2020 – CHW
Another side to the pandemic is the great rush to support ‘our’ NHS. A visit to Treliske hospital earlier this week shows car parks totally empty, ambulances lined up outside A&E doing nothing and nobody about. A close friend’s brother trips over a supermarket delivery on his doorstep and breaks his arm/shoulder. Off they go to Torbay A&E where there is no waiting at all (no one there) and nurses/doctors with none of the PPE equipment which we hear so much about. Nor were they social distancing either. Car parks and hospital deserted. We hear so much of cancelled routine operations, staff reallocations, old folks being sent home/away and all overworked, overstressed, government not doing ‘enough’, too few tests of NHS staff etc etc. To listen to the BBC the NHS is at breaking point or beyond. A great national crisis and newsworthy drama.Then one hears that 20% of NHS staff are ‘absent’. The normal ‘absence’ rate is apparently 4-5%. Of course they are absent because they are self-isolating (all the fault of no tests) or are already ‘ill’ (COVID implied). Might some not be enjoying a bit of furloughing?After having been foolish enough to have circulated what was apparently ‘fake news’ myself recently (as you will have seen) the silence at these two hospitals may be masking the true reality of the real emergency wards. However, in Truro and Torbay at least, the public appear to be doing what they are told and keeping well away from hospitals. However, it would seem that some parts of the NHS may not actually yet be as stretched and busy as we are all led to believe by the media.I do not ‘do’ social media but Twitter has thousands and thousands of tweets about deserted hospitals with pictures and videos to prove the point. Where is the fake news in all this really?While common sense suggests that while this well may be the calm before the forthcoming storm the ‘panic’ may well have caused more misery and hardship for those with more routine ailments and impending operations or cancer treatments than COVID-19 itself yet has! The BBC has yet to make this newsworthy point but will not of course. ITV was even worse and only Sky News had some vestiges of common sense.Magnolia ‘Rouged Alabaster’ is hidden away but is doing well at 18ft or so. The bit of ‘rouge’ is only evident on the buds as here. This is a US Gresham hybrid but no longer much grown or admired.

Another magnolia split out, for the second time in five or six years, in an autumn gale.

The mini digger is levelling the paths to and in Old Park where they have got muddy and a scrape back to the stone base is needed.

Rhododendron ‘Countess of Haddington’ just opening. A bit earlier than usual perhaps.

An ancient Chaenomeles japonica with old rotten fruit and flowers!

Our one surviving Daphniphyllum macropodum just about to flower profusely.

Some flowers on this Camellia reticulata ‘William Hertrich’ are single but most are semi-double. The colour does fade as you can perhaps see here.

Magnolia ‘Rose Marie’ x Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’ has three flowers coming out. Small but not bad and lots more to come.

First time flowering (that I have seen) of Lindera angustifolia (FMWJ 13156). The tree has grown extraordinarily quickly, is semi-evergreen, and absolutely plastered in flower high up at 15-18ft. Attractive yellow flowers against the reddish stems.

Another Magnolia x brooklynensis ‘Titan’ above the Auklandii Garden. The flowers are exactly the same as the one in Kennel Close which I was dubious about as being correctly named a few days ago. I still wonder if it really is a x brooklynensis variety but the balance of probability is rising! I am waiting to hear more about this from Barbara Oozeerally the well-known artist who has produced a wonderful magnolia book of her paintings and is planning another next year.

Rhododendron ‘High Sheriff’ (Caerhays/FJW bred) is just opening.

The Magnolia x loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’ is nearly full out outside the back yard in front of the bins which soon will not show up.

2019 – CHW
Staphylea holocarpa ‘Innocence’ just coming out. Pink in bud opening white. This is a small single stemmed tree which is 12-15ft in height and 25 or so years old.

The new window in the Tin Garden shed. We have started a little planting up today but the bulk will now have to wait until next spring.

Prunus matsumae ‘Beni-Yutaka’ looking very fine.

Another Magnolia ‘Genie’ still looking very fine outside the front gate.

Enkianthus perulatus out early and covered in bells.

First flowering of Rhododendron oreodoxa var. fargesii.

2018 – CHW The first Aesculus hippocastanum leaves and flowers showing. Rather later than last year?

Taiwania cryptomeroides is a rare tree with a supposedly conical habit. Here it seems to have lost its leader but the branches drop nicely. Another rare conifer which I had forgotten on Sinogrande Walk. One for Asia to take cuttings from in the autumn.

The view from the drive over Lower Hellens field to Giddle Orchard and the best way into Old Park Wood.

The repaired kitchen garden wall beside Giddle Orchard.

Camellia ‘Grandiflora Alba’ now full out and good even after Sunday night’s heavy rain.

Another thriving plant of Rhododendron sutchuenense full out. Not hugely floriferous.

Magnolia ‘Sayonara’ about to come out.

The south facing side of Michelia doltsopa is leafless but the buds and new shoots hold on I think. Time will tell.

More difficult to know how to cope with is the now leafless Rhododendron stenaulum. Some new growth buds survive intact while some are clearly dead too. The plant was in flower when The Beast struck. Fortunately the plant behind this one still has leaves as it was slightly more sheltered.

Magnolia soulangeana ‘Beugnon’ with its first flowers with us – unexciting as yet!

This columnar prunus had no label when planted. Rather a sparse flowerer. White with a tinge of pink. More flowers to come.

2017 – CHW
Twenty five magnolias placed out for planting in Forty Acres. Deer protection essential.On the trip we discover a good clump of FJW’s last rhododendron hybrids. They look Rhododendron griffithianum x Rhododendron arboreum. Planted out in 2002/3.

Also an ancient old white Rhododendron arboreum which has survived here since before WWI. Nicely pink in bud, opening white but not as pure white as the equally old clumps on Burns Bank which are now on their last legs. There is still our last blood red arboreum in the pheasant pen nearby but a tree has just hit it.

Betula albosinensis ‘Bowling Green’ in Penvergate has enormous catkins of tiny flowers. This Werrington plant is starting to have a nice peeling stem but I have never noticed the catkins before. We now have several of these superb plants growing away at various ages.

Outside my study window the Arum lillies have at least half a dozen flower stems appearing with one showing colour. Not quite as early as last year but another product of a mild winter.

And now on to the annual Basic Payment Scheme computer quiz. The Rural Payments Agency have still to agree our entitlements (ie land we actually farm) from the 2015 returns. We know the 2017 forms are bollocks too. They have lost 70 entitlements (hectares) this year rather than just 20 last year and awarded us two fields which we do not own and never have. This is why we voted Brexit to rid us of this bureaucratic nightmare of wasted time and incompetence. We do actually know the land we farm but when dealing with eurotrash bureaucrats, who never answer or respond to letters, their assumption is that we are all liars and cheats. Even the minister’s direct intervention has not yet worked!