Old leaves dropped already and new growth shrivelling.

However this large and cut back Magnolia liliiflora ‘Nigra’ is reshooting quite well. It was moved at the time of the Hurricane Goretti clear up at Donkey Shoe.

The first Lapageria rosea in full flower in and beside a Camellia sasanqua.

Tropaeolum ciliatum shrivelling in the drought despite being in full shade. No flowers at all.

Campsis radicans beside the rubbish bins.

The teepees come down from a weekend wedding below the castle.

The Campsis radicans from the Back Yard.

2025 – CHW

While in the Isle of Wight I visited a site where Woodland Calamint was being reintroduced to one of its only formal habitats in the UK. Finding nothing online or in a Google search I tried Colin French, our Cornish wildflower expert.

The Latin name for the extremely rare Calamint is Clinopodium menthifolium and there is one other in Breconshire where it is being reintroduced. It once thrived in coppiced woodland but gets shaded out in uncoppiced and unmanaged woodland.

Some further details are kindly supplied by Colin as attached.

Our original Photinia x fraseri ‘Red Robin’ below the Engine House is a huge tree. No red new growth at this time of the year.

Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera) is a hugely invasive weed and now to be found all along the River Luney.

A good pile of split timber at the end of Old Park.

Hazel cobs fully ripe already in this dry summer.

2024 – CHW
My second visit to the wonderful Batsford Arboretum.

Hoheria x lanceolata very good.

Indigofera heterantha.

Hoheria ‘Ace of Spades’ was another new one to me. Huge clusters of flowers.

Cotoneaster moupinensis with ripe berries.

Rhus sylvestris – another new species.

Fraxinus chinensis subsp. rhycophylla.

Prunus grayana.

Toxicodendron succedaneum – Wax Tree – reddish new growth.

Hovenia dulcis – Japanese Raisin Tree.

Thamnocalamus crassinodus ‘Kew Beauty’.

Borinda lushuiensis No. 4 ‘Yuhan’.

Borinda papyrifera.

Sorbus parvifructa.

Pinus strobus.

Pinus x holfordiana with its enormous cones.

Cupressus sargentii.

The view over the main house.

Quercus libani.

Picea asperata.

Sorbus chamaemespilus.

Populus maximowiczii seeding profusely. We saw this in flower in Rowallane Garden.

Abies procera ‘Glauca’ with seed cones.

Aphananthe aspera – I had never seen this before. Shoots and leaves have appressed hairs and are rough to the touch.

Picea abies ‘Pumila’ – a huge clump.

Ilex hookeri.

Populus szechuan var. tibetica.

Zanthoxylum planispinum with seed heads and prickles.

2023 – CHW

Delightfully gloomy and wet again! If only July’s rain had been spread over May and June. A cuttings collecting day with Cressy and Asia while planning future seed and cutting collection of rarities in the autumn.

Flowers more or less open on Magnolia kwangtungensis.

A late flower on Magnolia dealbata.

Swelling female flowers and declining male associates on Platycarya strobilacea.

Cudrania tricuspidata (now Maclura tricuspidata) – the Chinese silkworm thorn. I had forgotten that we had planted this prickly horror but it is doing well. Extremely rare.

Fruits well developed on Aristolochia sempervirens but not yet ripe.

A really good Rhododendron ‘Polar Bear’ hidden away.

Euonymus wilsonii setting seed.

Asimina triloba with only a few small flowers this year. Our two plants have very different flowers as we have seen before in this diary.

Ternstroemia aff. luteoflora (FMWJ 13360) flowering only a couple of years after planting and not at all like the performance of our other rather older plants of T. gymnanthera which have yet to produce any flowers despite growing quickly. Tregrehan agree that Ternstroemia are reluctant to flower before they become trees.

Cornus hongkongensis in flower. At Exbury a few years ago this was out in the first week of June. So we are nearly 8 weeks later?

Seed forming on Sorbus eleonorae. They will not be ripe or edible until January/ February.

Interesting bark on Styrax tonkinensis (WWJ 11868).

Cressy had never seen the enormous and impressive flower tassels on Carpinus fangiana. Quite the best Carpinus species for ‘tassels’ – penile even? They seem however to be going brown not pink!

Nor on Dipteronia sinensis. These are rather more attractive than the flowers. ‘Rabbits Money’ or ‘Elm-like’ in the context of Ulmus but Cressy had another comparison which I fear I have forgotten.

I received an email recently saying that I had purchased “every” woody plant that (the wonderful) Crug Farm Nurseries had ever collected on their many plant hunting expeditions. It was meant as a criticism but I do not apologise for continuing to try to improve the plant collection here in a slightly different way to my great grandfathers funding of George Forrest’s 7 Chinese expeditions. I don’t actually see much difference and both Bleddyn and Sue are good friends in the same way as were JCW and Forrest 100+ years ago. Perhaps a plantsman’s interest is in his genes? Crug Farm still have plenty more interesting things to try here which I suspect Sue and Bleddyn are both delighted to know!

2022 – CHW

Our ancient Meliosma pungens is reviving itself and reshooting vigorously from its main trunk from the base to the top of the tree. No sign of seeds or flowers this year.

Zanthoxylum armatum (NJM 11.08) has flowered and berried before but never as copiously as this years effort. Still green today.

Euonymus spraguei with its first flowers. Not enjoying the drought.