2026 – CHW (images to follow)
Kiftsgate. Unfortunately out visit coincided with a busload of German tourists.
Clematis ‘Purpurea Plena Elegans’.
Phlox paniculata ‘Balmoral’.
Superb Lilium regale.
Dierama pulcherrimum carpeting the sunken garden.
Hydrangea paniculata ‘Praecox’.
Spectacular red lilies.
Bright red Nerium oleander in full flower.
Rosa ‘Souvenir du Docteur Jamain’.
The best thing in the garden today was Schizophragma integrifolium on the wall of the house.
2025 – CHW
The point of the brash from these forestry operations is as wood chip for a wood burner in nearby Newport which provides hot water for 490 new houses. This plant uses 120 cubic meters of woodchip a week in summer and double that in winter. The woodchip can only have 22% moisture so has to be stored under cover once chipped.
The Renewable Heat Incentive Plant.
Where the woodchip is tipped (by Kingsley) onto a moving floor conveyor system.
Inside the plant are the 2 wood burners and huge water tanks. Water goes out in insulated pipes to the 490 properties at 32-34°c. Each property has their own top up boiler for baths and showers but that temperature is usually quite enough for radiators.
Waste from the burners is minimal – the ash left over after a weeks burning will hardly fill these bins.
Inside the plant.
The exterior.
Some of the 490 houses.
Insulated waterpipe.
We then visit a 2ha plantation of 13 year old Eucalyptus nitens which is to be felled and chipped for the plant. Eucalyptus creates more energy/ heat when burnt in the plant so this experimental plantation may be the start of many more.
2024 – CHW
In the garden here at Backstay, Seaview.Hypericum ‘Hidcote’ nearly over.
In the garden here at Backstay, Seaview.Hypericum ‘Hidcote’ nearly over.
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.
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.
