2026 – CHW
This 20 acre field of permanent grass was planted up as a mixed woodland in the autumn of 2021. In more shady and damp areas the trees (1100 per ha) have done well. In full sun there are plenty of gaps. Oaks have largely failed. Prunus avium, Scots pine, Birch and Alder have done well. Limes less so but they are alive. Thistles and ragwort have invaded large areas as have wild flowers. The brambles are just starting. Other than the rides nothing has been cut. Four years ago I was able to stop grass cutting throughout the new wood to give some shade and shelter to the young saplings. Sycamore were not planted as the seeds were thought to be danger to cattle and horses! A good plantation of walnuts doing well. Rewilding at its best?
The leaves of the alder had been eaten by caterpillars. I have seen this in birch often before but not in alder. The trees will readily grow through the damage and are already setting seed.
A cluster of caterpillars in an Oak tree. Benign or Oak processionary moth?
The best example of Erythrina crista-galli that I have seen for years. The hot summers are perfect for it.
Campsis ‘Madame Galen’ and Solanum jasminoides.
2025 – CHW
Another visit to a garden on the edge of Bembridge.
Exbucklandia populnea being rather overshadowed by a shrubby Lonicera.
The Wollemi pine has male flowers on the suckers at the base of the tree and many more female flowers much higher up. Is this normal?
Cryptomeria japonica with new and old seed cones.
I admire again the best Sollya heterophylla I have ever seen growing outside.
Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’ and Daphne odora ‘Marianni’ growing side by side outside the front door. Both have variegated edges to their leaves but one is rather more pronounced than the other (i.e. ‘Marianni’).
2024 – CHW
Ventnor Botanics today where there has been a lot of new planting and everything is looking rather more weed free and un-rewilded than for several years. Even a few more plant labels on show. Burncoose supplied a lot of New Zealand plants to Ventnor in the spring but I could not find where they had been planted. Perhaps still in the frames beside the greenhouse? No sign of anything being cut down yet in the New Zealand or Australian garden areas. In a wet summer the growth has been even more phenomenal than usual at Ventnor and the time for chucking out whole planting areas to start again is really very short. Thuggish plants dominate after a bit and smother everything around them. A lot of Melaleuca and Callistemon have died recently under the overpowering Eucalyptus. These are now cracking up the tarmac paths here and there. Only one Puya with a small flower spike that I found this year and that had finished flowering already.Solanum laciniatum (white form) as its absolute best today.
Ventnor Botanics today where there has been a lot of new planting and everything is looking rather more weed free and un-rewilded than for several years. Even a few more plant labels on show. Burncoose supplied a lot of New Zealand plants to Ventnor in the spring but I could not find where they had been planted. Perhaps still in the frames beside the greenhouse? No sign of anything being cut down yet in the New Zealand or Australian garden areas. In a wet summer the growth has been even more phenomenal than usual at Ventnor and the time for chucking out whole planting areas to start again is really very short. Thuggish plants dominate after a bit and smother everything around them. A lot of Melaleuca and Callistemon have died recently under the overpowering Eucalyptus. These are now cracking up the tarmac paths here and there. Only one Puya with a small flower spike that I found this year and that had finished flowering already.Solanum laciniatum (white form) as its absolute best today.
I spy the first flowers out on Hoheria sexstylosa. Weeks ahead of Caerhays.
Ventnor’s Acer pentaphyllum is the largest small tree of this rare species that I have ever seen. Much larger than the plants in the wild in China that featured on a fairly recent IDS blog.
The first bit of new planting which I find is all Crug Farm. I wonder if some of it will grow in such a hot, dry location? Illicium aff. griffithii is looking a bit chloritic already as was the Neolitsea.
The new planting areas which were mainly rabbit fenced.
The conifer tree cover has gone to make way for the new planting but the camellias are not enjoying the full sun they now find themselves in.
I had not seen the New Zealand Haloragis erecta (Wellington Bronze Raspwort) in flower before.
2023 – CHW
A hydrangea tour for the Friends of Burnoose this afternoon. Two hours with a slight drizzle.Cleyera japonica in full flower and nicely scented at the cash point. I am not sure I have ever seen it performing as well as this. When the plants arrived here from Holland years ago they were labelled Michelia compressa and we mistakenly sold them as that. This was a leftover from the show tunnel. There are two in the garden at Caerhays – the best in Old Park.
A hydrangea tour for the Friends of Burnoose this afternoon. Two hours with a slight drizzle.Cleyera japonica in full flower and nicely scented at the cash point. I am not sure I have ever seen it performing as well as this. When the plants arrived here from Holland years ago they were labelled Michelia compressa and we mistakenly sold them as that. This was a leftover from the show tunnel. There are two in the garden at Caerhays – the best in Old Park.
Hibiscus moscheutos ‘Planet Griotte’ in perfect flower by the till.
Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Charles Lamont’ almost out in flower! Peculiar!
Euonymus grandiflorus ‘Ruby Wine’ in full flower.
Hydrangea ‘Fireworks Blue’ excellent on the drive.
Hydrangea ‘Sunset’ looking good down opposite the lodge.
Hydrangea ‘Selma’ quite superb by the nursery entrance.
Hydrangea ‘Magical Revolution Blue’ a strange and erratic bicolour thing.
The best thing in the Burncoose garden today was Hydrangea aspera ‘Villosa Group’ by the lawn.
Maturing seeds on Meliosma veitchiorum.
2022 – CHW
A wonderful show from Aesculus parviflora below Slip Rail.
A secondary set of flower catkins on Salix fargesii which seems to have been stimulated into action by Asia taking cuttings fairly recently as you can see.
Calycanthus ‘Aphrodite’ with a bit of slug damage to the flower.
Callicarpa bodinieri’ ‘Profusion’ flowers both in bud and long over. A lengthy flowering season.
Myrcia laurotteana var. paraguayensis in full flower. Very much a ‘myrtle’ and I suspect the name.
2021 – CHW
A young and newly planted clump of Hydrangea paniculata ‘Wim’s Red’ just out – no red as yet.
A young and newly planted clump of Hydrangea paniculata ‘Wim’s Red’ just out – no red as yet.
Magnolia delavayi full out under the wall.
Hydrangea serrata ‘Crug Cobalt’ not very exciting so far.
A closeup of a flower on Rhododendron ‘Harrow Hybrids’.
This tree was bought for us by Trevor Wright at the end of a Royal Cornwall Show. I had always thought it was Tilia henryana but knew for years that its identification was wrong. For the first time I see flower tassels and this, together with the reddish new growth, fits the description of Carpinus henryana. Whether I or Duchy Nurseries had mislabelled it initially we will never now know.
Euonymus morrisonensis covered in flowers and copulating red winged insects in large numbers. Also a few large flies and wasps. A great display for a Euonymus.
Still flowers on Magnolia virginiana ‘Satellite’.
A tail ender on Magnolia wilsonii.
And an even later tail end flower on Michelia ‘Touch of Pink’.
Seeds well established on Magnolia globosa as the last two flowers fade.
