Likewise the Magnolia campbellii ‘Strybing White’ towards Georges Hut.

2019 – CHW
The squirrels caught in the garden in 2018 totalled 115 using these Kania 2000 traps. In the last month, and using the newly legal automated New Zealand traps, we have managed another 15 as conditions have got colder and the availability of natural seeds and berries has declined. Of these nearly every one has been female. Despite the cull there has still been some serious squirrel damage to immature trees in the garden as we have seen in the past few months. It is clear that squirrels migrate from hedgerows around corn and maize fields after harvest and recolonise woodland areas with over mature trees (ie holes) and existing dreys. On sunny days when going around the garden you can still frequently see squirrels foraging far and wide exploring new territories and resettling in them. This is an ongoing battle which we are unlikely ever to win completely. Up to six years ago poison hoppers did a far better and more effective job of squirrel control before supplies ran out and the Swedish company which had the European patent declined to renew it on the grounds of cost. It is generally believed that the poison was made illegal but this is something of a fallacy as it can still be used to control squirrels in grain barns or attics or so I believe.

2018 – CHW
Plenty of early new growth on Fuchsia gracilis confirming a frost free winter.

Garrya elliptica ‘James Roof’ with its gigantic tassels of flowers is superb today. What a plant!

The scented narcissii by the Dining Room window are nearly over.

Clematis cirrhosa var balerica is full out on the wall. The speckles of red or pink are on the insides of the petals and not readily visible as the flowers hang here.

A huge crop of Echium pininana seedlings have emerged below this year’s flowering spikes which have now been removed.

And several of these biennial plants well on to flower by or before Chelsea time this year.