Camellia reticulata ‘Royalty’ on the main ride.

The end of Acer saccharinum.

Overnight the fir has burnt up well.

We have still to deal with this leaning Scots Pine.

The end of Magnolia ‘Kay Parris’.

The roots are burning well.

Not much left of the fire at Donkey Shoe.

Camellia x williamsii ‘Mary Jobson’ at the side door.

2025 – CHW
The persistent east wind is blowing magnolias open prematurely. A cold, overcast and generally nasty week with very few garden visitors to show for it.

The Magnolia campbellii subsp. mollicomata ‘Lanarth’ on the bank outside the Georgian Hall, which took 52 years to flower, has 4 flowers blown open and these are a bit small and misshapen even if the colour is good.

Some other buds still have their double bud covers intact while others do not.
Suddenly the Narcissus cyclamineus are out on the top bank.

These snowdrops were dug from The Vean 16 years ago. They were originally planted too deeply but have now raised themselves up to the right level and are making a good (late) show.

Similarly the five year old Magnolia ‘Caerhays Splendour’ on the bank have some buds with double covers and some with one blown off.

Daphne bholua ‘Mary Rose’ perhaps the best thing in the garden today in the cold wind.

Acacia cultriformis with broken branches cut away. Will it reshoot and should we pollard the other branches? Not sure! We have another young plant to start off elsewhere.

Camellia reticulata ‘Arch of Triumph’ well out high up.

Blown out magnolia flowers through and over the arch.

2024 – CHW
Rain from 4pm until dawn and, to my horror, the magnolias have rushed out even more. One good blast of east wind and the season will be over in mid-February with no one even seeing it. The gardening weekend is still 10 days away and, for the first time ever, on the first weekend in March. What will be left by then? At least my idea of moving the weekend forward has been vindicated.The lake and water meadows have flooded again after more or less 48 hours of rain.

The first flower out on the 1897 planted Magnolia stellata on the lawn. Very early!

The last flower on Camellia x hiemalis ‘Ginryu’ beside the M. stellata.

Clematis armandii on the castle front with flowers going over already.

Clematis cirrhosa var. balearica full out but the pendulous flowers are hard to see properly.

A rubus cockburnianus sucker growing from a wall by the steps which needs removing. The rest of the clump has long gone leaving this unwelcome straggles.

Overnight the Magnolia ‘Caerhays Belle’ is out. Astounding how they rush on when the temperature is 12-14°c and there is no sun.

And Magnolia ‘Delia Williams’ on the lawn is full out in 24 hours.

2023 – CHW

Rhododendron ‘Winter Intruder’ now at its best a good month later than most years.

A potted Camellia x williamsii ‘Mary Phoebe Taylor’ at the Top Lodge. Alison’s ‘garden’ as good as ever.

This Pinus insignis is leaning a bit over the sunken sitting outside area at the Village Hall but I do not think there is a real threat of it collapsing, at least in the short term.

These willows and alders in the Village Hall garden hedge should be cut down though as they will soon collapse the stone faced hedges.

Camellia japonica ‘Alba Simplex’ at the Vean.

Camellia japonica ‘Magnoliaflora’ on the drive.

Camellia japonica ‘Dear Jenny’ just out and looking good.

The leaves of common garlic just emerging – again later than usual.

Rhododendron ‘Bo Peep’ – yellow form on the drive – well established young plants.

Rhododendron ‘Bo Peep’ – pink form.

2022 – CHW

So what did we all make of Storm Eunice yesterday? In the post pandemic era we shut down everything of course. One hundred and eighty Cornish schools shut, no refuse collection, no trains of any sort, no planes out of Newquay. The county council declared a state of emergency from their command bunker. So what actually happened?

The storm hit at 7am and I drove to Burncoose for a lengthy three and a half hour management meeting without seeing any trees down and with as little traffic as in April 2020 at the start of the pandemic. By 12.00 the storm had gone through and was just a windy day with sun and squalls of rain.

Radio Cornwall disgusted no one on the seafront was flooded on the hightide at 7am and hoped for better this evening. ‘Stay at home’ (in all circumstances) and ‘stay safe’; the usual covid cries repeated in another context. The highways authority said to Radio Cornwall that even van drivers should not go to work and most buses did not run. Total shutdown and totally unnecessary. A gross overreaction.

Nothing like as bad as the hurricane on 25/26th January 1990 and the weather charts showed that it was never going to be. ‘Keep safe’ and ‘do nothing’ a typical product of the current national work averse state of play. Frightening to older people but not that much worse than your typical Cornish westerly gale.

Three or four trees down at Burncoose and a few at Caerhays as you will see below and tomorrow. No electricity at Caerhays for about eight hours which was boring. About 10 to 14 days’ work to put back slates blown off quite a few estate roofs for the maintenance team but, as far as I know yet, not one insurance claim to raise. You might argue that we were just lucky but, those who remember January 1990, and any seafarer (which I am definitely not), would tell you that this was a very bad storm but hardly a national emergency. In a real hurricane the wind roars so loudly you cannot hear yourself speak.

Radio Cornwall reported five or six roads closed in the county due to fallen trees and two due to roof debris at 4pm. If the storm had come overnight I doubt many would have noticed. We had very similar storms in 2012 and 2018 with power cuts and trees down but not a countrywide lockdown thrown in.

The Met Office issued an amber warning for Wales and the south of England on Thursday. By Friday morning this had become a ‘very rare’ red warning. My guess is that ‘reds’ will now become the norm in a world where risk and personal choice are unknown. I blame the insidious health and safety culture which arrived from America (and then got reinforced by the EU) whereby every accident has to be blamed on someone and usually someone who can pay. In 50 years’ time we will need a risk assessment to get out of bed. War in Ukraine might, I suppose, finally break this mould of thought.

At the nursery today I enjoyed photographing in the gale:

Vinca difformis ‘Jenny Pym’

Vinca minor ‘Illumination’

Sophora microphylla ‘Sun King’ – out rather early.

Microbiota decussata – our stock plant with interesting ranges of brown colouration in its foliage.

Helleborus sternii and Helleborus ‘Winter Bells’ look good together.

Rhododendron ‘Ostara’

Camellia ‘Tricolor’ and Helleborus ‘Anne’s Red’ in the cash point.

A bit of the top of a greenhouse blown off. No tunnel covers split or broken in the storm which is highly unusual in a major weather event.

We actually laid these palms down ourselves to avoid them blowing around in the wind but it has not worked!

Camellia ‘Margaret Davis’ was especially fine in the camellia sales area.

The large and nearly dead Pinus insignis has gone over above the crossroads. My annual tree survey put this on the ‘to do’ list a while ago but nature has got in first.

A large beech tree has brought down a younger one in the Burncoose bluebell piece. The other elderly beeches need to go too. Another ‘at risk’ tree in the annual survey list as dangerous to the public to cross off.

Rhododendron ‘Praecox’ in the nursery.

2021 – CHW
The foundations for the new laundry processing building have been laid and the old stables here have been demolished. The laundry for the Vean and holiday lets will no longer be undertaken at the Vean so that the laundry room there can become a games room. At least for a year we will contract out the laundry to a third party.

I have always admired the snowdrops at the entrance to Penvergate Farm.

Penvergate is said to be the oldest building on the estate today after Caerhays Church. An odd shaped three bedroom (listed) house which has just become vacant for the first time for many years. A damp house in need of some renovation but it had a new roof about 15 years ago. We will be seeking a new tenant shortly with the option on some smallholding land.

There is an excellent Eucalyptus pauciflora in the Penvergate garden with masses of flower bud and old seed heads. The peeling brown and white bark is impressive.

Pheasant feeding prior to catching up the hens for the laying pens. After no shooting in November or January there are rather a lot of birds on the ground.

In and out on a planting day. These are Camellia x williamsii ‘November Pink’ seedlings at Red Linney which Jaimie raised. They are planted in full shade as a windbreak. Very variable and not much like ‘November Pink’!

Garlic growing fast after the cold.

These deciduous azaleas were cut down two years ago as 80+ year old plants. See how well they have rejuvenated. Loads of bud.

First drab flower on Magnolia campbellii ‘Lamellyn’. The original plant at Lamellyn by the house is superb but very early into flower as here.

x Sycoparrotia semidecidua is just opening its buds. A 15-18ft small tree where only the lower and more sheltered branches remain evergreen. Yellow anthers tinged red and a profusion of buds this year. Quite attractive bark too.

A clump of nine Rhododendron viscosum placed out below the drive at Four in Hand.

Prunus x incam ‘Okame’ with its first flowers out.

Prunus conradinae just showing.

Acer morifolium has attractive greenish-purple new growth shoots from last year and a purple hue overall from a distance. Planted in 2011.

Seats repaired for opening and four plants of nine different deciduous azaleas going into beside the path in Kennel Close to improve the late season show for visitors.

Prunus serrula’s bark just gets better and better.

Sadly the buds on Magnolia ‘Plum Pudding’ have been frosted to mush in some instances.

Camellia trachocarpa with its first bulbous and odd flower buds in the greenhouse. Serrated leaves.

Frankie has cleaned out the silting up which was causing the river to flow into the pond in floods. Thereby depositing all the silt in the pond which we do not want. The bank edge has increased by about a foot with, albeit, still wet mud.

Magnolia campbellii ‘Sidbury’ just opening in Penvergate. Not too bashed about thankfully and it should soon make a decent show.

We looked at a camellia hedge in Perranwell earlier this week. Here is the same thing as a camellia windbreak in Penvergate which protects the rhododendrons in the lee. A flowering windbreak!