2025 – CHW
Started cutting conifers for the 30 vase display at the Cornwall Garden Society Show.
Rhododendron ‘Else Frye’ rushing out.
Violets aplenty in the Isla Rose area.
Cones on Pseudotsuga menziesii. We manage to cut a few branches with cones on.
Calocedrus macrolepis in Sinogrande Walk. The laurel needs to be cut away from this rare conifer.
Planted in 2009 this Taiwania cryptomerioides has finally developed a proper leader and is going ahead. For years it flopped over breaking every stake.
Magnolia ‘Strawberry Shake’ in the Isla Rose.
Viburnum taitoense in flower.
Buxus balearica about to flower with us for the first time.
The Azalea ‘Azuma Kagami’ gifted to us by Polly Cooke and photographed in the greenhouse yesterday is exactly the same as our elderly plants above the Crinodendum Hedge.
A cut vase of Salix hookeriana inside the back door.
2024 – CHW
And so to the CGS Spring Show. Of course it rains for most of the afternoon and evening. We had asked for a 3 tiered stand and 30 large vases. We in fact had 4 tiers and we actually exhibited 31 vases of cut material (when we located some vases) on the Caerhays stand.We used named Japanese cherries in the centre flanked by Lindera, Stachyurus, and Staphylea species with a few extra varieties. The Stand list is attached.
And so to the CGS Spring Show. Of course it rains for most of the afternoon and evening. We had asked for a 3 tiered stand and 30 large vases. We in fact had 4 tiers and we actually exhibited 31 vases of cut material (when we located some vases) on the Caerhays stand.We used named Japanese cherries in the centre flanked by Lindera, Stachyurus, and Staphylea species with a few extra varieties. The Stand list is attached.
Tilia endochrysea looking at its best.
Rehderodendron indochinense and Rehderodendron kwangtungense – I doubt either of these new introductions have been seen at a public flower show before.
Same goes for Symplocos dryophila and Symplocos aff. sumuntia.
Plagianthus betulinus and Prunus ‘Hally Jolivette’.
Plagianthus betulinus close up.
Halleria lucida is an extraordinary fuchsia like plant.
Melicytus obovatus with its multitude of tiny flowers.
Lindera communis with attractive new growth and a few flowers.
Lindera erythrocarpa has an interesting flower. The best of the deciduous Lindera species?
Prunus ‘Pink Perfection’
Prunus ‘Horinji’.
Jaimie’s magnolia entries in the class for 3 sprays:-
Magnolia ‘Apricot Brandy’.
Magnolia ‘Lemon Star’.
Magnolia ‘Peachy’.
Magnolia ‘Limelight’ (the spare one).
And our rhododendron entries:-
Rhododendron arizelum.
Rhododendron hodgsonii.
The Burncoose Nurseries stand.
2023 – CHW
Here are the links to two video clips from the recent CGS Show at Wadebridge provided by Charles Francis which show Jim Gardiner and our Magnolia exhibits and the Caerhays Michelia stand.Michael has decided to call his new Michelia hybrid ‘White Phantom’ and an application for registration will go off shortly to Magnolia Society International.Honey bees out and about foraging.
Here are the links to two video clips from the recent CGS Show at Wadebridge provided by Charles Francis which show Jim Gardiner and our Magnolia exhibits and the Caerhays Michelia stand.Michael has decided to call his new Michelia hybrid ‘White Phantom’ and an application for registration will go off shortly to Magnolia Society International.Honey bees out and about foraging.
To Burncoose gardens to do a rhododendron promotional video.
Pieris japonica Taiwanensis Group looking good on the drive.
The splendid (ex Trewithen) form of Rhododendron macabeanum.
Alongside it a Rhododendron sinogrande not yet fully out.
Rhododendron kesangiae just emerging.
Staphylea holocarpa ‘Rosea’.
Magnolia ‘Honey Tulip’ just coming out rather early.
Rhododendron ‘Snow Lady’ some way off its best.
Rhododendron ‘Endsleigh Pink’
Rhododendron williamsianum x martinianum- it has never had a registered name.
A totally different and very elderly form of Rhododendron sinogrande on the drive with near white flowers.
2022 – CHW
White bluebells in a bluebell clump.
A large gathering for Lord Falmouth’s funeral yesterday in the cathedral (George was 102) with a few Boscawens due to enter the show at the Savill Garden on Saturday. We will still be tied up with trenches.
Badly frosted Gunnera manicata below the Kennels. As ever the bottom of Old Park has caught what little frost we have had this week. Elsewhere in the country everyone is moaning.
Unfrosted nearby however is the first flowering of Jaimie’s latest cross. Magnolia ‘Atlas’ x Magnolia sargentiana (pure species). M. sargentiana has flowered only once in 40 years and this was used as the pollen parent for this cross in 2009. You can see the elongated tepals of M. sargentiana but overall the flower is darker in colour than I would have expected from a M. ‘Atlas’ seed parent. It may yet fade. Five flowers in bud, nearly out and one more frosted.
More of the newly planted Amelanchier collection have their first flowers:
Amelanchier ‘Jenny Belle’
Amelanchier laevis ‘Snow Cloud’ (‘Majestic’)
Amelanchier grandiflora ‘Robin Hill’
Amelanchier ‘La Paloma’ F.C.C. – large flowers and large clusters.
Amelanchier laevis ‘Snow Flakes’
Amelanchier asiatica (1978-2124 H.A.) with very different leaves and flowers.
Amelanchier laevis ‘R. J. Hilton’ – pink in bud
Amelanchier alnifolia ‘Pumila’
Frosted Magnolia ‘Golden Cup’.
Dogshit on sticks!
However Magnolia pseodokobus ‘Kubishimodoki’, a little higher up the bank, is untouched by the frost.
The trench to the café for the waterpipe and three-phase electric supply to the café is now fully dug on the castle front.
And across the car park in the deep sand. Western Power turn up at 10.30 (two vans) to lay the electric cable in our trench dug at our expense. The cost of the work is £24k without allowing for our staff time or the cost of the digger and Frankie to drive it.
2021 – CHW
Ilex centrochinensis (or possibly Ilex corallina) in flower which I have not noticed before.
Rhododendron edgeworthii x leucaspis at its best.
Aucuba himalaica var. dolichrylla in full flower and quite extraordinary (from Roy Lancaster) by the playhouse. One which Asia should be propagating.
Lindera aggregata just coming into flower.
Phillyrea latifolia in full flower four years on from planting.
Rhododendron monstroseanum full out.
Magnolia veitchii ‘Isca’ above the back yard.
First swallows and house martins seen today at 6pm on a cold evening. About 20 split equally between the two species and feeding gratefully on insects very low to the ground after their enormous journey.
Date of first sightings:
8th April 2020
11th April 2019
11th April 2018
1st April 2017
1st April 2016
Date of first sightings:
8th April 2020
11th April 2019
11th April 2018
1st April 2017
1st April 2016