Beside it is the only surviving plant (of 3) of Hydrangea ‘Runaway Bride’ looking justified in its former Plant of the Year award.

The very red and late flowering Azalea ‘Jane Fire’.

Grass cutting well underway below White Styles.

A splendid young Rhododendron decorum below the track below White Styles Field.

Below the former gardens of White Styles Cottages are large clumps of Philadelphus ‘Beauclerk’. 3 or 5 flowers in each raceme and about 10 feet tall in full shade.

Populus wilsonii ex Gaoligongshan was only planted last autumn. Distinctive leaves and leaf petioles.

Quercus farokoensis (G1691) from Thomas Methuan-Campbell has most attractive new growth which I had not appreciated before.

With two rotary machines (one brand new) and two strimmers the bank at Old Park is soon being cut down.

The Aesculus wilsonii clump at the entrance to Old Park are particularly floriferous this year.

Deutzia pulchra (FIFL 26) just out in flower. A gift from Roy Lancaster.

Buddleja nivea yunnanensis with its enormous leaves below the Fernery.

Deutzia ningpoensis also below the Fernery at its very best.

2023 – CHW
Merrilliopanax alpinus (BSWJ 13939) with its first ever flowers by Rookery Nursery.

Magnolia wilsonii (DJHC 98369) with several flowers. A bit later than M. sieboldii and M. sieboldii sinensis but earlier than M. globosa.

Laurel cutting on the drive making progress.

Still 9 cygnets alive (out of 10) which is remarkable.

The white wisteria growing up a yew tree in the Rookery putting on a good show. At least 100 years old!

2022 – CHW

Rain not far away but humid and fine.

In the Rockery we have now proved how well a Podocarpus ‘County Park Fire’ has responded to a harsh pruning to get it away from the Rhododendron sanguineum subsp. didymium and Rhododendron russatum.

Also in the Rockery I am not sure if this is a late flowering form of Rhododendron yunnanense (more likely) or a late form or Rhododendron davidsonianum. Note the colour variation in the flowers. Both may be wrong and it may be a separate species in its own right?

The Pentapterigium serpens planted in the Rockery two years ago has two flowers.

Cornus kousa ‘Wolf Eyes’ flowering away outside the front gate. The root stock with green leaves has overtaken the small amount of variegated foliage still left but it is none the worse for that.

The fabulous Cornus kousa ‘Satomi’ below Slip Rail. The largest of our three plants.

Crataegus columbiana planted in March with its first rather unexceptional flowers.

Deutzia monobeigii in Tin Garden. Smallish but pretty. A Forrest introduction.

Magnolia globosa still flowering away.

Styrax hemsleyanus nearly out and flowering much more profusely with pendulous racemes of flowers than in the two previous years. Most of the other styrax species seem to be having a year off (especially S. formosanus forms) after the excesses of last year.

2021 – CHW
A wonderful five and a half hours in the garden with Sue and Bleddyn Wynn-Jones from Crûg Farm Nursery. The leading plant hunters and collectors of the current generation. An opportunity to view and discuss what has grown well and badly here from their collections, whether we have been growing certain genuses in the wrong places, and how / where / at what altitude they grow in the wild. We have been making mistakes but we have also been getting some things very right. Aralia vietnamensis was performing better than Bleddyn had ever seen elsewhere but I explained that other aralias has not done well. Schefflera in more shade and, more importantly, in more wind exposure.A youngish Euonymus tingens nicely in flower.

First flower out on Magnolia dealbata.

Rhododendron stamineum in the main quarry.

Carpinus japonica now covered in flower cones.

2020 – CHW
Still no rain! A dead hydrangea species in the drought just outside the Rockery.

Cornus kousa ‘Wolf Eyes’ where the graft has swamped the Wolf Eyes!

Assorted colours of Azalea indica outside the Rockery which Jack has been removing brambles and ivy from.

Rhododendron aperantum looking better than it has for a bit in the Rockery.

Rhododendron radicans which I am delighted to find still alive and flowering. An easy one for Asia to propagate soon now.

Jack has cleaned, tidied, weeded and grubbed out the Rockery better than it has been for years. An excellent job on brambles and ivy here too which has created a few planting places.

The haircut given to Podocarpus ‘County Park Fire’ last year has produced regrowth which I did not expect.

Rhododendron tashiroi (perhaps?) – conceivably Rhododendron wadanum? But this is a 100 year old plant which has been cut down a few times.

Seed forming on Vaccinum urceolatum.

The lower side of the Rockery all tidy too with the seedling myrtles all removed.

2019 – CHW

Pictures from the show yesterday. We did not go today. Shockingly wet day.

Justin manning the Burncoose stand at the Royal Cornwall Show. A very good effort by the team.

Azalea viscosum on the stand. Some forms are pinker than this.

Eremurus x isabellinus ‘Cleopatra’ just coming out. We needed website photos.

Eremurus ‘White Beauty Favourite’

Wisteria floribunda ‘Alba’. Flowering with the leaves.

Gillenia trifoliata in full flower. New to the Burncoose catalogue this year.

Rosa ‘Blue for You’ on the Cornish Rose Company stand.

A nice memorial for Albert Riddle outside the members’ pavilion. Albert would have approved of the developing piss up in the CLA tent which we escaped from with some relief after nine bottles (five then still more unopened).

2018 – CHW
A tour for a group who had bought it at a charity auction. Not exactly knowledgeable gardeners but good fun and interesting. We smelt five different magnolias all with totally different scents before a good lunch!A rather stunted and ‘Beast’ damaged Echium pininana with a few flowers which are more pink than blue so nearly over. The bees are busy enjoying the flower spike.

Stewartia pseudocamellia just coming out into flower. Many more flowers than last year when it was sparse.

A young Magnolia ‘Summer Solstice’ now finally out and smelling delicious. Only its second year of flowering. The flowers here are much larger than on the 25 year old original tree.

Magnolia ‘Southern Belle’ smelling disgusting (as it was last week)!

Magnolia obovata ‘Pink Flush’ smelling about ok with a hint of lemon!

More magnolias to photograph soon – Magnolia grandiflora, Magnolia x wiesneri, Magnolia globosa and Magnolia ‘Porcelain Dove’.

2017 – CHW
Time to take in the damage done by the southerly 50-60mph winds on Monday afternoon. Leaf litter everywhere. Trees blocked the roads at Tubbs Mill and Treluckey Mill. Fortunately no trees down in the garden but several young magnolias blown over in Kennel Close, two snapped off at the roots and many losing branches or their leaders. Who would have expected wind like this in June? More like November.A new tilia species smashed asunder in Kennel Close. Planted in 2011.

Ehretia anacua with snapped and broken branches below Slip Rail.

The echiums took a hammering too.

The broken magnolias had been removed or re-staked before I got to photograph them.
There is always something in bloody gardening is there not!So let us cheer up with more progress with the laurel clearing to reveal a very spindly Rhododendron sinogrande which has been largely killed by overhanging laurel.

Beside it a Persea japonica can now grow on properly too.

A patch of white campion beside Georges Hut.

Opposite this are two very late flowering white azaleas. These were propagated from an ancient plant on Rookery Path and planted here in 2002. Slow growers!

Magnolia sieboldii sinensis x Magnolia virginiana is finally out. The flowers last only a day or two especially in a gale.

A tail end flower on a small plant of Michelia foggii ‘Jack Fogg’.

The first flowers on Rhododendron ‘Pink Polar Bear’ just emerging.

First flowers just out too on Styrax japonicus ‘Pendula’.