This Neolitsea aff. polycarpa is growing well but needed more room so the Camellia has had a haircut.

Carpinus caroliniana (from Mexico) still with plenty of leaf.
Uplifting a 15 year old magnolia in Kennel Close to make more room for other things nearby.

Also an Aesculus to give more room to this rhododendron clump.

Brock teaches the other dogs to eat camellia flowers. Here a snack on ‘Takanini’!

Tetrapanax papyrifer ‘Rex’ has lost most of its leaves. Wind rather than frost.

Podocarpus matudae (female) with a great Christmas show.

Roe deer have savaged the leader in a young Abies grandis. Four in the larder I see which is good news.

2022 – CHW
Acer tegmentosum ‘Joe Witt’ which is a remarkably good snake-bark maple.

Now properly in flower all of a sudden is Camellia x williamsii ‘Golden Spangles’ at Donkey Shoe. Three (leaf) variegated plants here which I planted to replace mothers favourite Rh. niveum that grew here. Dad hated all variegated things and this a prime spot!

Camellia japonica ‘Mary Costa’ well out above Crinodendron Hedge. Asia had been looking for this location as it got missed form the cuttings list in the autumn.

Azalea ‘Kirin’ sightly frosted but well out above Crinodendron Hedge. It usually is by Christmas.

Camellia x williamsii ‘Les Jury’ with a solitary flower rather earlier than expected.

A fine full on display on Camellia ‘Winton’ above Orchard House Nursery.

2021 – CHW
Continuing the theme of what is out here in the festive season I had a wander around the lawn to see if the early narcissus were out yet.They were not!Plenty of other things were however:Cytisus ‘Porlock’ – it never seems not to be in flower.

Camellia vernalis ‘Dawn’ is just coming below the nursery window but still far from fully out.

Jasminum officinale now with plenty of flower clusters.

Erigeron karvinskianus (syn. mucronatus) is scarcely ever flowerless either.

Clematis cirrhosa var. balerica is only just out with one or two flowers. Later than usual I think.

Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ just goes on and on!

Euryops chrysanthemoides still covered in flower heads.

Daphne bholua ‘Mary Rose’ with two flowers out in a damp shady corner by the front gate. This was moved last year from a pot by the front door and has settled in well.

Sarcococca saligna is almost over with just a few tips still with flower more or less intact.

Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’ is not quite out as yet by the side door – more slug/snail damage here also.

2020 – CHW
Blustery day of heavy showers, thunder and lightning. Cold and unpleasant.Camellia x williamsii ‘Inspiration’ is nicely out in the Auklandii Garden.

Sarcococca wallichii now properly out with the odd black berry still on the plant.

I spot the first few flowers on Camellia ‘Hatsu-Zakura’ (‘Dewatairin’) high up. This is a Higo camellia and one of the earliest of these to flower.

Tilia cordata ‘Winter Orange’ splendid in the sun.

Storm Bella has partially blown over our Trachycarpus wagnerianus trunk.

Flowers, high up, on Camellia ‘Lulu Belle’.

First couple of flowers on the pink/red striped Camellia (?). It is not named on the plan!

Although dead and ready for removal Eucryphia lucida ‘Pink Cloud’ has blown over.

Another Camellia ‘Fairy Blush’ looking good in the sun above Lower Quarry Nursery.

A first flower on Rhododendron moupinense on Burns Bank. Another flower or two on the drive blown away.

Branch split on Acacia cultriformis in the gales.

First flower on what I think is Camellia x williamsii ‘E G Waterhouse’ (next to Camellia brevistyla).

As usual for this time of year a couple of flowers on Magnolia grandiflora ‘D D Blanchard’. One showing the effects of Storm Bella. Magnolia delavayi still has flowers below the lawn.

The best thing in the garden today is a huge Mahonia japonica on the bank above the castle. Beautiful scent today in the sun as its broadly arching and spreading inflorescences start to come fully out.

2019 – CHW
Camellia x vernalis ‘Dawn’ with its irregular and sometimes minimal yellow leaf blotching or variegation has been out for some time outside the School Room. The two 1895 plants had a haircut this summer while scaffolding was erected to replace the leadwork on the roof. So not many flowers, lots of new growth and variegation mainly on the older untrimmed foliage. An impressive semi-double white flower and certainly one to add to the Tregothnan national collection of sasanquas. They have x vernalis but not ‘Dawn’.

We made a video clip of how to prune Cytisus ‘Porlock’ (Genista ‘Porlock’) earlier in the year using this plant. The idea was to encourage new growth and an extra flowering. Here it is!

My mother used to feed the birds outside the School Room. Somehow this rather nasty weed has emerged from the last few years. The prickly seed heads are not yet ripe in the main. I have no idea what it is called. I speculated Phytolacca americana but that has berries not seed heads like this so that was way out as a guess. Needs to be pulled out to stop it seeding again.

2018 – CHW
Here is the plain yellow form of Rhododendron Golden Oriole Group – ‘Talavera’.

I am revising my opinion on next year’s magnolia flowering season. After The Beast when all the flowers were decimated last March the plants wasted no energy on setting seed and so I had expected a bumper crop of buds for this coming year. Here, however, in the Rireii Opening, there is hardly a bud on Magnolia ‘Lanarth’. Magnolia sargentiana robusta is very sparse indeed and Magnolia mollicomata has virtually no buds at all. These three trees are some of the best displays in the garden but were in the teeth of the east wind. One must assume that the leaf buds took damage too last March and that new growth was then slow. Hence the worst display of budding that I can ever remember in this area anyway. Perhaps the summer drought is to blame rather than The Beast? How then do you explain the plentiful buds on some of the magnolias in more shelter? ‘Caerhays Belle’ is loaded.

2017 – CHW
An investigation into some new young trees below the tree fern on the main ride.Acer heptaphlebium has no real autumn colour here at a young age but holds its leaves late into autumn. Odd name to pronounce!

Zanthoxylum armatum seems evergreen with us and is certainly living up to its name. We now have several different and very prickly species of zanthoxylum – five or six I think. Pretty horrid until they are old enough to fruit properly.

Quercus rhysophylla ‘Maya’ fully evergreen and growing well. No sign of new growth yet and stem/trunk still green.

First flower on the pink form of Rhododendron ‘Bo-Peep’. A little later than last year I suspect.