I wrote an article on pruning camellias two years ago in this post. I'm not sure that in writing a new article I'm saying anything much that's new, but I have added more detail about some aspects and it now feels more complete. There is also new functionality on the WordPress blog which I wanted … Continue reading Camellia pruning revisited.
Author: Jim Stephens
Masayoshi
Most visitors to Mt Edgcumbe will start at the top of the collection and work their way down. This will take them along the level path known as the Earl's Drive, along both sides of which are planted camellias. One of the most prominent of these, in section 5A, not quite at the path edge … Continue reading Masayoshi
Persephone
Plant Heritage is the organisation that oversees the business of National Collections and as part of that they provide an online database system onto which collection holders can put the records of their collection. It's called Persephone. Their earlier database system was called Demeter. Cultured lot, Plant Heritage. As far as the Mt Edgcumbe collection … Continue reading Persephone
A problem solved, maybe.
It being sasanqua season, which always seems particularly fleeting, I have been looking again at plants that appear to be wrongly labelled in an attempt to identify them correctly. In Area 10 at Mount Edgcumbe there is a plant labelled C. oleifera and another labelled C. sasanqua 'Fukuzutsumi'. Both have been flowering for a couple … Continue reading A problem solved, maybe.
October reflection
Planting I have managed to resume my volunteer days at Mt Edgcumbe on a weekly basis for the past few weeks and have been focussing on planting. The park has a small nursery area where they have been growing on small plants that they obtained a few years ago and last autumn I brought some … Continue reading October reflection
Survivors
I have been up to Mt Edgcumbe only a handful of times since mid March. It just didn’t seem to be the right thing to do, whether or not it would have been legitimate under the lockdown rules. Yesterday I spent the morning up there, wandering round the collection to take stock of how things … Continue reading Survivors
Dynasties
For several weeks I have been putting the records of the Mt. Edgcumbe camellia collection onto the online database system that Plant Heritage use. It has meant I have been revisiting issues that came up when I first became involved with the collection but had set aside because I was getting nowhere. I was putting … Continue reading Dynasties
Identity Crises
One of the wrongly named plants that had been exercising me recently is a bush in the oldest of the European sections that is labelled Duchesse Decazes. There are actually three plants in this section, 5A, with that name and two are currently in flower. One appears to be correct and looks like this. The … Continue reading Identity Crises
Presentation Area.
The Presentation Area was the first part of the collection to be planted and is the last part to receive my attention. It was planted, or at least started, on 7th April 1976, so it will soon be 44 years old. I don't have a definitive list of what was planted initially but the impression … Continue reading Presentation Area.
Notes from the park -31/12/2019
Last day of the year and I thought I'd take advantage of a dry forecast to go and see what was happening. There was plenty to see. Star of the show, as she is every year around this time, is 'Show Girl' in the species section. It is one of three in the collection and … Continue reading Notes from the park -31/12/2019
Jim's Camellias 