Completion of the storm damage clearance at the top of Bond Steet and a huge area to replant.

Hydrangea paniculata ‘Vanille Fraise’ has quickly turned pink.

Hydrangeas desperate for water.

A 10 year old Rhododendron pseudochrysanthum produced wonderful new growth but has not died in the drought.

Magnolia ‘Caerhays Surprise’ with secondary flowers.

The bank has just been cut.

I have seen the lawn looking worse than this.

The Cedrus libani had a lower branch snapped in the wind so now an uplift.

The last of the Rhododendron didymum dead in the Rockery.

2025 – CHW

A second visit to Thompson’s Garden Centre.

Acer negundo covered in seed in the car park.

Cryptomeria japonica ‘Tilford Gold’ not one stocked by Burncoose – a rockery plant.

Rudbeckia ‘Goldblitz’ which is not that different from the ever popular ‘Goldsturm’.

Betula pendula ‘Youngii’ with rather late catkins.

Malus ‘Royal Beauty’ fruiting well already.

Ajuga ‘Black Scallop’ unexpectedly in flower and looking very fine.

2024 – CHW
More from Ventnor.Arbutus xalapensis with its unbelievable bark.

This large growing Fuchsia had an extraordinary and very pleasant smell. Not sure of the name but it might be F. perscandens?

Magnolia grandiflora ‘Charles Dickens’.

Hypericum canariense nearly over.

A specialist tree surgeon had operated on all the Phoenix canariensis to tidily remove all the old leaves and expose more of the interesting trunks. A major improvement all over the garden.

Celtis caucasica – Caucasian Nettle Tree – had not, I think, been spotted before on my annual visits to Ventnor?

The Olive grove has been tidied up and all the Echium, bindweed and thistles removed. Not before time!

We are trying to grow Brahea armata – Mexican Blue Palm – in Kennel Close and above the greenhouse. So far they are doing well but not as well as these.

Hoheria angustifolia just out as it usually has been here in mid-July.

A new creation which I assume commemorates the Coronation. Trachelospermum at the end of an avenue of white agapanthus backed by a Griselinia hedge. The Griselinia will need a fair amount of clipping very soon.

Strelitzia reginae in full flowers outside!

Ventnor Botanics now have a garden design and planting service with a lorry and 3 vans. Good for them but where do they buy their plants from as they grow nothing? Perhaps the large Burncoose order was for a client?

2023 – CHW
Hoheria sexstylosa ‘Stardust’ has been slow to come fully out into flower in Kennel Close.

Hoheria ‘Glory of Amlwch’ (H. glabrata x H. sexstylosa) is not really that different in habit or flower but it is now more or less over.

This year we have happened upon Maackia hupehensis while the flowers are still full out. For the last couple of years they have been nearly over. It’s the outstanding blue new growth shoots rather than the flowers which clearly distinguish this Maackia hupehensis from Maackia amurensis which grows at the top of the garden. The plant has been grown in too much shad and has, at some point years ago, flopped over on its side so it is now rather more of a shrub than a tree. Planted in 2000 and the spelling in the planting records for that year needs a little correction (Maackia chinensis ‘Hupense’).

An attractive compilation of Hydrangea aspera ‘Villosa Group’ and Buddleja lindleyana.

Buddleja lindleyana flowering exceptionally well this year after a haircut 2 or 3 years ago.

Rhododendron decorum ssp. diaprepes just coming out below Hovel Cart Road.

Cornus angustata ‘Empress of China’ flowering for the first time here although still in its deer shelter. Evergreen and vigorous.

Juglans major is really taking off.

2022 – CHW

A time of the year when deads show up – casualties of old age and drought or honey fungus.

The very rare Rhododendron monosematum with its very hairy stems (AC 5978) below the Engine House.

New growth on Persea thunbergii as good as ever. Delayed by the drought I guess.

I had forgotten the huge fir branch below Engine House that was a ‘hanger’ and dropped by tree surgeons.

Still a winter mess here to clear up but no new planting places. It has hurt Lord Falmouth’s Liquidamber a bit.

Another good clump of Rhododendron maddenii near The Pound.

Meliosma beaniana is on its last legs but not quite there yet.

Acer nickoense (now maximowiczianum) on its last legs too. Cut down this winter? Replacement well away on the drive.

Zanthoxylum nepalense var. oxyphyllum (HWJK 99) finally getting going after deer damage. The other 2 species planted here in 2014 in for too much shade have now died or been eaten.

Quercas suber blown over yet again. Wrong place for this too.

Quillaja saponaria getting going with deer damage to the trunk. The right shady place for this it seems.