The New Zealand Pomaderris apiculata about to come into flower.

Tail end flowers on a seedling Camellia saluenensis.

First flowers out on Rhododendron stenaulum high up and absurdly premature.

Nothing showing yet on any of the early flowering Magnolia ‘Lanarth’.

2023 – CHW
Planting progresses but the staking is still to do as are the repairs to the fencing where the wall has collapsed to keep the deer out. We are not going to bother with wire netting surrounds but all the Malus tress have spiral rabbit guards. I spaced several of the groups of 3 trees further apart after placing out.

This is the very final planting list and the amended final plan. There is plenty of room for another 40 or so trees!

2022 – CHW
Warm and sunny but chilly at night.Dicksonia antarctica growing out of an elderly Camellia japonica.

I was quite wrong a week ago. Today Magnolia ‘Todd’s Fortyniner’ is again the first magnolia to show colour. Only a couple of flowers yet showing but it will not be long in this sun and warmth before it is properly out.

Camellia ‘Buttons and Bows’ is a dainty, slow growing and upright plant but the flowers tend to be a bit hidden in the foliage. Not sure about the name either!

2021 – CHW
Milder and overcast today.The elderly Pieris forrestii ‘Forrest Flame’ above the top wall has well developed flower clusters for the spring as well as equally impressive clusters of not quite yet ripe seeds. Some brown but mostly still green.

The elderly (25 to 30 years) Daphne bholua ‘Alba’ is beautifully scented and just coming out today by the greenhouses. The plant is 12ft tall with a similar spread and has shot vigorously where dieback has been pruned out over the years. Rather thin at the top.

A cow parsley in full flower by the frames under a Corylopsis despite the cold last week.

Acacia melanoxylon is still some way off flowering. The trunk is maturing on this large tree which has attractive splitting stripes lower down.

The Escallonia ‘Iveyi’ have now had their haircut to reshoot rather quicker than I expected!

Two camellias hatstanded in the Auklandii Garden for the second time in the last 20 years (a ‘Debbie’ and a ‘Mary Costa’).

Uplifting the Nothofagus fusca with the long handled pruner. Now a small chainsaw on a pole! This is to give more light to the next door Magnolia ‘F J Williams’ which the southern beech has started to overshadow.

Cut back one Camellia ‘Debbie’ to give more room for a Corylopsis clump but leave the two behind standing to cut out the wind and under draft. Good thinking!

First flower (frosted) at the very top of Camellia ‘Anticipation Variegated’.

Still a good half of the leaves still present on Magnolia sieboldii ‘Genesis’ x Magnolia virginiana which, on reflection, is to be expected.

I collected ripe seed today on Schefflera aff. myriocarpa. Then I noticed the first ripe seed ever seen here on this Schefflera delavayi. Lots of small seeds of which by no means all are black and ripe as yet. One for Asia to collect.

2020 – CHW
Some interesting white fungi on a dead scots pine.

Nearby wonderful peeling bark on Betula utilis var. jacquemontii.

As ever a few flowers on a young Rhododendron keysii.

Enormous prickles on the stem of Aralia foliosa.

2019 – CHW
A general post Christmas holidays tidy up of fallen branches from various storms on the main path by Georges Hut.

The new automatic squirrel traps are starting to work. Spreading the same bait as is in the traps onto the bark of the tree below the trap is working. The squirrels are gnawing at the bark with the bait on.

The trick is to stick whole maize onto the tree trunks near the trap within the bait itself. The traps have automatic counters on them which go up to 18. So far two on this trap.

2018 – CHW
Lindera tonkinensis (FMWJ 13123) two years on from planting is clearly thriving and fully evergreen. Large lindera-like leaves.

First primroses creeping out all over the garden.

Last summer’s ripe seed pods and those from the year before (black) still hang on Stewartia pteropetiolata.

I know that the old original plant of Stewartia pteropetiolata had lost 20ft of its crown in 1990 and thereafter produced side shoots from the base which are now mature. What I had not realised until looking properly was that the old trunk had rotted and died completely between the new shoots. You can now see daylight through the old trunk at the base.

Note too how the bark structure has changed from the immature shoots to the more mature ones. A fissured bark but, unlike other species, not a peeling, flaking or exfoliating bark structure.
I have just written a new article on stewartia species at Caerhays so these pictures will be helpful.

A good young Magnolia nitida getting away well for once. We have failed with several in recent years all from seedlings grown here.

Evergreen Viburnum awabuki is new to us and only a year from planting out. Hillier’s say it is a form of Viburnum odoratissimum and this had occurred to me as well. I will photograph the true V. odoratissimum shortly.

This Rhododendron singogrande is too exposed to the wind. This has limited its leaf size greatly and wind damage is obvious on the leaves. However there is no reduction in the size of the many flower buds for this spring!

2016 – CHW
Another magnolia is out, this time in the main clearing in Forty Acres wood. Magnolia ‘Ethel Hillier’ is a seedling of Magnolia campbellii ‘Alba’ collected from wild collected seed and named after Sir Harold Hillier’s mother. This is often confused with Magnolia ‘Sir Harol Hillier’, another near white ‘Alba’ seedling and named by Nigel Holman of Chyverton.

Camellia ‘Mary Jobson’ has one tit damaged flower by the side door. This x williamsii hybrid has some scent which makes it unusual. Mary Jobson was my father’s niece.