Magnolia ‘Sybille’ just coming into flower in Penvergate. This was named at Arboretum Wespelaar.

Magnolia ‘Scented Gem’ also in Penvergate (bought from Kevin Huges Plants). I am not sure that there is much difference between ‘Rebecca’s Perfume’, ‘Shirley’s Perfume’ and this in terms of flower (as opposed to scent). None are that special as flowers.

The grab and saw machine has cleared all the sycamore off the bank below the Rookery giving us a much better view of the sea from the ground floor. Must be 10 or more years since this was last done.

Cutting back the laurel at Penvergate now completed and looking good. A huge labour saving using the machine.

The machine is now dealing with a fallen fir tree by the old boathouse.

Magnolia ‘Atlas’ just out.

Magnolia kobus ‘Octopus’.

2024 – CHW
Here are some pictures of the 40th Anniversary party at Burncoose.

Cutting the ribbon exactly as we did 40 years ago.

A garden tour for some. Others went around the propagation area.

Alison sits on one end of a bench which tips up as we had 40 years ago. I am told that someone took a DVD video of the event and that we now have a disk to convert so we can see what went on then.

2023 – CHW
Magnolia soulangeana ‘Brozzoni’.

Magnolia sprengeri var sprengeri from Westphaler. Stunning colours.

Magnolia ‘Petit Chicon’; the first yellow to show.

Catkins all over Carpinus japonica. The best flowering of the species so far.

Magnolia ‘Anne Leitner’.

Magnolia ‘Vulcans Forge’ flowering for the first time.

Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’ x M. ‘Darjeeling’.

Magnolia ‘Felix Jury’.

Magnolia ‘Shiraz’ and Camellia japonica ‘Adolphe Audusson’.

Magnolias as a castle backdrop.

2022 – CHW

Near record numbers of garden visitors in the sun today.

Luc De Jonge sends me pictures of his Magnolia campbellii ‘John Gallagher’ which has flowered in Belgium for the first time after 15 years. It does not seem to have been formally registered but is very fine. John did register many of his crosses but I wonder why not this one?
Jim Gardiner subsequently tells me it was a wild collected seedling gifted to John.

Primroses at their best on the bank outside the front door. Nothing annoys me more than garden visitors who mumble ‘loved the primroses’ as they depart when the magnolias are at their best. They seldom look up as my father always said.

Scilla peruviana just out by the front door. Not flowering well this year.

A solitary primrose growing in the partly rotten trunk of Magnolia x soulangeana ‘Brozzoni’. About 2ft above ground level.

First flowers on Rhododendron ‘Cornish Red’ high up.

And on the best Rhododendron macabeanum – again rather early.

Magnolia nitida in flower in front of the original Magnolia ‘Caerhays Surprise’.

The Magnolia mollicomata in the Ririei Opening slightly wind scuffed by the recent east winds.

Magnolia ‘Purple Splendour’ and Michelia doltsopa look good together in the distance.

2021 – CHW
The magnolias on the drive up from the Hovel are always a week or so later than the rest of the garden so a trip to see them today. By no means all out as yet.Camellia x williamsii ‘Water Lily’ has an upright and tall growing habit. Some years it is a sparse flowerer but not this. A Felix Jury, New Zealand, bred hybrid from 1967.

I took this picture of the first leaf on a sycamore on 21st March. I always try to record the first sycamore in leaf. Usually, it is above the big quarry but this year just below the Fernery on the drive.

Magnolia ‘Caerhays Splendour’ on the drive is an excellent colour this year. This plant (from the same seedpod) is not as good, nor does it have as large sized flowers, as its sister which is the best ‘Caerhays Splendour’ by the veitchiis.

This peculiar and sadly unnamed deciduous azalea is out again two to three months before all the others. I saw the Burncoose plant also in flower last week.

This is the magnolia hybrid on the drive which is nearly good enough to name and register. I have missed the best of it this year.

Jaimie and Michael are magnolia hybridising today. They picked a number of flowers in tight bud last week (pollen parents) and kept them indoors to open so that nothing can get to their pollen before it goes onto another chosen magnolia (the seed parent) for the selected crosses. A vintage year to be doing this.

The Magnolia denudata on the drive which was smashed by a tree is now making a good show again.

I have never seen Parrotia subaequalis properly in flower like this. A plant we failed to get established several times over the years but now well away on Burns Bank.