A private arboretum in May

[Brian Ellis]

On Sunday we, and one or two ‘lurkers’ visited a 14 hectare private arboretum in the next village to us.  It lies on the south slope of a 50m high hill (big for Norfolk) with views to the North Sea some 35 miles away and the soil is mainly acidic.  Sheltered and with good frost drainage, the arboretum is in an area of low rainfall with high evaporation by wind, but, nonetheless the site is moist in places and has a diversity of soils so a wide variety of trees can be grown. Begun in the late 18th century when a Norwich doctor purchased the adjoining property as well, it has been much developed since 1986 by the present owner Sir Timothy Colman, who has the eye of an artist, with advice from John Simmons - and planting is still being carried out.  We were fortunate enough to have these two knowledgeable treemen with us for our visit.  Here are some of the things that caught my eye.

Guarding the arboretum!

One of our guides for the afternoon, John Simmons

General vista

[Brian Ellis]

Some of the rhododendrons in the arboretum - I particularly liked the last a delicate shade of primrose - whatever it is!

[Brian Ellis]

One of the first trees of interest a young Acer campbellii with wonderful arching red branches.  The site is noted for its cedars, some original planting, others planted at the beginning of the last century and still more planted recently.  Sadly one had to be felled in the autumn.

Acer campbellii

The gap left.

Timber!

Younger specimens

[Brian Ellis]

I learned that the snowdrop tree is not ha-lee-seya but Hales-eya named after Hales!  Whilst admiring this we noticed , much to my delight that the ground was liberally sprinkled with Twayblades!

The Davidia involucrata was covered in ‘handkerchiefs’. 

Halesia

Twayblade

Davidia bract

[Maggi Young]

How sad to have to lose such a big tree from this lovely arboretum.  You  were lucky to be able to visit, Brian.

[Brian Ellis]

One of the finest pines in the arboretum is Picea Smithiana, named for a colleague of the original owner of the site Sir James Smith, founder and first president of the Linnean Society who was born in Norwich.  It has pendant branchlets and cylindrical cones.  Its girth is 5m.  This weeping spruce grows well in the drier conditions of the eastern side of the country.

Ground cover of bluebells through the canopy

Pendant branchlets

Cone

[Brian Ellis]

There were a number of Magnolias including a fine specimen of ‘Elizabeth’.  One tree had succumbed to Witch’s broom.  There was a wonderful Acer griseum, I’ve never seen one so big and understand it was planted shortly after its first introduction to this country at the beginning of the 1900s by EH Wilson.  Many varieties of Aesculus were in evidence including this lovely foliage on Aesculus indica.

[Brian Ellis]

There was a nice example of the Wollemi ‘pine’ Wollemia nobilis and many Norwegian acers had been planted last autumn around the edge of a circular meadow as had a collection of Liquidambers.  The 1912 house was demolished but evidence of the gardens remained.  The rockery, of Yorkshire stone, is kept reasonably tidy, so that in the future, if there is interest and funds available it can be restored. 

Yes we were very fortunate, not only to be allowed to visit but also to have such wonderful guides.  I do hope we will be able to go again one day to see the autumn colours.

Wollemia

Planting from last autumn

Rockery entrance

[David Nicholson]

Wow Brian, 50m high, a mountain in Norfolk terms? Looks a lovely place.

[ashley]

Very nice Brian.  At Edinburgh BG a few weeks ago it was interesting to see a wollemi smaller than the one you show here, but with striking male and female cones.

[Brian Ellis]

That's interesting Ashley.  I zoomed in to another picture I have of it but there is no evidence of any cones at all!

[ashley]

They'd be hard to miss Brian.  The male cones are red and maybe 3-4 cm long at the tips of branches and the female cones although green are roughly spherical and 5-6 cm in diameter, if I remember correctly.  We may as well enjoy them while they're near eye-level, because they'll soon be out of sight at the rate these trees are growing  

But why individual plants start 'flowering' sooner than others I don't know.  Because this species shows almost no genetic diversity it must be due to environmental factors.

[shelagh]

Thanks for giving us the chance to view it through your eyes Brian.

[Brian Ellis]

More (and better) pictures here:

http://www.norfolkplantheritage.org.uk/framinghamarbore.html