Camellia reticulata – White form – just out at the very top of the bush.

Podocarpus parlatorei rompinig ahead above the greenhouse.

As is Podocarpus lambertii.

Camellia ‘Fairy Bush’ set in front of a young Quercus ilex.

2024 – CHW
Magnolias rush out after a night of wind and rain showers.The view from the front door over the arch by the back yard.

The original Magnolia campbellii looks a bits better colour in the sun.

The largest Magnolia campbellii ‘Valentine’s Torch’ is just starting. Unlike the other one which we saw last week this has not been blown open prematurely.

Magnolia ‘Todd’s Fortyniner’ moves forward.

As I had feared the (true) Magnolia ‘Lanarth’ has been blown open prematurely and slightly frosted.

The other 1950’s planted Magnolia campbellii is a good colour.

Magnolia ‘F. J. Williams’ has blown open since yesterday. A little premature.

Magnolia campbellii ‘Lamellyn’ now, suddenly, full out on the Drive.

Rhododendron ‘Winters Interlude’ (which is late out) just going over.

The view across to Giddle Orchard.

Another magnolia just starting above the wall up from the front door.

2022 – CHW

Frankie and his mighty machine have cleared the two fallen beech trees below Old Park and Brownberry.

The clearance of the old Camellia japonica above the Dog Kennels has made an excellent area for new planting. Perhaps the new Amelanchier collection should go here?

Work is now one and a half days into clearing the Kitchen Garden for replanting in the autumn with our new collection of flowering malus (crab apples). With such a huge machine it does not take long although we are taking great care to protect the old stone lined watercourse and the remains of the old greenhouse and potting shed. My father planted conifers here in the early 1960s to finally retire the two fulltime vegetable gardeners. The conifers grew badly as it was too wet and they were never thinned properly. Some trunks and timber have been saved but probably only as firewood for Ross’ business. A mountainous fire with whole roots (shaken of earth) going on the top.

The old potting shed and apple store which we hope to restore one day.

Lots more to deal with yet.

The Magnolia campbellii seedling outside the back yard now has some decent flowers.

Jaimie’s Rhododendron ‘Maisie’.

2021 – CHW
Another storm casualty which I also missed earlier has been a large chunk of the elderly Rhododendron arboreum (white) on the path up to the Isla Rose Plantation. The same rhododendron we saw in the 1907 or 1921? pictures a week or two ago. Asia collected seed from this plant last autumn ‘just in case’. Another mess to clear up in the rush before opening as it was on Thursday in the freezing cold and alarmingly strong gusts of beastly east wind.

It now looks as though we will not open tomorrow after all. Heavy rain and 40mph winds are forecast so it will be too dangerous to risk the public. The forecast for next week looks pretty horrid as well. Jaimie has made the right call but it muddles the publicity surrounding our reopening.

Frankie and his digger have helped clear the Lower Rockery Path and the turkey oak trunk has been sectioned up and moved out of the way. The mess and crown will have to wait a few days to sort out.

Frankie has moved on to widen a couple of bridges with additional telegraph poles for supports. One is of course the one that I tipped the mule off into a flooded River Luney on 16th November last year with a heavily pregnant Serena on board. She called today to tell us her husband now has COVID in Juba in South Sudan where he is a British army colonel attached to the UN peacekeeping mission there. COVID in that sort of heat cannot be pleasant and on vacuum packed army rations with no proper fresh fruit. Thankfully he stocked up on vitamins and medicines when he was briefly back in the UK in early January. Quite how he will now get back to the UK for the birth in April remains a worry to us all.Saw some golden plover today near Nancor Farm above Grampound struggling in the wind and probably also struggling to feed anywhere. The woodcock have been seen recently in the garden more and more (and at Burncoose) where I guess they will have, by now, departed into France or a mid-Atlantic death. The GWCT farm bird count will be interesting this year as most migratory birds will have been blown way off course or snuggled down to wait out the ‘Beast’. I saw in the papers an extremely rare sighting of a US bird on Exmoor. It would get home quickly on this easterly storm!