Viburnum wrightii with slug damage around the flower.

A newly planted Picconia excelsa has just finished flowering but not looking too happy in a dry spot. Water this week.

Illicium merrillianum (KWJ 12113) in full flower above HQN.

Equally impressive new growth on Schefflera delavayi to that seen yesterday on rhododendrifolia.

Syringa reticulata flowering better than I have even seen it in a dry location.

Deutzia x elegantissima ‘Rosalind’ above the Drive near the current laurel cutting.

Syringa komarowii subsp. reflexa or is it Syringa x josiflexa ‘Bellicent’? The two are very similar and the planting plans a bit vague. There may be clumps of both quite close to each other.

Syringa josikaea (one of two clumps).

An azalea gall or two on Azalea indica by the front door. Not the first time I have seen this here.

2022 – CHW

Four hours of welcome heavy rain overnight and more to come to dampen the Jubilee festivities.

Another decent plant of Pterostyrax psilophyllus var. leveillei in full flower.

Bladders already formed and turning pink on Staphylea holocarpa ‘Rosea’. This species has not produced ‘bladders’ as a young plant before while the other species do but rather later in the year.

Stunning foliage on Styrax japonicus ‘Evening Light’. A few buds but nowhere near out. This young plant was tiny when planted out only five to six years ago.

Rhododendron griersonianum now full out.

Rhododendron nuttallii nearly over. Not much different to Rh. excellens which we saw the other day.

Rhododendron polyandrum still has decent flowers, as here, but the very similar Rh. crassum is just over.

First flowering here of a recently planted Syringa wilsonii (now S. tomentella). A return to Caerhays for a species which most probably was here decades ago. A name change along the way too. Fragrant.

New growth on the ancient pink flowered Camellia sasanqua is dark bronzy-red. The white flowered forms have quite different new growth.

2021 – CHW
A hurried early morning visit to Burncoose for meetings.Our Burncoose stock plant of Abutilon vitafolium var. album ‘Veronica Tennant’ by the mist houses.

Podocarpus x ‘County Park Fire’ in full new growth in the nursery car park.

I have been trying to photograph Escallonia ‘Apple Blossom’ in flower for years and suddenly here it is.

Landscaping work for my cousin on the north Cornish coast. Still more areas to complete as here.

Convolvulus cneorum growing well out of a stone wall topped by Eleagnus ebbingei in my cousin’s garden.

2020 – CHW
The pink decorum above the shop is just coming out.

This is what Tom has confirmed as Malus rockii at Slip Rail. We had no clue.

Aesculus chinensis in full flower in Kennel Close. One of the later flowering species. A small slow growing tree rare in cultivation.

Crataegus schraderiana is finally out in flower. Flowers sit well with the white hue to the leaves which are attractive on their own.

Philadelphus satsumi just out.

Still good flowers on Magnolia ‘Summer Solstice’.

Azalea flowers burnt off prematurely in the heat on Hovel Cart Road.

Two new passing places on the drive installed today by Frankie Tregunna with a mini digger. We used concrete railway sleepers to create the new areas which now need hard coring.

A very nice Caerhays sort of thing happened today. Bob Tregunna had been going through his eldest brother’s things and thought we might like to keep and put on display his medals. There was also an album of photographs from 1981 showing the Queen Mother’s visit here and the magnolia planting by Georges Hut with a line-up of estate staff to greet her. Philip did the actual planting of course!

The medals which Philip Tregunna won from the RHS included:

• 50 year long service award*

• A J Waley Medal for his work on rhododendrons – 1968

• What we think is the Corey Cup medal which went with the award for breeding of Magnolia ‘Caerhays Surprise’ in 1976

(* The award is undated. Philip was head gardener here from 1956 to 1996. He started work here well before 1956 but went away on national service prior to returning to Caerhays. I guess the award was made 2000-2002 as, in semi-retirement, Philip continued to work in the house and greenhouse.)

These items can certainly go on public display when we reopen next March in a secure cabinet. It is staggering that there have only been four head gardeners at Caerhays since 1897. I can think of other Cornish gardens who have had three in 10 years!

2019 – CHW

A cuttings collecting day here with Enkianthus, Staphylea and others with softwood new growth. About 30 different things to set.

Rhododendron yuefengense flowering in the Higher Quarry Nursery Bed. A very distinct leaf shape and a species I first saw at Tregrehan. The plant came from Glendoick.

Syringa reticulata flowering for the second time below Donkey Shoe. Not a patch on the flower of another new Syringa species which we saw last week.

Kalmias planted in 1991 are now a bit too much in the shade but we did, last year, uplift a few nearby tree branches.

Abies pinsapo with a multitude of blue cones with spurs on each segment of the cones. This is only the second year that this young tree has performed (nothing last year) and about 35 to 40 cones overall. Abies delavayi nearby is similarly adorned.

Stewartia ogisu flowering for the first time. Smallish flowers with pink buds.

Supposedly a young Stewartia sinensis but I fear that the flowers are far too large. Need to see the seeds to key it out in full even if the calyxes look right.

Stewartia monodelpha about to flower. I am reasonably confident that this young plant is correctly named if only from its foliage colour last autumn.

2018 – CHW
To Tregullow to look at the garden there. A regular occurrence when we lived nearby at Burncoose for 20 plus years. Much pruning of huge rhododendron clumps in progress after the February/March gales.Picea breweriana making great headway by the stables. A slow and awkward tree to get going which needs careful staking initially. A variable plant if grown from seed but this is a good form.

Rhododendron ‘Rubicon’ nearly over. James Williams gave us a plant rooted by their head gardener. A cross between Rhododendron ‘Kilimanjaro Group’ and Rhododendron ‘Noyo Chief’ or so I look up.

A superb Cornus controversa ‘Variegata’. Plastered in flower and by far the best thing in the garden today.

Rhododendron ‘Tortoiseshell Orange’ just going over. Rather paler than our form so I am not quite convinced this is the right name.

2017 – CHW
The Daily Telegraph has a picture of a 16ft tall Echium pininana growing outside. This beats the 14ft one growing at the Welsh Botanic Gardens in a biome featured in the papers before Chelsea. I suspect ours outside the library window are easily a match for the new Guinness Book of Records entry but am disinclined to prove it. I think that in this record echium year there will be many competitors for the prize – such as it is.Then the rare plant sale at Tregrehan where it rains hard for an hour and a half as Justin and I set up. A good turnout none the less and we sell 50 plants in the first two hours from the 150 which we took.

Back to a lunch for nine including Gerard and Nicky Clinton and, of course, a garden tour.

Another pinkish Rhododendron royalii hybrid has one flower.

Here is part of the group photo.