The Caerhays raised Escallonia ‘Iveyi’.

Fuchsia ‘Lady Boothby’ starting to climb up a drainpipe.

The ancient Pittosporum tenuifolium is very nearly dead. Several branches of have been removed in recent years but last years drought, and a gale which lifted the roots, have done the rest of the damage.

2023 – CHW

A visit to a garden in Bembridge which I know quite well. Superb news from Captain George in Cornwall that we had 4 inches of rain last week!

Cotinus coggygria in full flower – smothered by flower in fact. Seeds forming in the inflorescences.

Euonymus japonicus with late flowers.

Seed forming early on a large Parrotia persica.

Indigofera heterantha flowering sparsely in too much shade.

The rare Exbucklandia populnea which I identified last year has grown on fairly well.

Olearia paniculata growing well in a gap in the hedge.

The gardener complained that Eucalyptus make a lot of mess with peeling bark and old leaves falling onto the lawns. If only all gardening problems were so positive.

Hydrangea seemannii now growing well up a range of dead Cupressus macrocarpa after about 4 years to get going.

Olives beginning to form on an Olea europaea hedge.

More holly hocks of different colours.

Magnolia grandiflora ‘Exmouth’ with seed setting which is unusual in the UK except in the hottest areas.

The best Sollya heterophylla I have ever seen growing outside is still doing well.

A big rhododendron with little new growth this year is struggling

2022 – CHW

A decent thunderstorm breaks over Burncoose.

The Hemerocallis bed in all its glory.

Itea Illicifolia with its enormous tassles.

Vinca minor ‘Atropurpurea’ in full flower in July?

Fuchsia magellanica ‘Arauco’ was a new website entry in 2021 but I had not seen it in flower before.

The Hydrangea paniculata varieties just coming into flower.

Hydrangea paniculata ‘Skyfall’ looking very fine.

The South African Erica cerinthoides is a new website entry shortly.

Euonymus grandiflora ‘Ruby Wine’ in flower.

The new defibrillator has now become operational at the Sales Point.

Romneya coulteri alongside the main packing shed.

2021 – CHW
A visit to the greenhouse to see what new was out.Digitalis sceptrum from Madeira nicely in flower. Well worth propagating. A woody (greenhouse) shrub. The second year it has flowered. A gift from Windsor.

Isoplexis canariensis is very similar in flower and ‘foxglove-like’.

Tibouchina rossa (BSWJ 10758) really is an exceptional colour. Easy to propagate from cuttings says Bleddyn so let us get at it.

Desmodium elegans in full flower. A delicate blue colour on a tall erect bush.

Dicentra scandens just out.

Hydrangea serrata ‘Garden House Beauty’ looking superb. Should it be blue?

Dichroa guizhou full out and an entirely new species to us. Looks tender but very gentle colours.

Calocedrus formosanus – the undersides of the leaves are silvery-white and the topsides dark green when developed.

Hydrangea aspera ‘Macrophylla’ (ex Crûg Farm) is not that different.

I was struck by the foliage of Crataegus thaenopyrum which is rather like Acer campestre – with thorns!

The elderly Escallonia ‘Iveyi’ cut down last winter for the umpteenth time have responded well as usual. Nearly dead at 10-12ft last August.

2020 – CHW
A trip to Kennel Close to see what is new here.More deer nibbling on Sorbus meliosmifolia. The leaves are similar to Meliosma.

Magnolia mollicomata ‘Werrington’ with ripening seed pods.

Erethia thyrsiflora has started root suckering and has good secondary new growth.

Catalpa sechuanensis also with dark secondary new growth.

Seed heads forming on Paulownia kawakamii.

Sorbus gongashica with odd shaped fruits.

Populus purdomii with wonderfully veined secondary new growth.

Nyssa sinensis (FMWJ 13122) with exceptional leaf colouring already.

Fruit catkins colouring up on Carpinus japonica.

Picea brachytyla, the Sargent spruce, with excellent new growth.

Then several Crataegus species with fruits:
Crataegus wattiana performing well for the first time.

Crataegus ellwangeriana ‘Fire Ball’

Crataegus combyi – first fruits with us.

Crataegus aprica

Hoheria sextylosa ‘Snow White’ just coming out as a clump of three newish plants.

Malus x rockii with fruits forming. Tom’s identification seems correct.

Yet another form of Hydrangea aspera subsp. sargentiana at Donkey Shoe. One of three planted but the other two failed. An old Hydrangea villosa used to grow exactly here.

2019 – CHW
Penvergate grass now all cut for the year.

Clear otter footprints beside the Penvergate stream and a large animal at that.

A wild Convolvulus growing happily in the sand dunes between the beach car park and the shoreline. It might be Convolvulus althaeoides?

Forty Acres all now cut as well.

It is the time of the year when camellia galls become obvious but, other than being unsightly, they do little damage.

2018 – CHW
In our absence Jaimie has been recording events in the drought here.KPK have been doing an excellent job repairing the buttresses on the Top Wall in the heat. These were the walls whose construction finally bankrupted the Trevanion family in the 1820s and led them to flee to France in the 1840s. You can see why! Lots of repointing the holes and cracks plus relaying the slate slabs in cement on the top to follow.

A plethora of self-sown seedlings under the elderly Cornus kousas beside the drive. Asia will need to lift these carefully when the drought is over for potting. Thankfully Jaimie stopped spraying the sides of the drive just in time to keep most of them alive.

We had seed pods last year on Decaisnea fargesii but they are much larger this year probably because of the heat.

2017 – CHW

Two very different forms of Hydrangea sargentiana. One with huge leaves and one with tiny ones. The smaller flowers look like Hydrangea villosa at first but not when you examine the flower more closely. The blue and light blue anthers are quite different too. Seven separate plants in two batches were planted here in 2008/9. Three survive!

Illicium majus has settled in over the last three years but has yet to flower here. Huge wrinkled leaves. Will it prove too tender for us? Time will tell.

Another, rather paler, young Hydrangea sargentiana at Donkey Shoe. Planted as a three but only one survives. One died because I stupidly cut it back thinking it was dead too early in the spring. There used to be an elderly clump of H. sargentiana here years ago which sprawled rather than being upright as this one is.

The old Magnolia macrophylla has one or two flowers out sitting high above a tall rhododendron so very hard to get a sightline to photograph it. The flowers last only a day or two.

Halesia macgregorii – I stupidly misnamed this as a rehderodendron last week but the new growth is still very fine! Did anyone notice the error?

A Melliodendron xylocarpum is hopefully finally on its way after two previous disasters. Planted this spring. Mice got the last one over winter in the greenhouse. They only eat the rarest and best things!

Styrax tonkinensis has, however, joined the dodo. I fear this new species may be too tender for us to grow even in Cornwall. Not the first of these to die but another bigger one in the frames to go out and try next year.

Stewartia serrata (2017 planted) seems to be on its way. Rather different shaped leaves to other species. Rather small serrations on the leaves but delicate new growth.