2020 – CHW
The BBC tell us it is disgraceful that some hospitals are actually washing their protective kit rather than throwing it away every time after use!
Most of it looks pretty washable at high temperatures to me.
This might even save the NHS money and, with heat in the wash, it must be about as safe as we are always told that washing your hands is!
But it is still ALL the government’s fault of course and, now Starmer is in on the politics, the two can feed off each other as in the Remoaner era.
Listening to BBC and other journalists questioning the government and officials at 4.30pm every day have you noticed that the great Laura Kuenssberg and Robert Peston et al ask multiple questions to which they never listen to the answer (which has often been given already in response to someone else)? Nor do they care about the answer really! All they are doing is showing their self-importance and trying to score anti-government political points to make news and newspaper headlines. It is almost a competition to see how rude they dare to be to outdo each other and become a bigger celebrity of impending doom. The arrogance and hypocrisy is quite breathtaking masked as investigative journalism.
One lives in hope that the government will become even firmer in its handling of the BBC licence fee issue later this year as a result of all this negativism. No wonder Boris had banned ministers from being interviewed on the Today programme until recently.
One swan is back on the lake. A mother and two very mature cygnets left about 10 days ago. Normally the parents drive the cygnets away out to sea in the autumn but this last crop stayed all winter. Will the mother return? Is the newly arrived swan her former mate? It will be interesting to see what happens next as they should be building a nest very soon.
Enkianthus campanulatus ‘Vesta’ is the first one out of the three Vs (‘Virgo’, ‘Venus’ and ‘Vesta’).
2019 – CHW
Rhododendron reticulatum in the Rockery. A very old plant which is deciduous most years but only partly so after this mild winter. This species can be a variety of colours from purple to reddish purple and with or without central blotches. Rhododendron kiyosumense (search elsewhere in the diary to see) is also a form of reticulatum but the Japanese recognise several related species from different Japanese regions.
2018 – CHW
The start of our Irish trip.
A newish clump of Rhododendron ‘Blue Diamond’ below Donkey Shoe. This seems a rather paler form than I remember but these were bought in plants with Dutch labels.
Out of the blue a request for a garden tour by a Northamptonshire landowner who arrived in a small blue helicopter which he flew himself. The wind was against them and they were a little late over the 1hr40m flight. We did two tours either side of lunch while the co-pilot refuelled at Bodmin airport. He was keen on trees, involved with Kew and is clearly expanding his arboretum although his estate has yet to have a house built on it (by him) and he currently lives elsewhere. An interesting contact not least because he has a grouse moor in Weardale.
Off he flies again from the Nobby at about 3.30pm. A four hour visit!
Estate bi-monthly meeting (a particular difficult one) lasts all day and then the fete meeting in the evening. The film crew have finished filming above the beach which has seriously annoyed our garden visitors with road closures. No time for the garden at all sadly.
2000 – FJW
A little rain – no house martins – Magnolias rely on new varieties.
1954 – CW
Broke a rib at St Gorran Rectory Garden, nothing much there.
1932 – JCW
Much as in 1927 but Ciliicalyx has lost its flower buds. Camellia speciosa wanes, a bad year for flowers on most of the Cam japonicas. Rho lutescens is over. Mag sargentiana cut by the wind.
1927 – JCW
Rho ciliicalyx is at its best, it has never been really good before this in the 26 years or more we have had it, the cantabiles are very good and so are all the blues.
1925 – JCW
Prunus sargentii going back, Incisa is very good otherwise just as in 1922. Rho scintillans is coming on but most of that sort are bad.
1922 – JCW
Very few Poets are open. M de Graaf in the Drive is open, Mag denudata is nice. The Berberis hedge has been good for a long while. Wilsons Corylopsis are open. Some of the Sutchuenense rhodo’s are good. Rho calophytum is just becoming open. Rho lutescens has been very good for a long while. Prunus sargentii is in flower.
1918 – JCW
The late Poets are opening. Recurvas not yet out, most of the daffs are over. Auklandii starting to open. Augustinii at their best and very nice in the 40 Acres. Some good blood red Arboreums there now. Broughtonii hybrids well on.
1911 – JCW
Plenty of daffs, yellow trumpets not quite over. Cherries coming on, P pendula not quite at its best. Clematis on Tower not open.
1910 – JCW
Plenty of daffs, yellow trumpets over. Cherries coming on, pendula at its best. Clematis on Tower began to open.
1905 – JCW
Was at Dinton. Poets not as good as last year, saw a good frilled trumpet and some nice small Leedsi’s.
1903 – JCW
Thomsonii been out for a week, no Fortunei. Countess of M for a week, Auklandii the first bloom. Arboreum blood red at its best.
1899 – JCW
Thomsonii open.
1897 – JCW
R thomsonii, Falconeri, Fortunei and Countess of Haddington all open well. Tree ferns large and small have most of them started. The late poeticus begun to open.
Your horticultural posts in the diary are fascinating and wonderful to read day by day at the present time. Also historically valuable to set them in the context of the Covid-19 crisis. However, to insult people by using a term such as “Remoaner” shows a disgraceful contempt for your fellow citizens, who, like you have used their brains and looked at the evidence but have come to a different conclusion about the future of our country and indeed have a different opinion about its current leadership.