My squibbling may not be wondercrump but you don’t need a golden ticket to visit the rock garden, everyone can go

I’ve included apologies for my diary titles in the past, they are getting worse. All pictures were taken at Wisley in the rock garden on 13 September 2025.

On the Bonsai Walk there is a little more autumn colour appearing

The season is starting to change as summer ends. The Bonsai Walk often has the first autumn colours in the garden.

Peter Chan from Heron Nursery has changed over a few of the trees on the Bonsai Walk and can be easy to overlook them. Carpinus laxiflora is the loose flowered hornbeam. It is found on the Korean Peninsula and Japan and as a forest tree it grows 10-15m tall, but can make an ideal bonsai specimen. Carpinus is the ancient Latin name for a hornbeam and the specific epithet is also from the Latin meaning open loose flowered, hence its common name. Hornbeam in turn is from the old English: horn (hard) and beam –  the English word for a tree.

Zelkova serrata is known as the Japanese Grey-bark elm. In its native Japan, Korea, eastern China and Taiwan it grows up to 20m but again is a popular choice for bonsai. The genus name is from the vernacular in the Caucasus. The specific epithet serrata is from the Latin word for saw, referring to the serrated leaf edges.

Morus nigra is the black mulberry and has been grown for its edible fruits for so long that its original distribution has been lost in the mists of time. It originated somewhere in southwestern Asia. The genus name is its ancient Latin name and the specific epithet is Latin for black, which will be obvious to most gardeners, I’m sure.  

In the Alpine Display House you might think it was spring again

The plunges are filling up again with a riot of colour. Some visitors to the garden stop coming to the Alpine Display House at this time of year as they think there is nothing to see. I hope these diaries will show what they are missing.

The display case in the Alpine Display House has been filled with Cyclamen graecum in a rocky setting to replicate their home in Greece.

Strumeria discifera is from South Africa. The genus name is from the Greek word struma meaning a cushion, and aria meaning possessing, referring to the shaped swelling of the base of the style. The specific epithet is also from the Latin words disci meaning discs and fera meaning bearing or carrying.

Strumeria gemmata looks similar, but you can see differences in the flower when you look closely. The specific epithet gemmata is from the Latin for jewelled and it is found in the Cape Provinces to Free State.

Colchicum pelponnesiacum is found in a few sites in the Peloponnessos in Southern Greece. It has bright rose-pink flowers which are paler towards the base of the flowers.

Empodium plicatum is found in the Cape Provinces of South Africa. The genus name is from the Greek em meaning within and pous  meaning a foot, referring to the underground ovary. The specific epithet is from the Latin for pleated, folded lengthwise.

The next two plants are definitely in the unusual category.  Biarum pyrami is found in the East Mediterranean and in particular Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. The tiny flowers are clustered on the spadix (spike) and are surrounded by a modified leaf spathe. Its common name is the pyramid biarum.

Biarum tenuifolium comes again from the Mediterranean region from Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey. The specific epithet is from the Latin for slender leaved.

I had thought Rhodophiala bifida was another South African resident but I’ve learned that it’s from South America, in particular Northwest Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay and south Brazil. The genus name is from the Greek word rhodon meaning rose and phiale meaning a broad flat container, as the flowers are funnel shaped. The specific epithet is from the Latin meaning deeply two cleft. Most authorities now recognize the name as Zephyranthes bifida. Its common name is the oxblood lily.

Haemanthus albiflos is also from South Africa,  in particular the Cape Provinces to KwaZulu-Natal. The specific epithet is from the Latin for dead white flower.

Sternbergia lutea is from Dodona, which is on the west coast of mainland Greece, just behind Corfu. I’ve included the species before but I’ve included this form for the comparison with the next plant.

Sternbergia ‘Omalos’ has the cultivar name from the small village in Western Crete on the Plateau of Omalos. The plateau is 1080m above sea level and is located amongst the White mountains. The flowers appear to me to be daintier than other Sternbergia in the Wisley collection.

Some general views of the rock garden at the beginning of autumn

Out in the main rock garden there are signs of autumn colour appearing in the foliage. The team have been sweeping up acorns from the paths for the last few weeks.

Polypodium cambricum ‘Cambricum’ produces new fronds in late summer and grows to 60cm which explains why the fronds now look so fresh. It is semi-evergreen growing from a rhizome and it will thrive in dry sites with good drainage. The specific epithet is from the Latin “from Wales, or Welsh”, Cambria being the Latin name for the Country.

Not all the Colchicums are grown undercover. Colchicum ‘Giant’ is often misnamed as “The Giant” according the RHS book Colchicum The Complete Guide, published in 2020.  It is thought to be a cross between C. speciosum Bornmuelleri Group and C. speciosum Giganteum Group. Much of the stock is thought to be virused which often manifests as streakiness in the flowers. The hoverfly wasn’t put off visiting the flower and there were quite a few pollinators in the garden today.

Garyopteris incana ‘Blue Cascade’ was part of a trial by the RHS in 2007. The genus name is from the Greek karnon meaning a nut and pteron meaning a wing, as the fruits are winged, and the specific epithet is from the Latin for hoary. The genus was introduced to the UK from Canton in China by Robert Fortune around 1844, as a greenhouse plant. It is a small deciduous shrubs up to 1.5m tall. This cultivar was named in 1977 by Dr. D. G. Huttleston of Longwood Gardens, USA. It is thought to be a descendant of an American cultivar ‘Blue Billows’ which was collected in 1966 in Korea by Longwood Gardens.

Symphyotrichum ‘Small-Ness’ used to be called Aster ‘Small-Ness‘. It flowers from September until November and is described variously as having pale blue or pale purplish-pink flowers. It was a chance seedling found by Dr. Hugh McAllister in the University Botanic Gardens at Ness on the Wirral. It is reputed to be both drought tolerant and mildew free.

Hesperantha coccinea is another plant from South Africa being found in the East Cape Provinces to East Zimbabwe. It has several common names including River lily, Kaffir lily or Crimson flag lily. In Afrikaans it is rooiriverlelie. There are pink, white, salmon and red forms which grow to 60cm.

Eurybia divaricate and Eurybia x herveyi were in previous diaries last August but I’ve included them again as they are both on Brucie’s list.

There were interesting plants in the cushion house as well

I also included Erodium corsicum last August, but I’d not noticed the amount of variation in the plants that have seeded about. There was a variety of colours from pink to white with a stripe to white. These plants have been in flower for months.

On this day in history 1916

Roald Dahl (1916 – 1990) was born on 13 September and over five decades wrote many things including children’s books. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with its five golden ticket holders (being the only ones that could visit the chocolate factory) is very well known. I thought his first book  was James and the Giant Peach written in 1961, which he wrote for his children. My research identified that he wrote the Gremlins in 1942, being published in 1943. Roald was a larger than life character at 6’6”. A fighter ace over Greece and North Africa, crash injuries forced him to be grounded, but he continued his service as an assistant air attaché, in Washinton D.C. In 1942 on the trip across the Atlantic to take up his new post he met  Douglas Leonard Bisgood DFC (1918 – 1947) when Douglas discussed Gremlins with Roald on their two week voyage across the Atlantic. Gremlins were mischievous creatures that caused mechanical problems on aircraft and RAF pilots had known about them since they first appeared in WW1. In Washington, Roald met  the author C.S. Forrester who encouraged him to write about his wartime experiences. One of his early writings was about Gremlins and the original idea was to make it into a Disney film, this project was never completed. A book was published as a forerunner for the film. When Douglas heard about it he laid claim to the characters names and perhaps this dispute deterred Disney. It wasn’t until 1984 that Steven Spielberg used the characters developed in the book, for his film Gremlins and they became famous. This would not be the last time there was a touch of controversy in Roald’s life. He was a friend of Ian Fleming who named his most famous character James Bond after an American ornithologist, a fellow bird enthusiast of Fleming’s.

His first wife influenced his writings in many ways

Roald wrote the screen play for the James Bond film “You Only live Twice” as well as “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, the latter also having been written by Ian Fleming.  One of Roald’s contributions to the story line was the additional role of the Child Catcher, which isn’t in the book. In the UK Roald is most famous for his many children’s books which have sold over 300 million copies and have been translated into 65 languages. His marriage to Patrica Neal (1926 – 2010)  would greatly influence his writings. They married in 1953 and had five children, the eldest, Olivia, died of measles at the age of seven. Patricia won an Oscar for best actress  in 1965 for her role in the film “Hud”, the year she suffered three stokes. She had appeared in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” in 1961 as well as in  “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. Another claim to fame was her first film role “John Loves Mary” with a little known actor called Ronald Reagan. I’m straying off my usual business advice into a film critic, but he won’t go far, you’ll not hear about him again. Patrica featured in many other films and stage productions during her career. The strokes caused her to suffer from aphasia such that she couldn’t find words and so she would make up her own in an effort to speak. Roald went on to invented many words for his books which he called gobblefunk. The BFG has many examples. Patrica recovered enough to be cast as Olivia Walton in the TV movie “The Homecoming: A Christmas Story” in 1971. This was a pilot for the TV series that would become “The Waltons”. The producers decided that her health wouldn’t allow her to undergo the rigorous weekly filming schedule of the show and so she was replaced by the actress Michael Learned. It’s now difficult to imagine anyone else playing Olivia’s role other than Michael. Strange that the character’s name had been Patrica’s first daughter’s name. Fortunately, latinized plant names can be understood by us all, whatever language we speak, even if at times they sound like rummytot. Younger readers can look up the film references, older readers can ask the younger ones to translate the gobblefunk.

Roald was also helped by other people in creating gobblefunk

Rummytot is an example inspired by a Spoonerism that Roald deployed. The first recorded ones were not actually created by the Reverend Dr. William Spooner (1844 – 1930) but his name was attributed to such expressions. He was Dean and then Warden for 21 years at New College, Oxford and only made one Spoonerism in his life. The undergraduates amused by this made up plenty more for their own entertainment and attributed them to William, perpetuating and adding to the legend. Who would have thought that students would do such a thing. A crushing blow becomes a blushing crow. Tommy Rot an expression for nonsense and becomes rummytot in gobblefunk. It’s not hard to decipher the words when you know the rules, just like Latin.