A young Maytenus magellanica has stood up well to the storms.

Styrax japonica ‘Jippei Kawamurai’ still has some leaf left on the tree – unusual.

This Eucalyptus has blown over again.

Cotoneaster glomerulatus still laden with berries.

Magnolia kobus ‘White Elegance’ laden with buds beside it.

Nyssa sinensis (FMWJ 13122) also still has plenty of leaves.

Betula utilis subsp. utilis ‘Mount Luoji’ has stunning brown bark.

The Keteleeria restaked.

2024 – CHW
A touch of frost overnight.However the Magnolia campbellii ‘Strybing White’ now has 2 flowers.

I then look at the 1913 Magnolia campbellii by Tin Garden and, sure enough, colour here too. This must again be a record early flowering. I will email around other Cornish gardens to see what they have.

Traces of frost in Kennel Close.

The dwarf Pinus mugo ‘Winter Gold’ looking fantastic in the sun.

Eucalyptus simmonosii with peeled bark and flower buds.

Eucalyptus mannifera var. praecox has also largely shed its bark to reveal the new trunk. What a transformation!

2023 – CHW
A welcome and unexpected day off as two shooting parties appeared yesterday at 9am on the same day. Consternation but the second shooting party had arrived a day early! Their fault not ours. They had come from Kent and could not return today on the correct day.So a day to start placing out the new Malus collection in the Kitchen Garden with all hands on deck. 185 plants of 65 different Malus varieties and 3 forms of Pyrus as well.A long job to sort out what goes where according to the plan with the correct spacings for each variety or species in accordance with ultimate height and width and habit. Needless to say the plan gets changed a bit when we are in situ. A few plants missing and a few extra ones so the master list will have to change a little.

The old Dog Kennels below Kitchen Garden with the stream blocked and overflowing.

A very wind battered and miserable big leaved rhododendron nearby.

Ilex laevigata is a deciduous species with good autumn colour from the Eastern USA. For above the Dog Kennels I think. Supplied by Mallet Court Nurseries to add to our Ilex species collection. (Ilex cornuta also for the same place).

Betula utilis ‘Melony Senders’ is new to us. It will produce a wonderful white bark in maturity but not yet!

A replacement Acer kawakamii (A. caudatifolium) for the 2 mature trees that have recently died here from the disease which hits snake bark maples in maturity. Need to think where to plant this in shelter and isolation. Taiwanese.

2022 – CHW
Drizzly but mildStyrax tonkinensis (WWJ 11868) still has a full, if battered, set of leaves on its upper branches.

The stake on a Taiwannia cryptomeriodes has snapped in the wind.

First two or three flowers high up on Camellia x williamsii ‘John Pickthorn’.

A young Acer heptophlebium has also blown over.

A good show on Camellia ‘White Nun’ in a Kennel Close windbreak. Gigantic stamens.

Camellia saluenensis and Camellia x williamsii ‘Beatrice Michael’.

Camellia saluenensis shedding flowers fast now.

Camellia x williamsii ‘Beatrice Michael’ just starting to shed.

2021 – CHW
Cold but sunny.Emerging Hemerocallis leaves eaten by rabbits or pheasants.

A couple of decent young Camellia x williamsii ‘George Blandford’ below Rogers Quarry.

Camellia ‘Alba Simplex’ nicely out but slightly frosted.

Magnolia ‘Ian’s Red’ is shedding its secondary bud coverings. We lost a large plant at Burncoose to cold for this reason in 2012.

Camellia ‘Cinnamon Sensation’ just opening.

Annoyingly deer have been nibbling even the evergreen azaleas in Kennel Close. The bite marks are fresh and obvious.

Magnolia ‘Plum Pudding’ loaded with buds.

Rhododendron arboreum ssp. cinnamomeum now out further.

The original Stewartia pteropetiolata remains a bold evergreen.

Deer damage (horns) to a young oak tree. It will recover with scarring. The roe have got to go in lockdown.

We saw a few flowers out on Paulownia tomentosa ‘Lilacina’ in November but there are still loads of buds.

The first time I have ever found squishy and ripe green fruits to collect on our Sorbus eleonorae. Quite a find and all collected for Asia to try to propagate the seeds.

The bark on this Sorbus species is rather special in winter too. Hilliers say the fruits go from green to brown but they are clearly ripe.

Lindera tonkinensis is clearly a full evergreen with us in a normal winter.

Lindera angustifolia now with obvious flower buds and perhaps more semi-evergreen. Very quick growing indeed.

A large elderly Camellia x williamsii ‘George Blandford’ in the new Rookery clearing.

Deer damage also to a small evergreen Euonymus moupinensis (now Euonymus echinatus apparently) given to us by Roy Lancaster. Nothing escapes a roe buck looking for a juicy evergreen meal at this time of the year. Worse than rabbit damage!

Camellia x williamsii ‘Inspiration’ now full out.

This old clump of Escallonia iveyi is nearly leafless and needs (again) cutting down to ground level to reshoot. A few bits of broken rhodo and branches to uplift and tidy in this bit of the Auklandii Garden. More branches of the Nothofagus fusca to give more room to Magnolia ‘F J Williams’. Sycamore to get rid of beside the greenhouse and a dead arboreum or two.