Vitis vinifera ‘Pikurka’.

Vitis vinifera ‘Vanessa’.

Lichen and water lilies.

The view back towards Bembridge and the house.

Limonium latifolium – sea lavender.

Ripening fruit on Liriodendron tulipifera.

Apple ‘Howgate Wonder’.

Not sure what this climber is?

Sanguisorba.

Albizia julibrissin ‘Rosea’.

Eupatorium maculatum ‘Atropurpureum’ and Tamarix tetrandra.

Colutea arborescens with ripe seed pods.

Shell collages on the walls of a folly.

Stumpery.

A fernery in full sun around a pool.

Another view of Bembridge.

Celtis australis doing well (ex. Barcham Trees).

The new studio overlooking the Bembridge marsh.

Ripe fruits on Morus nigra.

The house.

Another folly.

Crataegus crus-galli covered in fruit.

2025 – CHW

Back to Busy Bees Garden Centre after some decent rain at last.

Cynara scolymus with flower heads in 15 litre pots. Quite an achievement by the grower.

Heliopsis ‘Fireball’.

Leontopodium ‘Blossom of Snow’.

Anemone hupehensis ‘Rose Shades’ another new one to me.

Astrantia ‘Star of Billion’ – peculiar flowers.

Hydrangea ‘Magical Evolution’ with its extraordinary colour changes.

Allium ‘Millenium’ impressive today.

2024 – CHW
A visit to the next door garden designed, in 2015, by Arabella Lennox-Boyd.Massive leaves on Bergenia ciliata alongside Geranium ‘Rozanne’.

Geranium ‘Rozanne’ and Hebe albicans.

The view over the Solent.

An invasive weed literally strangling individual plants in the wild flower meadow.

The wild flower meadow is cut to the ground and reseeded each year.

Eryngium bourgatii ‘Picos Blue’ very fine.

Agapanthus ‘Royal Velvet’ and Achillea ‘Cerise Queen’.

Cynara cardunculus and Verbena bonariensis.

Caryopteris x clandonensis ‘Heavenly Blue’ and Ceratostigma willmottianum.

Agapanthus ‘Africanus Albus’ and Trachelospermum jasminoides.

Ceanothus x delileanus ‘Gloire de Versailles’ is perhaps the best of the deciduous ceanothus?

Catalpa bignonioides full out in flower rather earlier than in Cornwall.

2023 – CHW
Back home to enjoy the aftermath of several inches of rain in our absence. The drought is well and truly over but there are plenty of dead plants to prove how bad it was. Our watering of newly planted areas and nursery beds did save the day with lots of new plants especially the Evergreens and Viburnum. Grass cutting nearly complete in the main garden and Old Park started.

Hydrangea paniculata ‘Polar Bear’ is getting going.

Very first (and earlier than usual) flowers on Eucryphia ‘Nymansay’.

A good show on Catalpa bignonoides.

I was wrong about Hydrangea paniculata ‘Vanille Fraise’ the rain has allowed it to produce a set of flowers. They are still small but already a little over.

We have all missed the flowers on Diplopanax stachycanthus (WWJ 12110) – just a few seed heads left.

Decent new grouth on a big leaf replaces last years chloritic leaves from drought starvation.??

Persea indica (PSWJ2535) has made good growth in its first year after planting.

2022 – CHW
Drooping flowers on Rhododendron ‘Polar Bear’ in Charlie Michael’s Nursery. Intense heat here still but the heatwave is officially over for now.

Gamblea ciliata var. evodiifolia (DJHV 06111) has shot ahead this year and is now 10-13 feet tall.

Cotoneaster cornifolius (Ogisv 93330) with its first berries that we have seen.

Finally Cornus drummondii ‘Sunshiny Drops’ is out in flower. This was suppressed to make it in time for the late May Chelsea Flower Show and the RHS Plant of the Year Competition. Fat chance but was nice enough today.

Zelkova abelicea is growing quickly. Its leaf and branch structure is odd and irregular.

Hoheria sextylosa ‘Stardust’ with only a few flowers.

Eucryphia x hillieri ‘Penwith’ (E. lucida x E. moorei) flowering for the first time in recent memory. It must have grown here once and died.

2021 – CHW
A tour with Martyn Rix and Peter Moor in extreme heat.Another good form of Manglietia insignis with flowers of a ‘normal’ size.

Podocarpus macrophyllus ‘Aureus’ with its splendid new growth in full shade now.

Hoheria glabrata nearly over.

Strong new growth on one of the young Mallotus japonicus with a flowerhead about to appear.

Magnolia ‘Todd’s Fortyniner’ with a secondary flowering. About a dozen flowers. This was out in January as usual.

Martyn kindly brought cuttings of his Deutzia calycosa and we showed Peter the evergreen Clematis uncinata in flower grown from his seed. Peter thinks that growing it up through a Camellia sasanqua will swamp the camellia. It has not yet but I had not realised how scented the flowers are. Far too high up now to smell them so we need to start one again elsewhere.