2024 – CHW
A list of new things for the garden have arrived from Burncoose. Mainly from Mark Bulk and plenty of very rare new things. All need growing on before being large enough to plant out.
– Campylotropis macrocarpa x 3
– Citronella gongonha
– Clematoclethra scandens subsp. actinidioides x 6
– Corynocarpus laevigatus
– Debregeasia edulis Elite
– Hoheria glabrata x 3
– Malus fusca
– Morella pensylvanica
– Myrceugenia leptospermoides
– Myricaria germanica
– Olearia lacunose
– Olearia odorata
– Populus koreana
I am particularly pleased to have some Clematoclethra which got a good write up in the Plantsman (when it was still allowed to be called this) which is a quarterly RHS magazine. These are twining climbers related to Actinidia. Two species were discovered by Ernest Wilson in 1908.
Magnolia ‘Lanarth Surprise’ looking very good on Rookery path. The nursery has good plants of this for sale.
The view from below M. ‘Lanarth Surprise’ across and over the Aucklandii Garden.
Finally dry enough to place out the large rhododendrons from 2 nursery beds into the large area cleared of camellia foliage plants last summer. The largest rhododendron planting undertaken at Caerhays for some decades. Some root balls too heavy for one person to lift so old sheets were used to avoid damaging the huge root balls during the move.
Magnolia (Michelia) doltsopa ‘White Phantom’ was named and registered last year.
Another Magnolia mollicomata ‘Burncoose Tennis Court’ in the Rockery.
Rhaphithamnus spinosus just coming out. The flowers will get much larger and a deeper blue.
The original Magnolia ‘Kew’s Surprise’ in the Rookery is a very good colour this year.
Another view from the Rookery – magnolias in the mist!
This Laureliopsis philippiana came as a seedling from under the huge three at Kilmacurragh. It was planted in the wrong place and moved to the new rhododendron area last autumn.
Lindera umbellata already in full leaf. If it did flower I didn’t catch it.
Lindera sericea in full flower and absolutely covered. Quite a spectacle today.
A group of 2013 planted Rhododendron sutchuenense. Amazing colour changes as the buds open fully.
Quercus chapensis has severe die back after only a mild winter. This was a seedling from a 2015 IDS conference in Korea. I doubt this species is viable here even in extreme shelter as here. I have cut away all last year’s new growth.
Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’ x M. ‘Pickard’s Ruby’ in Area 26 is improving with age.
Magnolia ‘Spring Rite’ just opening.
Magnolia ‘Summer Rose’ with its first flower – 2023 planted and yet another new name to us.
Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’ x M. campbellii ‘Darjeeling’ is excellent.
Rhododendron veitchianum Cubittii Group is the first of the scented ones to show. Far too early!
Camellia x williamsii ‘Jovey Carlyon’ sporting pink flowers at Donkey Shoe.
2023 – CHW
Mahonia leschenaultii flowering here for the first time.
Mahonia leschenaultii flowering here for the first time.
Acer negundo ‘Violaceum’ with its remarkable flower tassels.
Magnolia campbellii still looking good despite the overnight wind.
Magnolia campbellii ‘Darjeeling’ and a young Magnolia ‘Caerhays Belle’.
The view through the arch with Magnolia ‘Caerhays Belle’ nearly at its absolute best.
Rhododendron arboreum subsp. cinnamomeum.
Camellia cuspidata now full out.
Another young Polyspora suddenly in flower at the top of the bush.
Magnolia campbellii and Magnolia ‘Mr. Julian’ (just out) from above on Rookery Path.
Rhododendron ‘Ostara’ and Jaimie’s new magnolia hybrid.
The Magnolia campbellii ‘Alba’ seedling in the Aucklandii Garden suddenly full out on a drab day.
2022 – CHW
This is one of only two flower of Jaimie’s cross in Old Park which is (the huge flowered) Magnolia ‘Atlas’ x Magnolia ‘Lanarth’. The flowers last year were frosted so this is the second attempt at its first flowering. Clearly a huge ‘Atlas’ type and shaped flower with the ‘Lanarth’ colour and more than a hint of white on the inside of the tepals as you would expect from ‘Atlas’. Very good indeed and exactly what Jaimie would have hoped for and expected from such a hand pollenated cross.
So now four new magnolia crosses flowering for the first time this year. What a year! All too early to decide if they merit registration and naming but much to look forward to with more flowers to assess next spring. At this stage of assessment (mine!) three are definitely good enough and the fourth, so far, borderline.
I cannot believe that others have not crossed ‘Atlas’ and ‘Lanarth’ already but will need to research this. I see nothing in the Eisenhut book but now need to check Magnoliastore listings of Philippe de Spoelberch’s crosses. [These suggest that this cross is not yet on the market.]
Flowers aplenty in the nursery on Magnolia ‘Satisfaction’.
Magnolia ‘Sweet Merlot’ at three stages as the colour fades.
Pittosporum tobira ‘Nana’ and Pittosporum tobira ‘Variegata’ growing side by side.
The last two flowers on Magnolia ‘Delia Williams’ on the lawn high up in front of a yew tree.
An early flowering form of Rhododendron serpyllifolium in the Rookery. Our other plants have even smaller flowers and flower a month later so this may be a hybrid?
First flowers out on a Magnolia dawsoniana seedling outside the arch.
Rhododendron sulfureum full out.
2021 – CHW
Still fine and sunny as we enter the best week of the year for Caerhays magnolias. In lockdown there is time to appreciate them rather more than usual.
Magnolia ‘Kew Surprise’ in the Rookery from another angle.
Rhododendron platypodon in the nursery bed and shortly to be planted out. Two flower buds on the three plants.
Rhododendron strigillosum in a similar condition. Amazing bristles or hairs on the stems.
Camellia x williamsii ‘Burncoose Apple Blossom’ has a very compact habit. Bred at Burncoose by Arnold Dance about 40 years ago.
Magnolia ‘Mr Julian’ is suddenly out.
First colour on the Magnolia x veitchii in the sun high up.
Just a very few flowers this year (unlike last) on Magnolia ‘Caerhays Splendour’.
Camellia ‘Midnight Magic’ is as near black as you can get as it first comes out.
A dwarf rhododendron species in the Auklandii Garden just coming out. Rhododendron calostrotum?
Low down flowers out now on Magnolia ‘F J Williams’ all of a sudden.
Magnolia ‘Caerhays Belle’ with the belltower above the clock in the back yard and some other unfrosted lower branches. It was actually named after Belle Blandford who lived in the Stable Flat opposite the tree.
The first Spanish bluebell seen in flower this year.
Magnolia dawsoniana now just showing colour outside the front gates. A bit earlier than expected.
Karol did a couple of drone overflies today which are attached to the diary here. One shows Jaimie, Michael and I plotting out the next and final phase of this spring’s planting out which is the 100 or so large open ground grown rhododendrons from the Rookery Nursery beds.
2020 – CHW
Vaughan Gallavan from Sherwood Gardens sent us a picture of his new magnolia cross flowering properly for the first time. It is Magnolia ‘Betty Jessel’ x Magnolia ‘Darjeeling’ and, as yet, unnamed. A really good purplish-red as you can see here.
Vaughan Gallavan from Sherwood Gardens sent us a picture of his new magnolia cross flowering properly for the first time. It is Magnolia ‘Betty Jessel’ x Magnolia ‘Darjeeling’ and, as yet, unnamed. A really good purplish-red as you can see here.
A fine day and plenty of people over the age of 70 enjoying (we hope) a coronavirus free garden tour. Most other garden tour groups in buses are cancelling and we will all be home working soon as the country shuts down completely. Plenty of time for writing and thinking amid the gloom. The Cornwall Garden Society show at Wadebridge is the first flower show casualty but we expect to hear, any moment, that Chelsea is off too.
So time to look at a few of the secondary flush of younger flowering magnolias and try to concentrate on the ‘white’ ones.
Magnolia ‘Atlas’ has been battered in the hailstorms which is a pity. Normally it escapes as a later flowerer.
Camellia campetre ‘Alpen Glow’ is delicate and well named.
Magnolia ‘Angelica’ is delicate and has improved with age (Magnolia cylindrica ‘Pegasus’ x Magnolia x soulangeana ‘Sawada’s Pink’).
Magnolia sprengeri ‘Daisy Diva’ is one of Mike Robinson’s crosses named in 1999. Magnolia sprengeri ‘Diva’ x Magnolia x soulangeana ‘Lennei Alba’. I did not care for its first flowerings but this is better. The flowers would open flat if the wind had let them.
Magnolia ‘Spring Rite’ is nice enough but just a near white with a hint of pink really (Magnolia x soulangeana ‘Lennei Alba’ x Magnolia x veitchii).
Magnolia ‘Burgundy Star’ is however exceptional as we saw last year. Even better here as a red. Look at the colour of the bud! Another New Zealand bred winner which will go on to be very popular as a later flowerer.
This is Magnolia ‘Aphrodite’ which continues to impress (Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’ x Magnolia ‘Deep Purple Dream’). Sister seedling to ‘Antje Zandee’ presumably and not much different.
Magnolia ‘Vulcan’ x Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’ remains a small and rather odd flower on a young plant. I am not sure that it yet reflects its parentage.
Magnolia ‘Atlas’ x Magnolia ‘Vulcan’ is not as dark as one might have expected but still a huge flower.
Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’ x Magnolia liliiflora ‘Holland Red’ is showing promise but not old enough to stand out – perhaps? This has now been named ‘Olav Kalleberg’ as I discover in the new Eisenhut book.
Magnolia ‘Judy Carlson’ is nice but not exactly ‘different’. Cannot find the parentage.
Magnolia ‘Crystal Chalice’ – the same applies. This is Magnolia x soulangeana ‘Lennei’ x Magnolia sprengeri ‘Diva’.
Magnolia ‘Tina Durio’ is by far the best ‘white’ we have seen today (Magnolia x soulangeana ‘Lennei Alba’ x Magnolia x veitchii). Far better than ‘Spring Rite’ or any of the others in terms of flower size, growth habit and just one pure colour.
2019 – CHW
Another Magnolia stellata ‘Centennial’ which I missed the other day on the stellata hunt.
Another Magnolia stellata ‘Centennial’ which I missed the other day on the stellata hunt.
I thought the wind had blown the leaf open on this Fagus asplenifolia (as it had on an adjacent Aesculus hippocastanum) but when I look closely it is actually a massive inflorescence which I have not noticed before. Hope the tree is not about to die on us 40 or so years from planting. It was in fact a purchase from South Down Nurseries which I visited with Philip Tregunna for the first time in about 1980 well before the nursery moved to Burncoose a few years later.
Rather battered but a good show from Magnolia x proctoriana (Magnolia salicifolia x Magnolia stellata). The tree is 35-40ft tall although only 30 years old. Impossible to photograph the tree properly in poor light and rain. The magnolias on the drive are a week or 10 days behind the main garden as usual and very good despite all the strong winds.
I was rude about this Magnolia stellata ‘Jane Platt’ a few days ago. All is forgiven as the majority of the buds are now a good pink as they should be. It is indeed correctly named.
Carpinus japonica with a good show of catkins which I had not seen before.
Three new camellias to admire (and then propagate):-Camellia “Fire ‘n’ Ice”
Camellia ‘Free Spirit’
Camelia ‘Silver Ruffles’
And some newer magnolias:Magnolia ‘Sentinel’ – quite dull!
Magnolia ‘Millie Gaylon’ – the tree wants to bend and fall over
Magnolia ‘Burgundy Star’ – this really is good and one for the future as I thought last year
Magnolia ‘Cup Cake’ – first flower on this Gresham hybrid (Magnolia soulangeana ‘Lennei Alba’ x veitchii) which is another for the Gresham collection
Staphylea holocarpa ‘Rosea’ – plant above greenhouse.
Staphylea holocarpa ‘Rosea’ – plant above steps down to the greenhouse.
2018 – CHW
An RHS Lecture on camellias which was videoed live to Facebook and social media. The lecture should have been about magnolias but there we are! One attendee had a dog which farted loudly in what I don’t think was an appreciative fashion! It might have livened up a dull video?Rhododendron siderophyllum was well out by Slip Rail. Then to Tregrehan with our early gardening weekend guests. The usual new wonders to enjoy.
A frog sunning itself under a Lomatia bush.
Podocarpus totara is a 200 year old tree with an enormous trunk.
Litsea japonica with much larger leaves than ours.
Sarcococca wallichii with black fruits still.
Camellia ‘Spring Mist’ was delicate and pretty.
Sinopanax formosanus with peculiar leaves. A genus of one species.
A very early flowering Rhododendron sinogrande seedling with good yellow buds.
Camellia trichocarpa was scented and simply wonderful. We must get this.
Melliodendron xylocarpum was just out. No pink in the flowers yet. The best new plan introduction in the last 30 years I think and said so to Roy Lancaster.
Betula utilis with fine peeling black bark rather than the white on other forms.
Mangliatia decidua with no sign of flower buds.
Lonicera setifera was nearly over. A 10 foot tall shrub with a similar spread. Not what I imagined in maturity when we added this to our catalogue last year.
Camellia transnokoensis in the greenhouse. We lost ours outside in 2012.
Jasminum duclouxii just coming out. A vigorous evergreen greenhouse climber.
Camellia yunsiense with split petals. Unusual! Tom thinks hardy enough for outside rather than in the greenhouse as here.
Grevillea ‘Fireworks’ was excellent and just coming out. One we should propagate.
Bomarea cassaldii (perhaps) was full out which was strange. The Burncoose one flowers in early Autumn and then dies down to ground level for the winter. This one clearly hadn’t.
Clianthus maximus (much rarer than C. punicus) was a striking red. Tom said all the native plants in one valley in New Zealand were destroyed in a cyclone.
A vireya Rhododendron – but it gets no additional heat in the winter!
Prunus persica (Peach) with loads of flower in the greenhouse.
Lithocarpus kawakamii by the car park had large leaves and typical lithocarpus trunk markings. I am not sure if we have this as a small plant here.
2017 – CHW
A visit to Burncoose to make short topical tips videos for the website with a professional film maker. It was thought we could only do six in a day but Rob and I did 18 in the garden and Gerry did 10 more in the nursery. We have now done nearly 50 in two days of filming. Four more days of videos to go.
You can view them on our website help and advice section or on oour Burncoose youtube channel.
A few more missing pictures captured for the website.
Magnolia soulangeana ‘Picture’ looking good.
A fine plant of Magnolia x thompsoniana (Magnolia tripelata x Magnolia virginiana). You can see the virginiana in the stem colour.
Podocarpus ‘Red Embers’ will look better when the new growth emerges.
Pseudotaxus chienii looks a bit insipid.
Schefflera rhododendrifolia – too small to sell yet. Seems an odd name really as the leaves look nothing like a rhodo!
Camellia ‘Valley Knudsen’ was just coming out properly.
Viola odorata flowering away nicely with strong scent.
Euphorbia characias ‘Tasmanian Tiger’ just coming into flower. Better than ‘Ascot Rainbow’ I think.
Vaccinum cylindraceum with a bit of late ‘autumn’ colour? Or the plant is dying!
Back to Caerhays and a trip around to look at yet more magnolias. Great to have enough daylight to take photographs at 5.30pm.Magnolia ‘Tina Durio’ looks as it should in the reference books. A slow growing and spreading tree. The tepals will open flat eventually.
Magnolia ‘Big Dude’ is not really as large as all that but I think it does just about fit the description in Dorothy Callaway’s magnolia book. The tepals are white inside.
A first flowering for the newly planted Camellia ‘Scentsation’. It is a japonica variety and I got no scent at all! Hard to see how it can have a scent as there appear to be no anthers and stamens and it is a formal double. The French label still survives so presumably it is correctly named.
Camellia japonica ‘Adeyalia’ is a fair single red but nothing tearing.
Magnolia ‘Pristine’ is just out. Nothing special here either.
Magnolia ‘Felix Jury’ is now full out. The best shape and colour of any magnolia out in the garden today.
2016 – CHW
A trip to Old Park which has finally dried up on the paths enough to encourage the public to visit. Not that much to see as the magnolias frosted and windblown but more to come. Particularly the original Magnolia campbellii Alba (one of three overall) is enjoying the removal of the tree canopy and has loads of bud.The Gunnera manicata beds are starting to move although there is still a little frost damage to the leaf edges. They will readily grow through this.
A trip to Old Park which has finally dried up on the paths enough to encourage the public to visit. Not that much to see as the magnolias frosted and windblown but more to come. Particularly the original Magnolia campbellii Alba (one of three overall) is enjoying the removal of the tree canopy and has loads of bud.The Gunnera manicata beds are starting to move although there is still a little frost damage to the leaf edges. They will readily grow through this.
This Quercus acuta was stripped by a falling pine tree and turned into a totem pole. However, after two years, it is reshooting vigorously as a bushy trunk. Great resilience for an elderly tree.
The planting towards the lawn end gate has settled and the spraying of the rushes has been most successful. Very few have survived.
Another Quercus acuta at the edge of the massive new clearing has lost a limb or two but is enjoying more light. It is the same size now as the stripped one was.
The new Chinese rhododendron collection has settled well and I can (so far) see few casualties from last year’s planting.
This poor michelia has been recently stripped of its leaves in the recent north wind. A few buds remain but has it got enough strength to reshoot? Doubtful.
This young Pinus insignis looked fine in January but roe deer have now nibbled it nearly to death and it will never make a tree now. I saw one buck emerge from the bamboos on the top ride with a Labrador in belated pursuit. The buck stopped on the rise and looked back with contempt. Early one morning the pine may be avenged.
There is still a huge amount of space for more planting but let us get what is there established properly for a year or two first.
2015 – CHW
There are quite a few magnolias to which my father and Philip Tregunna gave names but which have never been formally registered with the RHS or the Magnolia Society international. Magnolia ‘Delia Williams’, Magnolia ‘Burncoose White’ – a form of mollicomata that is almost white growing above the tennis court at Burncoose and now also at Caerhays in Bond Street, Magnolia ‘Bishop Peter’, Magnolia ‘Bishop Michael’. There is also Magnolia mollicomata ‘Mary Williams’ named by my great uncle, after his wife. All these plants need also to be propagated and included in the Burncoose catalogue.
There are quite a few magnolias to which my father and Philip Tregunna gave names but which have never been formally registered with the RHS or the Magnolia Society international. Magnolia ‘Delia Williams’, Magnolia ‘Burncoose White’ – a form of mollicomata that is almost white growing above the tennis court at Burncoose and now also at Caerhays in Bond Street, Magnolia ‘Bishop Peter’, Magnolia ‘Bishop Michael’. There is also Magnolia mollicomata ‘Mary Williams’ named by my great uncle, after his wife. All these plants need also to be propagated and included in the Burncoose catalogue.
What a delight it is to see the greenhouse neat and tidy with scores of seeds being started towards germination by Asia. It will be interesting to record the successes and failures later in the year.
1988 – FJW
Gales after 6 dry warm weeks – Magnolias first class but ruined today.
1919 – JCW
Rhodo’s much as in 1917 it may be a bit further on, daffodils well ahead with a good bulge on the bud of our early poets (red and white). Prunus conradinae is over. Subhirtella not yet open.1917 – JCW
Not a yellow bud in the Tin Garden, the first Caerhays opened yesterday. The following Rhodo’n species open or show colour – barbatum, davidii, sutchuenense, moupinense, scabrifolium, lutescens, argeteum, arboreum, irroratum (only just), mucronulatum. Cerasus conradinae just opening.1914 – JCW
One Cam reticulata on wall by Library. R argenteum and most arboreums at their best. Some trumpets but a few incomps open. The best white Arboreum is hardly open. Barbatums well on, a few P Mary.1913 – JCW
A few reticulata, and bad ones, open. We have nearly reached the poets in daffodils. Ciliatums going over, the best white Arboreum is well out, some Barbatums over some partly out – half the Tin Garden P Mary open.1908 – JCW
We are just as in 1902 bar the Reticulata.1906 – JCW
We are distinctly ahead of 1903. R shilsoni on the wane, White Queen fit to force for pollen. Many reticulatas open.1904 – JCW
Rather later, say five days, than in 1903.1903 – JCW
Sir Watkins, Emperor, Horsfieldii, 116, Artemis all out and Princep Mary, Albatross, Seagull, Caerhays, G Spur, H Irving, Maximus and Victoria at their best, King A, Sirius, G Bell and RRB well out. [?] at their best and so are R wilsonii, barbatum and most of the arboreums.1902 – JCW
Sir Watkin open, some Artemis (23), Maximus nearly all, Caerhays nearly all also G Spur, some few Reticulata and Ciliatum. Picked the first Southern Star, many Victoria out.1901 – JCW
An odd Victoria open, 23 nearly open, one Ciliatum early seedling, but hardly any of the above are even near opening.1899 – JCW
Very few Sir Watkins open, a few K Spurrell, Horsfieldii, Emperor, 116, several 23, maximus going over. Caerhays at its best, also G Spur, no ciliatum or reticulata properly open.