9th September | The Garden Diary

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View 9th September 1897 – 2020

CONTRIBUTORS:

FJW 1955-2007

CHW 2015-

JCW 1897-1939

CW 1940-1955

2026 – CHW

£13,000 of profit to allocate after the June Charity Fete.

£3,500 to the St Austell Scouts.

£5000 to the Merlin Centre.

Copious fruiting on Phellodendron japonicum on Burns Bank after the hot summer. The fruits go black when ripe.

Not surprisingly Calliandra surinamensis has hugely enjoyed the heatwaves and is now becoming a large shrub.

Large numbers of the resident House Martins have left early with only a few stragglers left. The Swallows in the back yard are still feeding their brood of the summer. They arrived a fortnight before the House Martins.

2025 – CHW

First small mushrooms this year after the rain.

The first concrete poured in the base of the new Vean swimming pool.

Hydrangea aspera from Howick just coming out.

Cyclocarya paliurus.

Magnolia laevifolia ‘Sophie van Vyve’ with buds in the sun.

Our best young clump of Rhododendron williamsianum.

Crataegus combyi laden with haws or fruit.

Vitex agnus – castus just opening.

Cornus kousa ‘Wisley Queen’ laden with fruits.

Cattle back in the water meadows.

The swans and their six cygnets.

2024 – CHW
Sorbus dunnii has plenty of still unripe seeds.

Hoheria sexstylosa ‘Crataegifolia’ now full out. A hint of purple around the stigmas.

Plenty of flower buds on Polyspora longicarpa.

Tristaniopsis laurina, the Water gum, is an evergreen from South East Australia. This is the second time we have flowered it here as it becomes a large bush. I had not seen the attractive peeling bark before.

A small Lithocarpus pachyphyllus with huge seed clusters. The tree lost its leader in a dry summer and is now a multi-stemmed shrub with basal new growth. Some seed clusters actually touch the ground.

2023 – CHW

Parastyrax species nova (BWJ15185) – one of two planted out in the last 3 years – is growing away vigorously with large leaves.

Liriodendron tulipifera ‘Snow Bird’ has recovered from near death in the drought and is now making headway. I guess watering in late June kept it alive.

Secondary flowering on a Magnolia x loebneri which the slugs are enjoying.

Hydrangea aspera ‘Kawakamii’ from Formosa (BSWJ 7025) is now full out and much better than 10 days ago.

Hydrangea aspera subsp. strigillosa also from Formosa (BSWJ 15151) is just as good. We need to propagate these and plant out more clumps. The best things in the garden in September.

Huge leaves too.

Crataegus laevigata ‘Gireoudii’ plastered in berries which the pheasants have not yet got at.

Heptacodium miconioides has put on new growth and yet more flowers as a result of the August downpours.

Hedychium spicatum ‘Liberty’ (BWJ 8116) is still out. The other varieties all over but one more species with a huge bud.

2022 – CHW
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth dies yesterday.

I was sitting at meetings all afternoon and at Ventonveth in the evening so did not get the news until 8.30pm. Parochial Council meeting scheduled for today was cancelled but not a four hour meeting with Colin French who has recently completed the wild flower survey of all the fields on the farm. These show a massive increase in numbers of plant species and plant diversity since the last survey in 2011. Colin is author of the 600 page pictorial reference book on the wild flowers and ferns of Cornwall. Hopefully we will now have enough proof of the success of our existing low input farming policy and its ability to improve the growing diversity of permanent pastures to enable us to be offered a new Higher Land Countryside Stewardship Agreement for 5 or 10 years from 2024.

2021 – CHW
Some very welcome rain and thunderstorms. The garden looks refreshed and revived.The Cordyline australis has had a severe pruning to remove the dying branches but plenty of good shoots still. It may well now also shoot from the base.

The wind has knocked off plenty of seed heads off the champion Lithocarpus pachyphyllus. Most have acorns still unformed and too small to germinate but this clump of seeds has one or two large enough to be viable.

This is our largest Taiwania cryptomeria which Asia wants to propagate from cuttings. The best cuttings are from end tips or upright new growth as any other growth rooted is simply too floppy when potted. The shoot tips are still in full new growth so cuttings will have to wait a couple of months.

Seed heads forming but not yet ripe on our ancient Gaultheria hookeri or Vaccinum wardii. Susyn Andrews needs ripe seeds to determine which naming is correct. Both plants very similar!

Seeds forming on Stewartia pteropetiolata. The International Dendrology Society want lots of pictures of this species for their latest website update on stewartia which we are happy to supply.

View 9th September 1897 – 2020