2025 – CHW
Rhododendron ‘Pink Polar Bear’ just out.
First flower this year on Magnolia sapaensis.
Magnolia (Manglietia) insignis was not out last weekend. Easily our best form of M. insignis.
I do not know the name of this very late flowering rhodo. species.
Cotoneaster ‘Exburiensis’ just coming out.
Philadelphus pekinensis has become a huge shrub in only 6 years. Not terribly floriferous. Now I see renamed as Philadelphus pekinensis var. brachybotrys. I rather prefer pekinensis as a name!
Viburnum parvifolium scenting the path with a very strong viburnum scent.
Cornus walteri just coming out – Champion tree.
2024 – CHW
A Nakahari azalea with more flower than usual towards the Top Lodge.
A Nakahari azalea with more flower than usual towards the Top Lodge.
Four different colours in this clump of Azalea indicum which is making a decent impact in mid-June.
Then for a full review of the Styrax as this is perhaps the best week to see them all in flower. However, as I had realised some while ago, this year most of the Styrax species are having a year off flowering. They overdid it for the last two years and produced oceans of seed. Did they overdo it or was it the drought that has held them back? Perhaps they disliked the mild wet winter? I do not remember a year when they have flowered so sparsely.
I was pushed to find any flowers at all on Styrax wuyuanensis.
Styrax faberi was not out yet but it isn’t going to be much of a show.
Styrax hemsleyanus lost a lot of leaf prematurely in the drought and looked sick. It was late into leaf and I had feared that we might lost it but here we are restored to full health. Not that much flower but I have never sen this species overloaded.
Styrax japonicus ‘Fargesii’ had only this one small group of flowers. Last year it was plastered.
Styrax formosanus was already over with very few fallen flowers on the ground and Styrax formosanus var. hayatianus was not worth photographing (although the small tree in Kennel Close was better as we saw earlier).
Styrax serrulatus was not out yet but, again, hardly any flowers. Styrax tonkinensis is not yet of flowering size despite being 12-15 feet tall.
First flowers on the pink form of Rhododendron ‘Polar Bear’. How much better this clump looks than it did a year ago.
Philadelphus pekinensis gets better each year. These 3 bushes are only 7 years old.
2023 – CHW
No rain at all for 5 ½ weeks. Grass cutting has begun this week and the first rhododendron drought casualty is quickly obvious.
Cornus walteri just out in flower.
Styrax japonicus ‘Pink Chimes’ suddenly full out. Last Sunday it was just bud.
Only 2 flowers on Meliosma oldhamii despite last years heat but attractive secondary new growth as well.
Rhododendron maddenii has wilted in the heat before it even came out properly.
Rhododendron sanguineum by George’s Hut.
2022 – CHW
A morning with Cressy and Asia identifying and locating key plants to propagate. We are two to three weeks away from starting rhododendron cuttings and there was quite a list of stock plants to find on their lists.
The ewes have gone to the farm for shearing and the lambs are looking bothered in their absence.
Euonymus morrisonensis in full flower. Starting to become a large spreading shrub.
A newly planted Viburnum wrightii in flower.
Rhododendron ‘Royal Finis Pink’ – 2017 planted.
Lots of clumps of youngish Rhododendron decorum now going over.
Hydrangea ‘Fireworks’ just out at Georges Hut.
Rhododendron stamineum nearly over by Georges Hut. The older plants in the Main Quarry in full sun were over a fortnight ago.
Rhododendron ‘Pink Polar Bear’ just out.
About eight buds on Manglietia/Magnolia sapaensis. This one nearly out and well ahead of the others. One seedpod last year but Asia not yet sure if anything has germinated.
2021 – CHW
The G7 leaders leave St Ives this evening. The owner of the Carbis Bay Hotel, for whom our landscape team have been working since mid-January, promises a picture of Boris and Biden on our hastily laid new lawn or amid our landscaping works. We will see if this materialises. The sight on TV of Boris swimming in the bay by the hotel was a bit ‘Mr Blobby’ and really was not suitable for the 2022 Burncoose catalogue which I have been proofing for the last four days!Cornus kousa chinensis ‘Wisley Queen’ with flower bracts still creamy in the shade and now with red spots in full sun.
The G7 leaders leave St Ives this evening. The owner of the Carbis Bay Hotel, for whom our landscape team have been working since mid-January, promises a picture of Boris and Biden on our hastily laid new lawn or amid our landscaping works. We will see if this materialises. The sight on TV of Boris swimming in the bay by the hotel was a bit ‘Mr Blobby’ and really was not suitable for the 2022 Burncoose catalogue which I have been proofing for the last four days!Cornus kousa chinensis ‘Wisley Queen’ with flower bracts still creamy in the shade and now with red spots in full sun.
Beautiful foliage on Fagus sylvatica ‘Aurea Pendula’.
Hydrangea sargentiana ‘Goldrush’ now with flower buds appearing and the inevitable slug damage sargentiana always suffers.
Hydrangea robusta ‘Titania’ from Vietnam also only planted last autumn. Attractive foliage.
The Parastyrax species nova collected by Crûg Farm continues to grow very quickly. Now in its third year.
The new growth is rather late on Corylopsis ‘Spring Purple’ but none the worse for that!
A decent sized Magnolia wilsonii has failed to leaf up and died. I fear caught by the cold in February with the sap rising as have a few other things – most notably the Magnolia dawsoniana outside the front gates which I see is struggling out some new shoots with dieback from the tips of the branches.
Styrax japonicus ‘Pendulus’ just coming out.
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June ’20: Catalpa Duclouxii Group is now designated Catalpa fargesii, f. ducloucii, see IDS online; one tree, slow growing and smalish, present in Strasbourg BG; typical the flower-colour. To Catalpa bungei ‘Trees and s….’ says flowers are small, examples rare.
Idesia polycarpa is normally dioecious and one sees rarely the small, bright-red fruits in Europe. The flowering is quite late, (beginning May here), but fruits can form) I wonder wether there is really a yellow-flowering Magnolia campbelii form, didn’t know. Aesculus indica, the Indian horse-chestnut, forms a tree about 7m tall or more, is too rarely seen but quite nice, does well here.