Friday 3rd.

Managed to plant large specimen of Crinodendron hookerianum in the clearing behind the Round Temple after I had removed the last of the ivy and a few sycamore seedlings / large sapling from undergrowth. I hope it does OK; it is a shrub I can’t seem to get to grow for long. After lunch it started getting very wet, so Rob had to give up the mowing an hour early but Sue persevered. The dreaded Magnolia conifers var. chingii continues to flower and I posted a photo with rude comment on Facebook in the certain knowledge that it would provoke a reaction, which it did!

                                        Magnolia conifera var. chingii

Saturday 4th.

Today, more clearing, this time by the steps at the bottom of the Tennis Court. The enormous Osmanthus yunnanensis was encroaching on all around, and there were sycamore and myrtle saplings growing up. Hydrangeas Tokyo Delight, Mme. Mouliére and Rotschwanz looking lovely after deadheading last year’s flower heads.Tokyo Delight is enormous now after about 25 years at least.

Sunday 5th.

Today it is gales! - 40 mph gusts - hopefully lasting only until tonight. But there is mostly sunshine as well so not cold.

Wednesday 15th.

Last week and yesterday finally managed to burn up the bottom bonfire which took 3 days in all - huge (including the felled hawthorn tree). Now to tackle the equally enormous top bonfire hopefully before the NGS open day on Sunday. Received my consignment of plants from Kevock Garden Midlothian and planted some in the leaf mould by Magnolia maudiae with the ferns and orchids. They were Trilliums simile & Snow Bunting, and Mitraria (another try with this). In the Alpine beds, Gladiolus flanaganii and Incarvillea arguta (another try with this!).

            Pan with Hydrangea ‘Tokyo Delight’

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The latest garden Walk video went out a couple of days ago and the hydrangeas are looking great. More to come.

Gorwell Garden Walk July part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwS6j_NKJSM&t=3s

Thursday 23rd.

We visited friends in Sherborne yesterday and went around Minterne gardens which were lovely in the hot sun. They seemed rather dry unlike our garden here’ but there were good blocks of Hydrangea paniculata Annabelle well pruned. The surprising thing was the pinkness of most of the hydrangeas growing in obviously acid soil judging from the health of the rhododendrons. Hydrangea colour is obviously not only dependent on acidity, but other factors are in play as well. I am lucky here in that our ‘red’ hydrangeas like Rotschwanz do not seem to go a deep purple. 

purple as in some acid soils.  

Our Mediterranean look on the south terrace with the red geraniums doing well

Monday 27th.

Yesterday we had our outdoor Away Day, a rather reduced affair with 13 of us present here at Upper Gorwell. After a brief presentation, we had our bring and tell session which was excellent as everyone had brought plant material to talk about. Peter Furneaux brought an intriguing prickly pink flowered stem which turned out to be a Chilean Colletia, quite unlike the two well known ones. He also had a deep dusky red rhododendron truss which had been bought years ago by a relative, but the name was unknown. The Bucknells had brought some rhododendrons they had grown from cuttings, Blue Tit, Blue Diamopnd and the lovely Alison Johnstone.

Dick Fulcher had brought a beautiful blue Codonopsis grey-wilsonii and Arisaemia tortuosum, Gerald Wyatt spoke about the juvenile prickly foliage of Accacia praxissima he had grown from seed, and Francis Gilbert showed the lovely bronze foliage of a seedling Malus with pink flowers in spring (which he showed a photograph of)  It should be propagated. I showed samples of Maackia chinenesis, Aesculus parviflora and a flower of Hydrangea serrata Mirai.

We had an exhaustive and exhausting tour of the garden, and I felt the day had been a great success. A pity we were so restricted by the pandemic.

                            Gerald, Sue, Sarah, Francis, Caroline.

                            Mary, Peter, Lorna, Dick & Vanessa

                         Dick presenting Arisaema tortuosum

This afternoon I planted Three of Dick’s plants: Gaultheria wardii coll. Keith Rushforth, Arisaema tortuosum and Codonopsis grey-wilsonii. I intend to get a dwarf white paniculata hydrangea and grow the codonopsis though this.

Thursday 30th.

I took the chainsaw to most of the old Viburnum rhitidophyllum and now wonder how I shall stop it from resprouting. It took up a lot of valuable space where other things could be grown.

I was also worried when I saw the new growth sprouting on my Sorbus medongensis / megacarpa which looks totally different from the glossy varnished leaves of the 11 year old plant. I have asked Martyn Rix if he has any ideas; it is almost as if they are the mature foliage and the previous leaves, the juvenile but that only happens to Southern hemisphere plants, I thought.  Oh dear, I hope these leaves turn into the other kind when mature, but they look so different.

   

Friday 31st.

To my horror the wonderful Codonopsis appeared to be dying. The leaves at the bottom were fine, so on disentangling the twining stems I had managed to cut them. I am hoping that the the portion below where it was cut will grow more shoots from the tuber. I originally planted Hydrangea paniculata ‘Bobo’ for the codonopsis to weave through, but I think it is too big so I replaced it with ‘Little Lime’ and moved Bobo along. On Jim Stephens blog I saw a photo of H.serrata ‘Fuji-no-taki’ which looked great, so I have ordered it from Larch Cottage.