Podocarpus ‘Chameleon’ which was bred by Paul’s grandfather.

Saw the first flowers today high up on Camellia x williamsii ‘St Ewe’ but too high up to photograph. Also flowers on one of FJW’s hybrids (unnamed) above Crinodendron Hedge.

2025 – CHW

Another trip to the Old Kitchen Garden to view the Malus fruits.

Malus ‘Indian Magic’.

Secondary flowers and still a few fruits on Malus ‘Dr Campbells’.

Malus ‘Butterball’.

Malus ‘Braendkjaer’.

Malus ‘Wedding Bouquet’.

Malus ‘Comtesse de Paris’.

Malus ‘Professor Sprenger’.

Malus ‘Marble’.

Malus hupehensis ‘Arie Mauritz’.

Malus ‘Neville Copeman’.

Malus ‘Donald Wyman’.

Malus ‘Rudolph’.

Malus x purpurea ‘Crimson Cascade’.

Malus ‘Sun Royal’.

2024 – CHW
Camptotheca acuminata with vigorous secondary new growth.

I had hoped to move this young Juglans major to somewhere where there is more room for it to develop properly. Looking at it today I fear that it is already too big?

Where the deer can attack Stachyurus macrocarpus they have devoured it, when it has grown outside the wire netting surround. Where growth is tall enough to be beyond the reach of deer it is a different story as you can see. Why is it that deer find Stachyurus of all species so attractive?

A fine yellow show on Acer rufinerve ‘Erythrocladum’.

The huge fruits on Crataegus mexicana f. stipulacea are now ripe.

The bark on Debregeasia longifolia (BSWJ 11686) has nodules which almost (but not quite) turn into prickles. An extraordinary genus in every respect – bark, leaf, flower and habit. I saw a huge clump at Castlewellan and a smaller growing form at Tregrehan. We plan to plant it against a hot wall (as at Tregrehan) above the old dog kennels.

A nursery customer sent us this splendid picture of Vitex agnus-castus in his garden. Ours here is hardly out in flower as yet.

2023 – CHW
Yet another Carpinus with a name implying good autumn colour which is most disappointing (as yet) here. Carpinus caroliniana ‘Red Fall’.

Now a puzzle! This is Cladrastis sinensis which is listed in Hilliers but the IDS website reports a recent name change to Cladrastis delavayi. This is the Chinese species which is said to be a far more reliable flowerer in the UK than Cladrastis kentukea. A record tree used to (and may still) exist at Cotehele in Cornwall. Looking at the pictures on the IDS website I would say this plant is correctly named even if the leaves look very like Pterocarya on first sight.

Crataegus aprica berries just ripening.

Quercus liabmanii (Tom Hudson gift) suffered in the drought but is recovering.

Crataegus ashei with now ripe fruits.

Good autumn colour on Euonymus monbeigii.

Crataegus heldreichii also ripe.

Crataegus pontica fruits have developed into something interesting.

Suddenly a batch of exceptionally coloured secondary flowers on Magnolia liliiflora ‘Nigra’.

2021 – CHW

From the Werrington archives appears a May 1885 plan of the Caerhays cellar and an inventory of what was in it then.

Before getting excited about undrunk bottles which might remain it has to be remembered that my two great aunts, who were teetotalers, had the entire contents poured away down the cellar drains (clearly marked on the plan) early on in WWII prior to the arrival of the East End evacuees to Caerhays. It is said that the fumes may have got the great aunts pissed for the first time in their lives. George Blandford remembers a horse and cart taking the empty bottles to dump them in a small quarry along the path to East Portholland.