2021 – CHW
Firmiana simplex has extended its main stem by all of 3in this year and looks happier than usual. One colder winter will surely kill it off.

The flower heads on Schefflera delavayi are enormous and the first flowers just out.

I said two years ago that this Camellia pitardii needed pruning back. The regrowth has come anyway lower down the main stem so no need to act now.

Schefflera pauciflora (WWJ 1199) with plenty of ripe seeds for Asia to gather. A very different form to our other S. pauciflora.

One of the very old and original wild collected Magnolia salicifolia has defoliated early and is looking to be on its last legs. Perhaps 10 years left?

Tucked away in shelter is Quercus chapensis which was a gift from Margaret Miles. Older leaves different in shape to the younger ones. Seed from Korea I think I remember. Clearly a tenderish one?

2020 – CHW
This may be Jelly Rot (Phlebia tremellosa) at the base of a sweet chestnut or it may be Cauliflower Fungus (or Wood Cauliflower). Sparassis spathulata, which lives on deciduous tree roots, is said to be very rare in the British Isles. Sparassis crispa is more common but is parasitic on the roots of conifers. The pictures of these two Cauliflower Fungi in the reference book are closer to what we see here than Jelly Rot.

A trip to the greenhouse reveals a number of pleasant surprises!

To tidy up cotoneaster berries here is Cotoneaster horizontalis with berries overripe and dropping.

This (finally) is Hedychium gardnerianum. I have misidentified other Hedychium in the past as this species. First time flowering on the top wall. Lemon yellow flowers and red stamens.

A new evergreen fern in the frames – Woodwardia unigemmata.

Sorbus zahlbruckneri with small crab apple like fruits.

Ilex fargesii subsp. fargesii var. fargesii (what a mouthful!) acquired from Pan-Global Plants. Ilex fargesii (wild collected) was growing here and measured in the 1960s. Good to have it back even if it is not very holly-like.

Tom Hudson’s gift of an unknown Meliosma species is producing interesting secondary autumn new growth.

Abutilon ‘Orange Hot Lava’ about to go to the nursery for sale.

Hoya carnosa in flower in the greenhouse.

A gift of seed from Raf Lenaerts. This is Vernicia fordii which has an interesting leaf shape and good autumn colours. Asia has done well to grow these. Not in any reference book I have so we need to trawl the web to find out more.

She has also grown the very rare conifer Fokienia hodginsii successfully from seed. This is a small, slow growing, medium sized shrub which I have seen at Exbury and Borde Hill.

Euonymus echinatus with seed capsules in the frame. Ready to plant out next spring. This species is evergreen or semi evergreen. Worth trying to grow the seeds.

The Labour Party is all over the place. A week ago they were mischievously suggesting that they might vote with the 80 theoretical Tory rebels against 10pm pub/restaurant closures (only 42 Tories actually did). Ten days later Sir Kier Starmer goes on national TV to demand a two week total nationwide lockdown for the whole country after Boris announced the three tier regional restrictions based on near lockdown for the worst COVID areas in the north of England. The Labour mayor and former cabinet minister, Andy Burnham, is refusing to put his city into the most severe lockdown category. Mr Khan, the London mayor, has put London into the mid-tier of restrictions. Nicola Sturgeon has decreed an alcohol free Scotland and the Welsh try to shut their borders!So Boris has gambled for a measure of normality and common sense rather than more economic ruin. COVID is not going to go away and these regional lockdowns will merely delay the inevitable second nationwide lockdown.

One cannot help wondering how many of the scientific advisers from august universities are actually raging left wingers who want to destroy democracy and the economy. The bleating BBC certainly does with not a hint of positive news and panic mongering at every opportunity.

Popular opinion was turning but may now buckle under the new restrictions. ‘Carrying on sensibly and carefully’ is gathering pace and many now know the ‘blessed’ NHS is not quite so wonderful.

Local decisions on lockdown with local political comeback from voters would have been a much better starting point in March than the nationwide lockdown. At least Burnham is fighting for his area while Khan and Essex are not. The government of course gets the blame and, as usual, damned every which way. Far too little is said about the students and young people who have done so much to foster and cause the new outbreaks which we must now all suffer for but why should they care when their symptoms are hardly even that of a common cold when they test positive?

Will the death rates increase to April to May levels? I very much doubt it.

2019 – CHW
The Beatrice Fleur sasanqua camellias are in the ground and wired against rabbits and deer.

The second elderly Camellia sasanqua on the castle wall is now out.

Secondary flowers on Rhododendron ‘Polyroy’ are rather a surprise.

Fitzroya cupressoides laden down with ripe seeds.

First flowers out on Peumus boldus. This is a ‘summer flowering’ Chilean tree!

Rhus chinensis flowering for the first time as far as I am aware. Yellowish-white in terminal panicles.

Lindera lancea with excellent autumn colour.

Callicarpa shirasawana with both flowers and berries.

Acanthopanax aff. sessiliflorus with its globular succulent black fruits hanging on the leafless tree.

Photinia niitakayamensis with pinkish-red fruits.

First flowers on Camellia oleifera.

2018 – CHW
Cornus capitata with the largest strawberry fruits that I have ever seen. Two young trees grown from seed now replace an elderly plant on the main ride which was cut up as dead only a month ago.

All leaf has now dropped on Staphylea colchica leaving only the rounded and yellowish seed capsules on the tree.

Many of our aerial grafts have failed in the hot summer. Here the twig has died beyond the graft.

2017 – CHW
Surprising to find another new illicium species flowering so late in the year. Illicium oligandrum is now available from Burncoose and this will be an addition to the new 2018 catalogue. This is, I think, the third new illicium species to have flowered here this year. There are a couple more still to perform. The hardiness of these beautiful new shrubs or small trees remains to be tested.