So big news today.

Rhododendrum ponticum is back in the media and back in the frame.

Not only is this exotic shrub bad news in the short term for its knack of muscling in on other woodland flora but also bad in the long term with its existential threat to the micro-biome. Not everybody would agree with this view, but Victorian industrialists who wanted quick results in prettying up their newly acquired baronial demesnes probably didn’t foresee the long term consequences of introducing it.

But if you really want to know, ask Stuart Holtam, Headmaster and Warden of Farchynys. Or read all about his personal War against the Rhodies in Marians on the Mawddach:

“Bleary eyed, we returned to Hades and the fires of Hell  – We came, we sawed, we got tired.”