garden diary
Sunday 7th.
The excitement has been the removal of the two enormous pines at the bottom of the garden on Monday - Wednesday. They have been a landmark for years (one of them c.150 years) and mixed feelings about seeing them felled. Funnily enough, from the rickety stile at the bottom bonfire into the back drive, you hardly notice! Quite extraordinary considering how enormous they were. Very skilled coordination, combining chainsawing with crane winching the cut bits away.
In contrast to the rather desiccated Calycanthuses, Aphrodite is looking great but only a few flowers. Sue & I cleared the weeds from that area on Thursday, including from underneath the bush. The last two days there has been a sudden drop in temperature and rain, as well as very windy, but now the plants look much happier and the rain has reached a little lower than just the surface with any luck. A bit of a shock after the very hot dry weeks.
Sunday 14th.
Fantastically heavy rain on Tuesday and Wednesday and beginning to penetrate. Showers last 4 days which yesterday were quite heavy. Excellent, and the garden has definitely perked up - especially the shallower rooted shrubs like hydrangeas and rhodos. It is also warming up, so definitely growing weather. On Thursday I cleared about three quarters of the Hungarian lilac behind the round temple. The lilac had suckered and spread over everything in its path. A good job done.
While I was doing that, I noticed the first flowering of Rhododendron yuefengense. with its very characteristic leaves.
And the first flowers of Magnolia (Mangletia) insignis coming out and looking beautiful for a change rather than brown and mucky.
Friday I grubbed up almost all the euphorbias mellifera in the bay by the metal walled garden gate as they had grown huge. Next to tackle the Banksian rose in the next bay along. Next two June garden walk videos now on YouTube .
Gorwell Garden Walk June part 1
Gorwell Garden walk June part 2
Monday 15th.
Received my three plants from Burncoose, and planted two of them (Magnolia ‘Wildcat’ and Calycanthus chinensis) after widening the bed by Mag. Yellow River slightly. Not sure if I will need to widen it further! It has potential for more room and in sun. I made M. Wildcat as a specimen tree.
Tuesday 16th.
I was going to video Mangletia insignis which is looking good, and found the rare Daphniphyllum from BSWJ planted several years ago, dying behind Aucuba omeinsis, so I sawed it down. The Aucuba looks wonderful, thank goodness. I also sawed a large trunk of Magnolia Spectrum to let in more light in the bed near Pope’s Urn. The Sorbus hedlundii I transferred there does not look happy but I will leave it and see what happens. More sawing needed of overgrown trees/shrubs.
Thursday 18th.
The garden has been transformed by the rain over the past 5 days and all droopiness gone. Torrential outbursts and yesterday very heavy with thunder so impossible to go out. The Stewartia malacodendron looks great and there is a bit more light from removing Amelanchier lamarckii and almost all the dead in Chionanthus retusus behind.There is a Paeony delavayi beneath which is still alive, so I hope it will recover with some of the competition gone. Nice wine red flowered form.
Monday 22nd.
I finally decided to plant the x Gordlinia grandiflora by the Picea breweriana - I felt that bed had enough light now that I had taken some branches of Magnolia Spectrum. More will need to be done and the neighbouring Scarlet Oak. I noticed the KR Sorbus hedlundii I had moved to there last month when it was not looking happy, looks even less happy and on the brink of death, so I removed it. There is now space for a tall upright plant where it was.
I finished my clearing behind the round temple & dug out the roots of the Hungarian Lilac which had formed a jungle thicket and Sue will finish clearing the last of the ivy. A nice space to plant something!
Alpine Bed 3 was looking great at the beginning of the month with Verbascum chaixii ‘Album’ spires and the very pink Oriental Poppy presumed to be Princess Victoria Louise.
Sunday 28th.
Martyn & Ali (Rix) came round which was great, lots of plants to show them. After the scorching heat of last week (up to 29C), suddenly lots of rain (excellent) Thursday onwards and drop of temp to 17C (boo). Still wet, cool and unsettled. Martyn seems quite keen to write the words for a book Clive (Boursnell) wants to make about this garden and its foliage. He has taken hundreds of photos of this garden over the years and has gone on about this book also for years! Martyn’s collection Cosmos peucidanifolius was looking beautiful and the weeping New Zealand Broom Carmichaelia stevensonii flowering well this year with bizarre higgledy-piggledy flowers like caterpillars all over.
Cosmos peucidanifolius with lavender and Penstemon King George.
Carmichaelia stevensonii
Garden Diary June 2020
Rose ‘Camaieux’
