Photinia integrifolia – the second year that I have seen it in flower.

Lithocarpus fenestratus (NJM 13074) planted in 2019 and doing well below the Podocarpus clump.

Rhododendron nuttallii as a clump of three. Two full out and one just starting. As the flowers drop so the superb new growth emerges.

2025 – CHW

Three adjacent gardens in a day on a whistlestop tour with Max Kendry before the cricket at Edgbaston. Bourton House Garden was described by Adam Frost in a BBC Gardeners World programme as “probably one of the BEST summer gardens I have ever seen”. I would certainly agree but why not educate with a bit of labelling?

The best hedge of Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ I have ever seen. Perfect today and well staked without a single blemish.

Galega x hartlandii ‘Alba’ a riot of colour in the white border. A new plant to me.

Cestrum elegans – the true form and not what we have sometimes seen under this name in the nursery. What grows on the top wall by the greenhouse at Caerhays must be a hybrid.

An odd way to train ivy but different.

The shade house with all sorts of things one would not expect to be growing in the Cotswolds.

A sad sight! Phyllostachys nigra in full flower and dying. This will soon, in a few years, be countrywide. Burncoose needs to stop stocking this to avoid complaints as our plants will also soon flower seed and die.

Views of the garden.

Second stop was Batsford Arboretum for a tour with Head Gardener, Matthew Hall. A joy to have Matthew show us a whole raft of new and very rare trees which I had never seen before. Only a few are shown here on what was a very extensive trip around all their huge new plantings. Many new things to try to obtain for Caerhays.

Hoheria ‘Ace of Spades’.

Celtis douglasii with fruits.

Cornus macrophylla has not yet flowered at Caerhays but here in its full glory.

Chrysolepis chrysophylla (Castanopsis) with flower and fruit. What is the correct name for this?

Carpinus coreana – the first of 4 species which are all still missing from the Caerhays collection.

Carpinus cordata.

Carpinus laxiflora var. macrostachya.

Carpinus caucasica.

Populus wilsonii

Rhamnus alnus.

We then visited the third also adjacent garden – Sezincote.

A most unusual house.

The Orangery is to the left.

Beautiful but no labels and not that much of real horticultural interest. Drought conditions! More a picnic area and wedding venue than a garden. The bizarre house is the real attraction.

2024 – CHW
Walnuts forming again this year on Juglans ailantifolia.

Trachelospermum asiaticum ‘Pink Showers’ nicely out at the sales point.

Maclura tricuspidata (BSWJ 12755) growing away well with its impressive barbs by the old dog kennels.

The felled oak tree only narrowly missed Magnolia ‘Leonora’.

The flowers finish and secondary new growth appears on Aesculus wilsonii.

Cotoneaster ‘Saint Andrew’s Blaze’ was planted in 2019 and is now a large shrub with rather odd pinkish flowers that don’t quite open.

Cotoneaster rhytidophyllus (Ogisu 95102) with its first flowers that I remember.

Cotoneaster hillieri already has ripening berries.

Cotoneaster parneyi (not to be confused with C. lacteus) – a gift from Fromefield in 2015 is also a very quick grower and now laden with flowers.

Cotoneaster glabratus looks a bit different in leaf and flower to the older plants on the drive. This one a Mark Bulk purchase.

Another Saturday and another wedding with a 3 part tent in Beach Meadow.

2023 – CHW

Decaisnea insignis is getting going in Tin Garden but no flowers yet.

Rosa ‘American Pillar’ covering the wall on the Tin Garden shed but the flowers have not opened properly in the drought.

Deer damage on Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’ nearby. Not a leaf left on the lower branches.

Cornus oblonga was a gift from David West of Fromefield. Doing well and very distinct.

More of the ripening seed pods on Cercis canadensis ‘Flame’.

Carpinus heterophylla ‘Quercifolia’ living up to its name.

Carrierea calycina, planted in 2014, has made enormous growth this year but the foliage remains different to our other 2 older plants. Longer, more pointed leaves which are darker in colour.

2022 – CHW

Quite a few shrubs flowering away in the nursery today.Blepharocalyx cruckshankii with its aromatic fluffy white flowers.

Chitalpa tashkentensis which is usually a shy flowered at a young age.

Indigofera howellii flowering earlier than usual this summer.

Holodiscus discolor can be an attractive small shrub when covered in flower.

Punica granatum ‘Flore Pleno’ also out in flower six to eight weeks earlier than usual.

Our new seed house is brimming with germination. Here a nice tray full of Taxodium distichum ‘Ascendens’.

Tail end flowers on Eucryphia glutinosa.

Well formed fruits on Passiflora ‘Snow Queen’.

2021 – CHW
The customary pilgrimage to Will Caws’ secret 40 acres of chalk downland at the base of a steep valley where normally there are several species of orchid as I have seen over the years.Due to 300 sheep grazing and a very dry spring we failed to find a single bee orchid this year and the pyramid orchids were few and far between. Nibbled or trampled by sheep as they must have been for centuries on this sort of farmland.

The views were spectacular but many of the surrounding ash trees already dead or dying. Two years from my last visit to the Isle of Wight the problem is many times worse especially in small young roadside trees.

A wild spreading mallow near the field entrance.

I wish I had brought the Cornish wildflower book for Will.