Agapanthus full out now and no sign of disease in the flowers.

Seeds forming on Camellia saluenensis.

Juicy fruits on Rubus tricolor which we used to eat as children with cornflakes.

Cornus drummondii ‘Sunshiny Drops’ is making a big plant and well worth its place in July.

Picrasma quassioides with seed forming.

Hoheria populnea just out.

Stewartia serrata nearly over.

Styrax shiraianus with ripening seeds.

A young Lithocarpus pachyphyllus with seed clusters.

Meliosma oldhamii splendid in the sun.

2025 – CHW

Dierama pulcherrimum on the top wall.

Hydrangea aspera ‘Hot Chocolate’ has recovered from the drought years and is now flowering well.

Hydrangea involucrata (from Crug) below Burns Bank.

Rhododendron ‘Royal Flush’ – pink form.

Fruit flowering on Vaccinium corymbosum.

Salix fargesii has died not from drought but, I suspect, honey fungus.

The best blue mophead hydrangeas in the garden above the Aucklandii.

The ancient Hydrangea sargentiana with the characteristic fleshy hairs (trichomes) on all its stems. Flowers just coming.

2024 – CHW
Tail end flowers on Styrax americanus.

The Catalpa duclouxii stump has one new shoot.

Magnolia macrophylla var. ashei – a young plant with its first flower and quite a find today.
Kennel Close has now had its first cut and very thick it was too.

Still plenty of flowers on Magnolia globosa weeks after we saw the first ones.

Magnolia sapaensis has grown into a small tree in only 7 years and now around 30 flowers.

Magnolia tamaulipana just out but with plenty more buds to come.

I have almost missed the youngest flowering Magnolai insignis. Far fewer flowers this year than last.

Rhododendron sp. fortunea subsection (CW & T6282) is nice enough.

2023 – CHW
Aesculus x woerlitzensis with attractive tints on its lower leaves in early July!

Hoheria ‘Glory of Amlwch’ just coming into flower.

A huge seed head forming on Magnolia ‘Princess Margaret’.

Carpinus caroliniana with its first terminal clusters of seed heads.

2021 – CHW
I should not really have bothered to visit the sauna that was Butterfly World with its associated garden centre. A quick glance at the size of the brambles in the hedges around the car park should have been enough!

Again I was asked if I was an OAP. I assume the ticket lady was trying to give the business money away rather than being rude. Anyway the adult price was £8.49 which was approximately a pound a minute. Not many butterflies and the Japanese section laughable. Only one other visitor in the sauna seriously photographing elusive butterflies.

The garden centre deserted except for a very large man removing the many weeds in the brick paving with a pressure water jet. Not ideal as he was discovering. Quite the worst display of plants I have seen for ages. Some may have been survivors of my last visit here three or four years ago. Hanging onto life – just. The bedding was tired, rotting and underwatered. The spring cabbage and veg seedlings had run up into flower as had the tomatoes in 9cm pots at 15-18”. Still on display though!

A few (unknown) butterflies – some feeding on sliced oranges.

Perfectly horrid but no idea what it is?

Out of the butterfly sauna to this! Relevance unclear? No butterflies but a few nasty insects in heated hutches.

Koi carp away from the herons under cover. These live for 30 years so the blurb said. Far too many in a tiny pool.