – CHW
Seed hunting in Kennel Close.Second flowers on Magnolia ‘Yakeo’. This seems to be normal as we have three youngish plants all flowering again hard!

Sorbus gonggashonica with berries. We may have seen the first seeds last year? What a name!

Sorbus commixta aff. var. sachalinensis with bright red-orange berries hidden within the tree. Only 10 years from planting.

Crataegus schraderiana ‘Fire Ball’ with its first berries. The only one of the half dozen new species of crataegus to produce berries since planted two years ago.

Sorbus japonica with fruits forming amid the silvery leaves. Odd colour to the fruit but I expect it will change although most leaves have already fallen.

Sorbus unknown on planting plan. Seems familiar in leaf form?

Aesculus woerlitzensis with conkers nearly all in pairs only at the top of the old flower stalks. Well worth Asia collecting in a couple of weeks. Oddly shaped and coloured too. I am not sure if I got pictures of this new species (to us) in flower? Slow growing but seeding at a very young age. Very rare and not in Hillier’s.