2026 – CHW (images to follow)
This 20 acre field of permanent grass was planted up as a mixed woodland in the autumn of 2021. In more shady and damp areas the trees (1100 per ha) have done well. In full sun there are plenty of gaps. Oaks have largely failed. Prunus avium, Scots pine, Birch and Alder have done well. Limes less so but they are alive. Thistles and ragwort have invaded large areas as have wild flowers. The brambles are just starting. Other than the rides nothing has been cut. Four years ago I was able to stop grass cutting throughout the new wood to give some shade and shelter to the young saplings. Sycamore were not planted as the seeds were thought to be danger to cattle and horses! A good plantation of walnuts doing well. Rewilding at its best?
The leaves of the alder had been eaten by caterpillars. I have seen this in birch often before but not in alder. The trees will readily grow through the damage and are already setting seed.
A cluster of caterpillars in an Oak tree. Benign or Oak processionary moth?
The best example of Erythrina crista-galli that I have seen for years. The hot summers are perfect for it.
Campsis ‘Madame Galen’ and Solanum jasminoides.
2025 – CHW
Another visit to a garden on the edge of Bembridge.
Exbucklandia populnea being rather overshadowed by a shrubby Lonicera.
The Wollemi pine has male flowers on the suckers at the base of the tree and many more female flowers much higher up. Is this normal?
Cryptomeria japonica with new and old seed cones.
I admire again the best Sollya heterophylla I have ever seen growing outside.
Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’ and Daphne odora ‘Marianni’ growing side by side outside the front door. Both have variegated edges to their leaves but one is rather more pronounced than the other (i.e. ‘Marianni’).
2024 – CHW
Ventnor Botanics today where there has been a lot of new planting and everything is looking rather more weed free and un-rewilded than for several years. Even a few more plant labels on show. Burncoose supplied a lot of New Zealand plants to Ventnor in the spring but I could not find where they had been planted. Perhaps still in the frames beside the greenhouse? No sign of anything being cut down yet in the New Zealand or Australian garden areas. In a wet summer the growth has been even more phenomenal than usual at Ventnor and the time for chucking out whole planting areas to start again is really very short. Thuggish plants dominate after a bit and smother everything around them. A lot of Melaleuca and Callistemon have died recently under the overpowering Eucalyptus. These are now cracking up the tarmac paths here and there. Only one Puya with a small flower spike that I found this year and that had finished flowering already.Solanum laciniatum (white form) as its absolute best today.
Ventnor Botanics today where there has been a lot of new planting and everything is looking rather more weed free and un-rewilded than for several years. Even a few more plant labels on show. Burncoose supplied a lot of New Zealand plants to Ventnor in the spring but I could not find where they had been planted. Perhaps still in the frames beside the greenhouse? No sign of anything being cut down yet in the New Zealand or Australian garden areas. In a wet summer the growth has been even more phenomenal than usual at Ventnor and the time for chucking out whole planting areas to start again is really very short. Thuggish plants dominate after a bit and smother everything around them. A lot of Melaleuca and Callistemon have died recently under the overpowering Eucalyptus. These are now cracking up the tarmac paths here and there. Only one Puya with a small flower spike that I found this year and that had finished flowering already.Solanum laciniatum (white form) as its absolute best today.
I spy the first flowers out on Hoheria sexstylosa. Weeks ahead of Caerhays.
Ventnor’s Acer pentaphyllum is the largest small tree of this rare species that I have ever seen. Much larger than the plants in the wild in China that featured on a fairly recent IDS blog.
The first bit of new planting which I find is all Crug Farm. I wonder if some of it will grow in such a hot, dry location? Illicium aff. griffithii is looking a bit chloritic already as was the Neolitsea.
The new planting areas which were mainly rabbit fenced.
The conifer tree cover has gone to make way for the new planting but the camellias are not enjoying the full sun they now find themselves in.
I had not seen the New Zealand Haloragis erecta (Wellington Bronze Raspwort) in flower before.
2023 – CHW
A hydrangea tour for the Friends of Burnoose this afternoon. Two hours with a slight drizzle.Cleyera japonica in full flower and nicely scented at the cash point. I am not sure I have ever seen it performing as well as this. When the plants arrived here from Holland years ago they were labelled Michelia compressa and we mistakenly sold them as that. This was a leftover from the show tunnel. There are two in the garden at Caerhays – the best in Old Park.
A hydrangea tour for the Friends of Burnoose this afternoon. Two hours with a slight drizzle.Cleyera japonica in full flower and nicely scented at the cash point. I am not sure I have ever seen it performing as well as this. When the plants arrived here from Holland years ago they were labelled Michelia compressa and we mistakenly sold them as that. This was a leftover from the show tunnel. There are two in the garden at Caerhays – the best in Old Park.
Hibiscus moscheutos ‘Planet Griotte’ in perfect flower by the till.
Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Charles Lamont’ almost out in flower! Peculiar!
Euonymus grandiflorus ‘Ruby Wine’ in full flower.
Hydrangea ‘Fireworks Blue’ excellent on the drive.
Hydrangea ‘Sunset’ looking good down opposite the lodge.
Hydrangea ‘Selma’ quite superb by the nursery entrance.
Hydrangea ‘Magical Revolution Blue’ a strange and erratic bicolour thing.
The best thing in the Burncoose garden today was Hydrangea aspera ‘Villosa Group’ by the lawn.
Maturing seeds on Meliosma veitchiorum.
2022 – CHW
A wonderful show from Aesculus parviflora below Slip Rail.
A secondary set of flower catkins on Salix fargesii which seems to have been stimulated into action by Asia taking cuttings fairly recently as you can see.
Calycanthus ‘Aphrodite’ with a bit of slug damage to the flower.
Callicarpa bodinieri’ ‘Profusion’ flowers both in bud and long over. A lengthy flowering season.
Myrcia laurotteana var. paraguayensis in full flower. Very much a ‘myrtle’ and I suspect the name.
2021 – CHW
A young and newly planted clump of Hydrangea paniculata ‘Wim’s Red’ just out – no red as yet.
A young and newly planted clump of Hydrangea paniculata ‘Wim’s Red’ just out – no red as yet.
Magnolia delavayi full out under the wall.
Hydrangea serrata ‘Crug Cobalt’ not very exciting so far.
A closeup of a flower on Rhododendron ‘Harrow Hybrids’.
This tree was bought for us by Trevor Wright at the end of a Royal Cornwall Show. I had always thought it was Tilia henryana but knew for years that its identification was wrong. For the first time I see flower tassels and this, together with the reddish new growth, fits the description of Carpinus henryana. Whether I or Duchy Nurseries had mislabelled it initially we will never now know.
Euonymus morrisonensis covered in flowers and copulating red winged insects in large numbers. Also a few large flies and wasps. A great display for a Euonymus.
Still flowers on Magnolia virginiana ‘Satellite’.
A tail ender on Magnolia wilsonii.
And an even later tail end flower on Michelia ‘Touch of Pink’.
Seeds well established on Magnolia globosa as the last two flowers fade.
2020 – CHW
Only one seed head on the young Magnolia ‘Caerhays Splendour’ which flowered so well for the first time this year.
A carpet of Knapweed in flower on the banks.
Very large flower heads on Rubus ichangensis. Last year the fruit was only ripe in November.
Vaccinum megaphyllum (HWS 515) from Rob White flowering well with one flower cluster.
Acer henryi developing autumn colours.
Rhododendron pachysanthum with its attractive new growth.
Acer palmatum ‘Sango kaku’ has turned a deeper orange colour in only 10 days.
Fruit on Cornus alternifolia and a secondary flower on Magnolia x brooklynensis ‘Evamaria’.
The second flower on Magnolia tamaulipana is nearly out.
Flowers and seedpods forming on Hoheria glabrata.
The mature stem on Catalpa bungei Duclouxii Group is splitting and fissuring at the base.
Last flowers on Magnolia x foggii ‘Jack Fogg’.
And on Magnolia x foggii ‘Allspice’.
Annoyingly I find our plant of Callicarpa formosana (NMWJ 14553) in the Isla Rose area. I supposedly saw this for the first time yesterday at Tregrehan.
Plenty of secondary flowers on the old wisteria by the playhouse. Many more and a much better colour than last year.
2019 – CHW
Fuchsia ‘Lady Bacon’ below the tower.
Fuchsia ‘Lady Bacon’ below the tower.
Seed heads on Dipteronia sinensis. This is the first year that any of our young plants have actually flowered.
Various suddenly dead rhododendrons in the drought. The last one is the elderly Rhododendron sinogrande which nearly died last summer and has featured quite a bit in the diary since. It flowered this spring but there were hardly any new leaves from last season and its demise was inevitable sadly.
This is another Cornus hongkongensis with very much larger individual flower bracts than the other and more yellow in the flowers too. Neither of our youngish plants have the bronzy new growth which I saw on the plant at Exbury in May. I wonder if this is actually true to name?
An elderly and now very dead Rhododendron weyrichii.
Twig debris and old cones under a Cunninghamia lanceolata tree in Old Park. This is a tree which is prone to shedding twigs and branches in strong winds.
2018 – CHW
Some new plants in the nursery today for next year’s catalogue. Around 30, mainly herbaceous, plants now ‘in the bag’.Lagunaria pattersonii. This is probably too tender to really grow outside but a most unusual flower and a welcome addition to our ‘exotica’!
Some new plants in the nursery today for next year’s catalogue. Around 30, mainly herbaceous, plants now ‘in the bag’.Lagunaria pattersonii. This is probably too tender to really grow outside but a most unusual flower and a welcome addition to our ‘exotica’!
Lagerstroemia indica ‘Rhapsody in Pink’ flowering better in this dry summer than I have ever seen it perform before. Nice contrast between the pink flowers and the dark leaves.
Lonicera ‘Rhubarb and Custard’ – a silly name for a new plant which is not that different in flower really and did not sell well in the intense heat of Hampton Court Show.
Lonicera henryi (evergreen) seems a better plant to me and was performing well in the tunnels.
Lobelia excelsa will become popular – a very odd flowering habit. It would grow much taller than this in a border.
2017 – CHW
First trip to Ventnor Botanic Gardens.
Rudbeckia maxima full out and rather better than in the nursery seen earlier.
Pistacia lentiscus showing new growth and last year’s seed heads.
This Ficus ‘Brown Turkey’ grows over a trellis. It is absolutely enormous.
Clerodendron bungei suckering up here and there as a shrub.
An amazing display of agapanthus.
A huge clump of Crinum powellii in full sun showing the usual slug damage and looking slightly scruffy. The flowers are never quite all out together.
Crassula coccinea full out. Rather better than the species which we stock.
Puya chilensis flower stalks. We have missed them and the seeds are setting. Note the size the plants have to be to generate a flower stalk. The seeds we pinched here last year have germinated well.
Colletia hystrix growing as large as I have ever seen it.
Peumus boldus as a large evergreen tree with flower panicles coming.
A 12ft tall Phormium tenax with a 20ft tall flower stalk. Only in Ventnor!
Odd tassels of seed heads on Sophora ?microphylla or similar.
2016 – CHW
Off today to Springwood Nurseries which sits alongside Springwood funeral parlour and cemetery. Not much life in the nursery either but at least it actually grows something – mainly summer bedding and veg plants. Cyclamen for Christmas just potted with the winter pansies. The very elderly owner will not have far to travel!Then to the absurdly named Jubilee Nurseries which was even more funerial. Most plants were windblown and unsaleable like ours in the summer in the old days before Andrew took over. Most looked even worse than they were last year but, even amongst a pile of crap like this, there were a few photos to take. I was the only ‘customer’ for half an hour but none of the three staff made any verbal contact. Walking dead indeed. Doubt they will be there next year like the Seaview flamingo etc park which has closed up. We miss hearing the geese and peacocks.A few more new plant offerings to consider for 2017:Helenium ‘Red Army’ – a bit taller growing than our Helenium ‘Ruby Tuesday’ but one red helenium is probably enough.
Off today to Springwood Nurseries which sits alongside Springwood funeral parlour and cemetery. Not much life in the nursery either but at least it actually grows something – mainly summer bedding and veg plants. Cyclamen for Christmas just potted with the winter pansies. The very elderly owner will not have far to travel!Then to the absurdly named Jubilee Nurseries which was even more funerial. Most plants were windblown and unsaleable like ours in the summer in the old days before Andrew took over. Most looked even worse than they were last year but, even amongst a pile of crap like this, there were a few photos to take. I was the only ‘customer’ for half an hour but none of the three staff made any verbal contact. Walking dead indeed. Doubt they will be there next year like the Seaview flamingo etc park which has closed up. We miss hearing the geese and peacocks.A few more new plant offerings to consider for 2017:Helenium ‘Red Army’ – a bit taller growing than our Helenium ‘Ruby Tuesday’ but one red helenium is probably enough.
Red Admiral butterflies on buddleia flowers but the little buggers kept shutting their wings.
One always forgets how wonderful hollyhocks (alcea) can be but never in wetter parts of the country where, unless in a very dry spot on the coast, they always get rust and slug damage. Here, in Townsend GC, some very nice double ones and performing even in pots.
Liriope muscari ‘Money Maker’ was especially floriferous and full out. Seemed taller growing than usual?
Salvia patens was once in the catalogue and we sold seed of it at Chelsea. Well worth returning to the list I think.
Seeing bulrushes reminded me to remember to get them sprayed on the pond at home before they form a major clump.
Sanquisorba officinale has smaller flowers and is more dwarf than our Sanquisorba menziesii. Quite nice but do we need two sorts and does this sell? Need to check.
A new abelia; Abelia ‘Sunshine Daydream’ with pink buds, white flowers and an odd foliage colour combination. Strong growing shrub by the look of it but do we need another Abelia x grandiflora or is this one better than the ones we list?
Hebe ‘Rosie’ looking nice here. Once sold well. Time for a comeback or is it still patented?
While I always think stocking hebes is a huge risk with botrytis etc and while we have traditionally ‘skipped’ more than we have sold this dwarf one with blue flowers, Hebe ‘Margaret’, looks good here today.
2015 – CHW
Rain overnight and looking bad first thing but I managed a few newish hydrangeas at the Green Gate where the ponticum was cleared a few years ago. A good new Magnolia x veitchii and a ‘Sweet Merlot’ have taken hold.
The absurdly named Hydrangea ‘Love you Kiss’ was an early forerunner of a swathe of ‘new’ picotee edged hydrangeas which have saturated Hampton Court show for several years now. They all have silly names but this one is quite nice although the early picotee edge has faded here.
A good clump of Hydrangea ‘Fireworks’ blue too but the ‘Fireworks’ pink are flowering blue too. The older hydrangeas below the new planting were cut down in the spring and are reshooting well but this area has always grown superb blue hydrangeas and must be highly acidic. Interestingly the 2013 planting of the red Hydrangea ‘Heinrich Siedel’ have died.
Proved indeed by the superb colour of the lacecap Hydrangea Taube at the top of the bank.
Below it a good blue mophead in the form of Hydrangea Enziandom. A very different blue.
Hydrangea Madame E Mouillere is perhaps the best known white lacecap. These plants are at least 70 years old and have been frequently reinvigorated by being cut to the ground every 15 to 20 years or so.
1989 – FJW
The garden is suffering from drought as badly as I have seen it. It is becoming very serious. Rhodo’s worst off.
1918 – JCW
Buddleias fair, Romneyas too. also R ungernii. Daff moving in arrears from want of labour and too much rain. Plagianthus are just over.
1916 – JCW
Buddleias goodish. Romneya at its best. Plagianthus at its best. R ungernii fair. Daffs big and small are about sorted out.
1914 – JCW
Buddleias going over.
1898 – JCW
There have been a few lapagerias opening.