Monday 9th.

Saw some nice looking grasses at St John’s and decided to plant a variegated Cortaderia Splendid Star at the top of the Autumn Border next to another one, to fill a gap. Then I thought the Fuchsia magellanica Purple Mountain was not doing anything lower down the border, so I dug it up and potted it on to use elsewhere. I decided that another Cortaderia would make a bold statement in its place, so put in the compact ‘Evita’. We’ll see what happens. Autumn colours apparent now but only in some trees - Acer October Glory has been good but almost over, whereas some others like Sorbuses are only just starting. Kniphofia rooperi from Gill Heavens is now flowering and Grevillea victoriae is doing extremely well, but bare in the middle as if someone or something has sat down in it.

                                                Grevillea victoriae

                                            Kniphofia rooperi

Thursday 12th.

I planted Acer davidii ‘Viper’ at the bottom of the garden by the big Pines where Cupressus guadeloupensis used to be. I did drastic formative pruning on it which I hope it survives. I bought it from St John’s with some of the token the Artavian Singers gave me on my birthday. Wonderful bark, especially on a young tree. I also photographed a frond of Lophosoria quadripinnata which I took to the top of the garden so that the blue backing showed good colour in the sun (it turned quite warm this afternoon).

                                Anja with the frond of Lophosoria

                                    Lophosoria quadripinnata close-up

Tuesday 17th.

Storm Ophelia was made much of, but passed us by - strongest wind was 50mph gusts, so just the usual debris from the trees. In 1987 it passed by to the east, and yesterday went to the west across Ireland. It is quiet today and still warm for the time of year (19C). I noticed that the Euonymuses are fruiting well, including the relatively young Euonymus cornutus var. quinquecornutus, which I was sold as something completely different.

                                Euonymus quinquecornutus

               Euonymus quinquecornutus showing its ‘Jester’s Hat’

Satruday 21st.

Yesterday with the last of my retirement money from Church, I bought a plant of Populus deltoides ‘Purple Tower’ (big purple leaves) from St Johns and planted it at the top of the garden near the Autumn Border. After The strongish winds of Storm Ophelia, Anja cleared the debris and Rob mowed yesterday. Today we have storm Brian (!) with very heavy rain showers and high winds. I found that the wind has snapped my newly planted Poplar in half! It is a plant that can be hard pruned like a Paulownia to produce bigger leaves, so I hope it will recover in the Spring.

Wednesday 25th.

Stuart came and took out the reversion sticking out of the top of the Cut Leaf Beech. Too high for me to reach - I had removed a lower branch last summer, and this was present then. It has been irritating me all year, so I’m pleased it has gone at last.  Unfortunately it is prone to reverting to the normal Beech leaves. Stuart will need to come back for some more tree work.

Monday 30th.

Two days ago Saturday 28th was the RCMG SW Branch Autumn meeting at Rosemoor, which went very well. We had the usual plant sale, two quizzes, drinks and then Russell talked about his trip to Yunnan - a place I’d love to go.

Pam gave me a small plant of the original Rh. williamsianum micro-propagated by Ros Smith from Wilson 1350 which was sent to J.C.Williams from Wilson himself in 1912, and this was from the plant of W1350 still growing at Werrington. Here is an excerpt from the Scottish Rock Garden magazine:

J. C. Williams felt his responsibility to the plant collectors keenly,

and he was frequently admonished to take care of the new consignments

and to realise with what risk and peril they had been collected.

In a letter to J.C.W. (which is now mislaid) in 1912 E. H. Wilson laid

this responsibility on him with something akin to severity. In this

instance he was sending six plants of Rhododendron 1350 to Caerhays

from the Arnold Arboretum. His warning was that J.C.W. was the

only person he could trust to grow them, as it was too risky to try at

that time in the U.S.A., that he had only found this Rhododendron

in one place during his explorations, it was unlikely that he would

ever return to that locality and if he did, the chances were that the

old plants would have been destroyed by a forest fire. Happily Mr.

Wilson was wise in his choice and there are very many more than

six plants of Rh. 1350 (later called Rh. williamsianum) growing in the

old and the new worlds at the present time.

Rather a responsibility for me now!