Dr Owen Johnson has been updating the tree measurements in the garden over the past few days. He is recording data from all the potential champion trees for the Tree Register of the British Isles; TROBI. This involves taking height and girth measurements for 100’s of different specimens in the garden, from 2m in height to over 45m. The TROBI website is online and I encourage everyone to join this charity which allows access to the database of all trees of exceptional size in the UK. He is spending a couple of weeks in Cornwall updating many of the region’s tender and rarer trees.

While measuring this oak tree from Yunnan Province China on Monday in rather damp conditions, we suddenly realised that we had been photo bombed by a stick insect. There are no native sticks in the UK but in warmer sheltered areas of Cornwall there are populations which have built up over the past 100 years or so. There is a hedge in Par which is stacked full of New Zealand insects so the locals say. Their legs are very delicate and they should be left alone if encountered. This stick on the label was still hanging in there a few days after we first saw it…..