Hydrangea seemannii is making progress up a Copper Beech.

Our layering failed on this late flowering rhododendron.

Engelhartia spicata (HWJK 2421) is getting away a year on from planting in the Rookery.

Lithocarpus quercifolius – a gift from Tom Hudson in 2021 growing slowly.

Meliosma dentata (TH 4032) from Mexico with its first flower here. A new species to us. 2022 gift.

Ilex glabra with flowers.

New growth on Rhodoleia henryi from Tregrehan.

Viburnum luzonicum (BSWJ 3637) flowering away well.

Hydrangea sargentiana just out in the Aucklandii Garden.

Pterocarya fraxinifolia below the car park.

2025 – CHW

To Seaview in a ghastly heatwave intolerable to man and beast.

Lizzie’s garden now tidy but totally parched and with quite a bit of dead stuff mow removed. The clean up after the demise of the large Pittosporum tenuifolium has gone well.

Agapanthus africanus doing well next door.

Choisya ternata ‘Sundance’ and Euonymus japonicus ‘Marieke’ looking good together.

Trachelospermum jasminoides Euonymus japonicus ‘Marieke’.

2024 – CHW
Persea indica (BSWJ 12535) getting away well only 2 years after planting.

Still not a flower to be seen on Magnolia virginiana ‘Havener’ by George’s Hut. This has been here for 30 years and no flowers ever spotted.

Two dead Rhododendron ‘Royal Flush’ beyond George’s Hut – last years drought again.

A few tail end flowers still on Magnolia x foggii ‘Jack Fogg’.

Another good clump of Rhododendron maddenii near Tin Garden just opening. Very few flowers this year.

Maytenus magellanica getting going a year on from planting in Kennel Close.

Acacia obliquinervia seems to be struggling nearby.

A drought casualty that you could see would die this time last year.

Acer morifolium which blew over and split in a winter gale is clearly not going to reshoot.

Hoheria ‘Glory of Amlwch’ just opening. This is H. glabrata x H. sexstylosa. It is the glabrata parentage which encourages this early flowering well before most of the other Hoheria species.

2023 – CHW

The annual trek to Busy Bees Garden Centre which was looking fairly well sold out with not much good stock left and rather a lot of tatty leftovers.

Leucanthemum ‘Real Deal’ – similar to ones which Burncoose stocks but not at all bad.

Leucanthemum ‘Real Snowball’.

Verbascum ‘Dark Eyes’ has a squat habit.

Verbena ‘Santos Purple’ and Leucanthemum ‘Real Snowball’.

Verbena ‘Santos Purple’ and Leucanthemum ‘Real Deal’.

Salvia ‘Fairy Queen’ not bad at all.

Hydrangea ‘Red Baron’ – another new name for what looks very like ‘King George’ to me.

Salvia ‘Purple and Bloom’ would be well worth Burncoose stocking.

Salvia ‘Big Blue’ not bad either.

2022 – CHW

The hydrangea season is getting into full swing and the drive here is now full of colour although not that many varieties are full out as yet. Thank goodness we had heavy rain Sunday before last as they would otherwise be drooping in this heatwave.

Hydrangea ‘Ayesha’ can be blue or pink. Reliable flowerer.

Hydrangea ‘Love You Kiss’ – silly name but good variety.

Hydrangea ‘Selina’ – not much in the trade now but good.

Hydrangea ‘Geoffrey Chadbund’ which can be red or purple or a little of both over time.

Hydrangea ‘Lady Taiko’ – again superseded by newer varieties but that is not necessarily a fair reflection on this good variety.

Hydrangea ‘Taube’ – indisputably one of the best two blue lacecaps (Enziandom the other).

Hydrangea ‘Hobella’ a delicate pink now but it changes colour to green in September and is good for drying.

Hydrangea serrata ‘Crug Cobalt’ in a new clump by Four in Hand. I was rude about this last year but it is slowly establishing and improving in a dry spot. Cobalt? Not yet and perhaps not in so much sun as here?

2021 – CHW
A local tree surgery firm have been round to prune the old leaning Pittosporum tenuifolium tree in our Seaview garden.

Very efficient but, I suspect, unusual (and worrying for their normal work ethic) for them to find a client working on holiday with reference books everywhere on a desk.

The pittosporum is thinned but some of its roots have lifted and I expect it will keel over completely in the next real gale (possibly into next door’s garden). We had a beauty last night with flagpoles rattling and lots of rain and noise in ‘sunny’ Seaview. No sign of the ‘yachties’ early on this morning as the boatmen drain the day boats of water but a large dog turd right outside the Sea View Yacht Club.

‘Absolutely perfect’ as I go to the post box admiring the enormous runoff from gardens into the street. It is not only agricultural fields that cause this sort of erosion.

Then to a large seaside garden in Bembridge where we saw some interesting plants.

A fine Wollemia nobilis with male and female flowers about 15ft tall.

Spot the rather dark red squirrel if you can!

The coastal sycamores slip from the bank above the beach into the sea. In the distance you see a superyacht which Abramovich lost in a bet with another Russian oligarch. Value said to be £120m. Some bet!

A decimated leylandii hedge with Trachelospermum and Hydrangea seemanii being encouraged to climb up the remains. A great idea for dealing with leylandii!

Echium fastuosum (Echium candicans) covered with attractive seed heads which are nearly as fine as its flowers.