Camellia japonica ‘Grand Slam’ also by the till. This is the anemone form as opposed to the semi-double form. Bred by Nuccio Nurseries in California in 1962.

Clematis armandii just out.

Camellia x williamsii ‘Virginia Carlyon’.

Dichroa febrifuga with attractive purple seed heads which I have not seen before.

A fine line up for sale of Trachycarpus wagnerianus.

The stems of Cornus sanguinea ‘Winter Fire’ looking great in the sun.

Edgeworthia chrysantha with an early bee in attendance.

2024 – CHW
A visit to Tregullow on an extremely wet day.Tregullow’s Magnolia ‘Lanarth’ seedling by their back door is incredibly early and more covered in flowers than I have ever seen it before. This is well worth naming and registering with MSI and then propagating to make it widely available.

Magnolia campbellii ‘Charles Raffill’ equally good.

The revamped conservatory which is now water proof.

A very dark form with more than a hint of pink on the Tregullow Rhododendron ‘Crossbill’.

Contrast this with a flower on another plant.

A seedling given by FJW to JPW which is clearly from M. ‘Caerhays Belle’.

Rhododendron grande flowering well with more light now that the tree cover has gone.

First 2 flowers on a young Michelia maudiae.

Rhododendron plantings in the paddock by the house.

Camellia japonica ‘Wilamina’ below the Tennis Court wall. That is what I think it is but might stand corrected.

Camellia reticulata ‘Royalty’.

Badger damage to the lawn is dreadful. I have seen this before but not in winter.

Magnolia campbellii ‘Charles Raffill’ over the ruin.

The new swimming pool and extension to the house.

A Trachycarpus fortunei given many years ago to JPW as a birthday present has grown away extremely well.

2023 – CHW
A timber sales at Trevennen in 1810.

Two pairs of English partridges spotted by Arthur Broom while ploughing at Trelonk.

Melicytus crassifolius still covered in white berries.

Salix gracilistyla ‘Mount Aso’ by the Old Kennels. An outstanding display today.

Two more pictures of the sensational Magnolia sprengeri ‘Dusty Pink’.

We have given up on the Aucuba as a windbreak at Higher Quarry Nursery as the deer have again nibbled off every leaf. A line of camellias instead.

Magnolia campbellii ‘Valentines Touch’ just out. The yellow buds do not stay yellow for long.

Prunus x incam ‘Okame’ suddenly full out.

First flowering of a last year planted Magnolia ‘Snowblood’.

Magnolia ‘Elizabeth Holman’ just starting.

Magnolia ‘Pink Sensation’ with a flower or two out.

Magnolia ‘Hot Lips’ living up to its name.

The Magnolia sprengeri ‘Diva’ seedling in Tin Garden which was pollarded now making a good show.

2022 – CHW

Starting the planting of the 15 new magnolias from Germany and the 25 to 30 new (to us) worldwide species of Crataegus in the drizzle in Kennel Close where the leylandii were felled. Jaimie, Michael, Tim and Jack.

Magnolia ‘Vulcan’ x Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’ with five flowers. This one the best with least wind damage. Very good indeed!

First flowers (three) on Magnolia ‘Kitti Wake’ of which one is near white and blown open early and the other is pink. This named hybrid is not in the International Dendrology Society register or the Eisenhut book so I need to dig further into its provenance. I assume the pink flower is the true one.

First flowers out on the late Peter Borlase’s hybrid ‘Albatross’. Peter’s obituary in the Cornwall Garden Society yearbook has just arrived here. Sad reading. ‘Albatross’ is a cross between Magnolia cylindrica and Magnolia x veitchii ‘Peter Veitch’.

The usual contest between the nearby planted New Zealand bred Magnolia ‘Susannah van Veen’ (Magnolia sprengeri ‘Diva’ x Magnolia sargentiana var. robusta).

AND Magnolia ‘Caerhays Belle’ (M. sargentiana var. robusta x M. sprengeri ‘Diva’).

Both the same cross apparently so make your own mind up which is the best. Both planted in 2008.

Nearby is also Vance Hooper’s New Zealand bred Magnolia ‘Plum Pudding’ out very early but a darker colour on opening than usual (Magnolia x soulangeana ‘Sweet Simplicity’ x Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’).

Absurdly Rhododendron veitchiorum Cubittii Group, the first of the ‘smellies’, is already in flower in February.

2021 – CHW
Daphne bholua ‘Mary Rose’, the finest of all the bholuas perhaps, and definitely my favourite, has finally opened up in the two pots outside the front door. Unlike other named forms which are now nearly over ‘Mary Rose’ has been in bud but showing colour for weeks.

The original 1913 Magnolia campbellii at its finest in the sun.

Magnolia campbellii ‘Darjeeling’ still, slightly surprisingly, in tight bud.

Another Rhododendron rireii flowering for the first time.

Camellia reticulata ‘Royalty’ just opening.

Rhododendron moupinense now just out.

First flower out on Magnolia campbellii subsp. mollicomata ‘Werrington’. A good colour this year.

Prunus conradinae now full out in all its late February glory.

Magnolia sprengeri ‘Copeland Court’ nearly died in the Beast of March 2018 and subsequent dry summers. Pruned back to a thick stick of trunk it has two rather insipid flowers and may be recovering.

At last, a decent low down flower on Magnolia campbellii ‘Strybing White’! The flowers on the top of the tree have been destroyed in recent gales.

One of the elderly Michelia doltsopas really is starting to come out properly.

Ian Baldick’s Magnolia ‘Ian’s Red’ is showing colour and promises a fine show but this one is very susceptible to frosts.

A rather more decent flower and bud today on Magnolia ‘Bishop Peter’.

The Magnolia campbellii seedling above Crinodendron Hedge is the best magnolia display by far today in the garden. How many thousands of flowers?

I am very fond of these old fashioned double flowered daffodils which never set seed (no reproductive parts I assume) and multiply only from bulb offsets. No idea of the name. Some above Burns Bank on the path and many more by the Petrol House near the pond.

First flowers showing high up on Magnolia ‘Shirraz’. It never used to be anything like as early out as this until around five years ago.

This arrived in the middle of the lawn over the weekend. Not a ‘joke’ for the public so quickly locked in the summerhouse. No doubt we will find the source of this joke in due course and retaliate in kind with a gnome or two. Wherever could we reasonably put this?