Hydrangeas lined up for customers by the sales point.

Agapanthus ‘Windsor Grey’ really is grey!

This batch, supposedly, of Buddleia globosa from France are flowering yellow rather than the more normal orange. That is perhaps OK but the other half of the batch are pink and not quite globose at all.

Campsis x tagliabuana ‘Grenadene’ is a good new addition to the website. Orange-red on opening then turning redder.

Cardiocrinum giganteum in flower. I hope Cressy grabs the seed when ripe as they are very easy to grow.

Gomphostigma virgatum is a new addition to the 2025 catalogue. A South African plant with rosemary-like leaves and rather better flowers.

Persicaria alpina is another new entry for the catalogue.

Magnolia potting week in the nursery.

2023 – CHW

Seed heads farming on Sorbus gonggashanica maturing early.

Acer morrisonense also covered with strings of winged seeds.

Betula utilis subsp. albosinensis ‘China Ruby’ with its bark pealing nicely. 2014 planted.

Huge leaves on the latest new growth on Tilia mexicana. Larger than the original ones.

Lamorna with a seed head from Carpinus japonica which she wants to eat.

2022 – CHW

To Loxley in Warwickshire and a cottage garden with great interest.

A fine Clematis viticella ‘Dark Eyes’ growing up through an apple tree.

Clematis viticella ‘Dark Eyes’

Victoria plums developing well.

Crab apples formed but far from ripe.

A small red fruited crab apple.

A golden hop dominates an apple tree.

Flowers forming on Humulus lupus ‘Aureus’.

A fine display of potted Hostas.

Hosta fortunei albomarginata in flower.

Well clipped Buxus sempervirens and Euonymus fortunei ‘Emerald ‘n’ Gold’.

Choisya ternata ‘Sundance’ and Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’.

2021 – CHW
Osborne House is run by English Heritage so they nearly refused entry since I had not prebooked. I was then asked if I was an OAP? When answering I was told it was the wrong answer and charged £14.50 to enter just the gardens (not house).A one way system in the walled garden and no entry to the display greenhouses ‘for your safety’! The rose garden looked a bit unexciting.If only they bothered to label a bit more herbaceous stuff in the walled garden and more of the specimen trees in the parkland the public might learn something. Generally the woodland garden well maintained even if little new planting apart from annuals around the house.Managed 103 ‘nicely’ plant photographs in two hours. Even more than at Ventnor. It is tedious driving everywhere at 20mph on the island’s dreadful roads.The climbing Rosa ‘The Garland’ was especially good. A very old variety but it ought to be more widely grown.

I think we ought to sell borage (Borago officinalis) in the nursery.

Lilium hansonii was the only variety in flower yet in the covered frames.

Cupressus lawsoniana ‘Stricta’ which was planted in 1897. Forty foot perhaps.

Sciadopitys verticillata with cones as I have seen here before.

A few views of the seaward side of Osborne House and the lavender lined pergola in the walled garden.

2020 – CHW
I have now rather got the bug for this wildflower business!This is purple loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria, growing outside the front gate and, thankfully, spared during last week’s grass cutting. It is more common in a band across mid Cornwall than elsewhere and has been recorded by botanists ‘only’ 800 times since 1999. I have seen this more often growing in and around the water meadows.

This is the view of the fairly newly reconstructed stone faced earth bank between Warren and Look Out fields. It is properly sheep fenced and now hosts many interesting wildflowers.

This is Reseda luteola or dyer’s rocket which is a native biennial which needs disturbed ground to germinate. It used to be grown for use in ancient dye making.

I am less sure about this but I think it is cat’s ear or Hypochoeris radicata. This is a native perennial and its leaves can be used in salads. It is very common in Cornwall in sand dunes, meadows and coastal locations as here.

I think this is Sedum angelicum – English stonecrop (it might possibly be Sedum album – white stonecrop). At first I thought it was Crassula tillaea, mossy stonecrop, but I think the odd flower which is left suggests S. angelicum which has appeared on earlier survey records here. However so has C. tillaea. The reason I plump for S. angelicum is that is grows on a similarly bare stone faced hedge top or bank outside Malvern House in the village. I have spotted it there over the years and was not sure, until now, if it was a Crassula or a Sedum? In the reference books the pictures look very similar and one needs more pictures or better detailed plant descriptions than in the Flora of Cornwall to be certain.

This is the view of one of the now wonderful coastal wildflower meadows which we recreated from dense scrub in the mid-1990s. It is grazed but only lightly and then trimmed to keep the invasive gorse, bramble and bracken under control.

Then back to more normality in the garden!
Hosta sieboldiana ‘Elegans’ growing in full shade under a camellia.

Rhododendron sanguineum by Georges Hut.

Magnolia tamaulipana just coming out. This flowered last year for the first time but I was away at Hampton Court and missed it. Very few people in the UK have ever seen this subtropical species from the Tamaulipas in Mexico. We have tried to grow it twice before but it died in the subsequent winters. Here it is tucked away in a very sheltered spot at the top of the garden. Quite a coup in gardening terms.

Another Eucryphia x lucida ‘Pink Cloud’ with even larger flowers. This form was discovered in Tasmania.

Flowers on the very rare Cotoneaster frigidus ‘Inchmery’. We have grown seed from this.

I am not sure of the name of this mature (presumably) Cornus kousa variety below Slip Rail which I had not spotted before with very tiny flowers but now think it is Cornus kousa var. chinensis ‘Spinners’.

2019 – CHW
A visit to Godshill Model Village which is basically a topiary or bonsai garden for children based around conifers. Extremely well planned and planted with immense amounts of pruning and trimming to give a superb overall effect. My only worry was that with no labels at all it was hard to recognise enough of the conifer varieties myself. Free entry to RHS members though which saved £4.95! Godshill is otherwise a ghastly tourist trap and full of dumb elderly UK tourists looking bored and oceans of tat for sale in many gift shops. Plenty of very bored fat dogs too in the Model Village which were even worse than the children. Not many RHS members there today!

Unusual clipped and pruned conifer combinations:

Cryptomeria japonica ‘Sekkansugi’ and Metasequoia glyptostroboides ‘Gold Rush’

Picea pungens ‘Kloster’ and Sciadopitys verticillata

Wollemia nobilis and a very fine Calocedrus decurrens ‘Aureovariegata’

Cryptomeria japonica ‘Sekkan’ [Not ‘Golden Promise’ – thank you Wolfgang Keidel for pointing this out!] and Cupressus macrocarpa

2018 – CHW
The only thing to cheer one up here on a sweltering day is to visit Ventnor botanics. ‘The Beast’ has made a fair dent in some of the more tender things but most are rallying. Nothing is ever as bad in the garden as it seems at the time of the trouble.Agapanthus, canna and hedychium are about three weeks later than last year and still not yet out. The Cantua buxifolia was nearly dead but not much else. Here is a bit of a summary of what I found.Portulaca grandiflora decimated by the cold in spring. Odd bits survive out of the wind and the odd flower.

Arbutus menziezii has suffered and lost all its leaves but the new growth has come and the bark is fissuring nicely.

Last year this was a huge 6-7ft tall clump of Melianthus major. The cold has reduced it just to a couple of tiny shoots from the old roots. Mostly dead.

Also dead where the wind got it is Tetrapanax papyifera ‘Rex’. Alive however where there was more shelter.

Aristolochia californica (Californian Dutchman’s pipe) is shooting well from the base but most of it, growing through another plant, is well dead. We admired this in full flower last year.

Some of the huge agave were untouched by ‘The Beast’ but not others!

The lovely Grevillea johnsonii is now decimated and only one branch of many remains.

Washingtonia robusta have survived the winter with a good bit of scorching to most of the leaves but otherwise a huge win here.

Phoenix canariensis untouched too.

2017 – CHW
Stop and marvel at the peeling bark on Rhododendron stenaulum. We have just pruned other things away from it so that you can see the peeling on the trunk, branches and smaller stems in all their glory. A great natural spectacle which few will have observed on this extraordinary plant. The species has been renamed Rhododendron moulmainense but will always be stenaulum to me.

Viburnum betulifolium is now in full flower.

The first Crinum powellii (crinum lily) is out but the slugs have got there first despite the hot weather. The leaves are hugely slug damaged too which is the trouble with this excellent later flowering bulbous plant.

The clump of dierama on the top wall is just out and there are two, if not three, forms with different colours. Very lovely indeed. Asia will need to grab the seed in a few weeks as they set quickly. The pink form has flashes on its angels trumpets!

The last of the Rhododendron royalii ‘Pink Flush’ is out and flopping in the heat on Burns Bank.

We have always called this Stewartia sinensis and I think its bark proves it is that of Stewartia sinensis. Just going over today and the ground is carpeted in small fallen white flowers. I need to check the shape of the seed to be certain. The tree is leaning at such an angle that it must soon fall over. Last year the seeds were sterile but Asia needs to try again later.

Scaffolding up the towers for window painting next week.