2019 – CHW
Cyclamen coum, coloured primroses and wild primulas on the top bank. Elsewhere bluebells. A veritable carpet of flowers.


Another filthy wet day to cap off a depressing Easter weekend from a business point of view. The water meadows are flooded to record levels overnight. A nursery day to try to cheer everyone up after such a poor visitor weekend. The plants are all still in full dormancy with little sign of new growth yet. We have been lucky that the mail order held up so well (only £30k down on the previous March) – garden centre trading disastrous all over the country.
Magnolia campbellii ‘Alba’ now full out. Hard to photograph against a grey sky.
2017 – CHW
A still and sunny day. The garden a torrent of scents and colour.
Rhododendron soilenhense is now at its absolute best.



2016 – CHW
An early morning tour of the garden with Ian Baldick and Raf (the young Dutch nurseryman who will be propagating and selling Ian’s new magnolia hybrids). Here they are with the huge flowers on the Magnolia campbellii Alba seedling on the main ride.

2015 – CHW
Tedious six hours in the car with usual roadworks at Birmingham. Big meeting to debate how to ping our broadband from Four Lanes (15 miles) to the estate as BT still will not install fibre optic cable to us. So speeds of 1 to 4 mbs for us for the foreseeable future or a big capital investment.
1995 – FJW
Richard John helped with his first garden tour. (Savill Gardens).
1961 – FJW
2400 came around on the Open Day. Garden looking very good.
1933 – JCW
A lot of flowers of sorts. The Camellias are the best thing now though the best cherries won’t be long.
1932 – JCW
Camellia speciosa recovered the frost and flowered well after it.
1929 – JCW
Wilson’s Magnolia is very fine and as good as the best Campbellii. Kobus, the early one, may have a 1000 blooms open with 500 to come. Barbatums remain good now and have been out for over a month.
1927 – JCW
The Wilson Magnolia denudata is open. Daffs seem to have passed 1924.
1925 – JCW
Just as in 1924 only the double sloe has less flower. Blood red Auklandii very fair and the whites starting. The Melianthera is the best thing at the place.
1924 – JCW
The double sloe is the best Prunus open. P pilosiuscula will run it close in a year or two, and Subhirtella ascendens is good in the Beech Walk. The daffodils are within a day or two of reaching their best.
1911 – JCW
Sir G Loder made the big insignis 105 ft.
1910 – JCW
C reticulata has begun to wane. Nar M de Graaf just opening much as in 1907. No cherries but pendula out.
1907 – JCW
Nice rain after a long period of bright sun and frosts. The first M de Graaf opening. Poets just coming through the spathe, several (nearly all) Weardales open, more than half the [?] things open.
1903 – JCW
Not quite so far on as in 1897 but nearly so.
1902 – JCW
The boys saw the first swallow. Blackthorn is good in most places.
1897 – JCW
Dorothy, H Irving’s, Flora Wilson, Beatrice Heseltine, P grandiflora all out. Cherries at their best, also the tulips in the grap.
Could you tell me more about Magnolia Tinkerbelle. I am going to be acquiring one for my garden from the UBC Botanical gardens in Vancouver Canada through the . Unfortunately I have not been able to find information online about this plant, except pictures on your website
Dear Ms Bert
It is a hybrid between M. soulangeana ‘Sweet Simplicity’ and the New Zealand bred M. ‘Cameo’.
The New Zealand breeder of M. ‘Cameo’ was Vance Hooper.
Best wishes
Charles Williams