Two new replanting places below Bond Street.

Ross has cleared the huge Abies which fell along Bond Street and the path is now clear after 2½ weeks work. Plenty above Bond Street still to clear at either end.

Ross has made a path to get the machine up from Patrick’s Bridge to Bond Street.

Ligustrum lucidum in full flower.

Pterostyrax psilophyllus – trilobed leaves and seed heads forming.

Female flowers on Lithocarpus pachyphyllus very late in the year. A secondary flush? There are developing clusters of acorns already evident on this Record Tree.

2025 – CHW

A second clutch of Pied wagtail eggs in the wood pile.

Camellia x williamsii ‘New Venture’ which we showed at Rosemoor this year has been given an ‘Award of Merit’ by the RHS Woody Plant Expert Group. This was bred by Philip Tregunna and named to celebrate the opening of Burncoose Nurseries in 1984. The cross was between Camellia saluenensis and Camellia japonica ‘Gauntlettii’.

Clematis uncinata climbing up through a Camellia sasanqua.

A tail end flower on Stewartia pseudocamellia at Burncoose.

The new charging machine is installed at West Portholland.

Hydrangea ‘Hobella’.

Hydrangea ‘Taube’.

2024 – CHW
Gevuina avellana reshooting well.

The first time I have ever seen flower heads on Persea japonica (BSWJ 12789). I cannot say they are of much interest!

The bark of Persea japonica is rather more interesting!

The Embothrium lanceolatum above Roger’s Quarry is nearly dead. These plants seem to live only 30 or so years with us.

Styrax tonkinensis may be nearly 20 feet tall after only 8 years but still no flowers. The tree split in half in the spring.

A Crug Farm Daphniphyllum aff. longeracemosum nearly died last year but, after a hard pruning, it has new shoots much lower down the stem.

Cornus hongkongensis is putting on a fine show but has oddly drooping branches.

An interesting colour combination of Hydrangea sargentiana ‘Gold Rush’ and Fagus sylvatica ‘Pendula Aurea’.

2023 – CHW

Back in Seaview and the ancient Pittosporum tenuifolium in the garden has sunk over even more, so further branches have had to go. The insurance company once got stroppy about the threat to the house. No need to worry now as it will fall the other way.

No flowers yet on a large elderly plant of Myrtus communis ssp. tarentina in the garden.

Phygelius aequalis is, however, already almost completely over. Full out last year on the same date.

The Hypericum ‘Hidcote’ has had a generous clipping. RJW appears to have done ‘gardening’ during an earlier visit this year.

A gorgeous dark maroon, red-black hollyhock. Alcea rosea ‘Nigra’ (or a very near seedling to the true black form).

Outside the Yacht Club workshop and growing from the edge of the pavement is a large clump of yellow hollyhocks – Alcea rosea ‘Indian Spring’ (or similar).

2022 – CHW

A visit to the delightful and beautifully maintained gardens at Kiftsgate Court thanks to Max & Anna Kendry. In marked contrast to Ventnor Botanics, as I told who I think was the owner; Johnny Chambers. There is no predominantly herbaceous garden in Cornwall anywhere near as good as this. Wonderful planting combinations, great views over the valley below and signs of labels, care and maintenance everywhere. A true gem and the best new garden I have visited since the 2019 lockdown. Only a few hundred yards from Hidcote, but who would bother with the National Trust when the ascendency of the private sector was so obvious here. Amazing what Mediterranean species were growing facing west in the lower garden. Good mature magnolias, great pruning on the Magnolia delavayi on the house, the best Populus lasiocarpa I have ever seen. Outstanding in every respect and I look forward to returning at a different time of the year to take in more.

The view over the valley with a young aralia in the foreground. How many miles?

Phlox [?] and Ceanothus ‘Pearle Rose’.

The commanding view of the house over the valley.

Geranium ‘Azure Rush’ makes a huge clump.

And set beside Sanguisorba hakusanensis ‘Lilac Squirrel’ – quite superb.

Olearia nummulariifolia in full flower. I would have thought too tender for Warwickshire.

Phlox ‘Milly van Hoboken’ – sweetly scented.

Phlox ‘Cool of the Evening’ – not so scented today.

Dierama pulcherimum var. album which we stock but have never flowered in the nursery.

Hydrangea xanthoneura wilsonii in flower. I suspect the naming has been revised and I need to investigate.

Rosa filipes ‘Kiftsgate’ – a gigantic edifice which is 85 years old (20m x 25m).

Gorgeous double blue flowered geranium for which I could, sadly, find no label. [It is Geranium ‘Cloud Nine’!]

Two newer creations at the end of the garden. Not to my taste but so what!

A drought struck and pruned Burncoose magnolia in need of TLC.

Deutzia setchuanensis (possibly setchuanensis var. corymbiflora although the leaf description of corymbiflora did not always match what I saw) in many borders as feature plants where they have been staked up (usually multi stemmed) into 6ft tall shrubs covered in flower when we visited.

The lower garden and superb views (I did not, sadly, but for obvious reasons, photograph the Mediterranean species on the difficult and uneven stone paths down and up).

Lonicera implexa – a species I had never seen before.

What I assume is Schizophragma hydrangeoides (perhaps ‘Rose Sensation’?) with a fine show on the wall of the house. Probably even more pink in the early flowers.

Buddleia crispa full out. Normally you never see a flowerhead with all the individual flowers out at once. Usually it is just a few with the rest over.

2021 – CHW
Another smart tour of Ventnor so not so much time for ‘nicelys’ but still managed 69.Wisteria brachybotrys I assume with its last few flowers. Very vigorous with huge leaves growing in the newly planted Japanese garden near the sea.

We watched, very briefly, the Round the Island yacht race today. Hundreds of yachts of all sizes.

I had not realised that Ventnor had bought quite a number of magnolias from us and planted them in a windswept coastal location with loads of rabbits and inadequate guards. Stunted, dieback and bark all gnawed as you can see.

Greenish lizards under the agave plantation.

Agave americana in flower at 25ft in front of Washingtonia robusta.

Several Fucraea longaeva with 20ft tall flowers fully out.

Yucca rigida in flower.

At the entrance to Ventnor gardens an extraordinary sight. Dracunclus vulgaris in full flower from within a clump of Fascicularia.