2025 – CHW
A day or two ago we saw new leaves on Neolitsea sericea ‘Silver Leaf’ in the garden here. These are the new and rather more golden new growth leaves on Neolitsea sericea at Burncoose Nurseries.
Prostanthera incana is new in the nursery and interesting. A species of Australian mint which we have not stocked before. Attractive flowers and, unmistakably, a Prostanthera when in flower.
A few new camellias planted above the Red Linney two years ago. Nearly over of course but some nice things.
Camellia x williamsii ‘William Carlyon’.
Camellia japonica ‘Devonia’ – not new!
Camellia japonica ‘High, Wide ‘n’ Handsome’ – not exactly but this was a tail end flower.
Camellia japonica ‘Conspicua’ – not new.
Camellia x williamsii ‘The Duchess of Cornwall’ – a very poor and unrepresentative last flower.
Camellia reticulata ‘Den Burton’ – extremely good first flowering.
Viburnum × burkwoodii ‘Mohawk’ – label split and half lost. – label split and half lost.
Camellia reticulata ‘Fee de l’Aulne’ – again a tail ender.
A young Prunus ‘Tai-Haku’ coming on nicely on the drive.
The very last flower on Magnolia denudata ‘Forrest’s Pink’.
This grows in the granite trough outside the Estate Office. Perhaps a Sedum?
Magnolia ‘Sunray’.
Rhododendron morii x euchates just coming out – FJW bred.
As is Rhododendron ‘Saffron Queen’ – Caerhays bred.
Rhododendron triflorum var bauhiniiflorum on Hovel Cart Road.
2024 – CHW
Rhododendron orbiculare flowering nicely below the main ride.
Quite a show a little further on.
A good dark form of Rhododendron augustinii.
First colour on the ancient Playhouse wisteria.
Flower buds just opening on Trochodendron aralioides. (Taiwanese form).
Three young plants of evergreen Azalea ‘Pink Cushion’ by the Rireii opening. Asia needs to propagate this semi double. When I look it up in Galle’s reference book the correct name is Azalea ‘Pink Pincushion’. Asia needs to change the label. The reddish colour and it being a double flower is correct.
Three good young Rhododendron ‘Duke of Cornwall’ now getting going. Only 2 have flowers this year.
Still late flowers on Camellia trichocarpa but also now fine new growth. There were flowers out before Christmas.
2023 – CHW
Embothrium lanceolatum showing colour already and Chelsea Flower Show is still a month away.
Rhododendron ‘Alison Johnstone’. A must for propagation.
The dying clump of Rhododendron morii – they live only 40 years and the drought didn’t help as we saw in this diary at the time.
Plenty of colour above HQN and the recent new plantings.
Prunus ‘Jo-Nioi’ splendidly welcoming visitors to the garden. Planted in 2006. Well scented too. This variety is sadly very seldom available in the nursery trade.
Camellia x williamsii ‘Mary Jobson’ has had another haircut outside the side door.
2022 – CHW
I have never personally seen Prunus serrula in flower before. This plant by the Green Gate has single white flowers so it is P. serrula despite its incorrect label as Prunus serrula x serrulata which has double white flowers. The bark is clearly the main attraction and the flowers are nothing special.
A young Malus ‘Evereste’ nicely in flower by the garden entrance. A replacement for the malus which died here. Red then pinkish buds opening white in large clusters. We will need three more of these for our malus collection to be planted in the autumn in the Kitchen Garden.
Our largest Magnolia stellata ‘Jane Platt’ (syn. ‘Rosea’) near Rogers Quarry.
Even the youngest Embothriums are flowering a month early.
Looking at Melicytus obovatus again with its tiny (but voluminous) quantities of flowers I notice that while the vast majority of the flowers are purple there are very occasional yellow ones here and there interspersed with the others. Could these be the female flowers producing the rather few purple berries that we have seen on this plant?
The masses of flowers on Melicytus obovatus really are most peculiar and virtually invisible even from 3ft away from this now large multi stemmed evergreen bush of 12-15ft in height. So peculiar that this makes it a choice plant for any serious collector of New Zealand species. We need to propagate this species a lot more.
It took us a while to sort out the identity of our Melicytus species but I am pretty certain that this is Melicytus crassifolius which I have seen before with white berries but never (here) before with its minuscule yellow flowers in profusion. You can easily see how we might have missed them! We now offer M. crassifolius on the Burncoose website. It is a spreading largeish shrub with narrow leaves. One of our plants is fully evergreen while the other (as here) has its flowers on near leafless stems. The white berries persist until flowering time. Melicytus need hot dry spots but have not been mollycoddled here from the east wind and have proved perfectly hardy even if the roedeer like nibbling them.
Just look how prominent these Matsumae cherries are already in the four year old Isla Rose Plantation. Tremendous growth rates.
The two Amelanchier bartramiana have made enormous growth in four years and now stand out proudly in the Isla Rose Plantation. Multi stemmed large bushes. The Mountain Juneberry from N. America and a good species. We await the black berries.
Magnolia ‘Helena’ with lots of flowers this year. Looks like becoming a big tree. I do not think I have seen this in flower before but it is one of Michael Gottschalk’s (Lunaplant) German hybrids – M. ‘Atlas’ x M. ‘Sunsation’. A pyramidical habit and a late season flowerer according to the Magnolia Society International registration made in 2018 which correctly describes the flower we see here. I do not see much sign of M. ‘Sunsation’ except in the reddish striping?
A young Camellia japonica ‘Primavera’ with flowers very like Camellia ‘Matterhorn’.
2021 – CHW
More sun, more light overnight frost and no rain.Over the weekend I watched part of the Plant Heritage AGM and lectures on Rev Engelhard’s daffodil breeding and double primroses. The daffodil lecture owed more to enthusiasm than detail. No mention of JCW and Engelhard’s work together. The occurrence in the wild of double primroses caused me to have a closer look at the multitude of native primroses on the bank.More than clear evidence here of border primulas and primroses (P. ‘Wanda’) being cross pollenated with the natives but no yellow doubles found yet.
More sun, more light overnight frost and no rain.Over the weekend I watched part of the Plant Heritage AGM and lectures on Rev Engelhard’s daffodil breeding and double primroses. The daffodil lecture owed more to enthusiasm than detail. No mention of JCW and Engelhard’s work together. The occurrence in the wild of double primroses caused me to have a closer look at the multitude of native primroses on the bank.More than clear evidence here of border primulas and primroses (P. ‘Wanda’) being cross pollenated with the natives but no yellow doubles found yet.
Three newly planted Thuja koraiensis as a windbreak in the Rookery.
Rhododendron eximium
A fine clump of near pure Rhododendron calophytum seedlings in the Rookery.
Our champion Meliosma alba (beaniana as was) is dying of old age but still a few flowers.
Rhododendron yunnanense. Many of the pure white forms in the Rookery have died out as I discovered this morning.
A visit to meet Lamorna Edith Cross, my third granddaughter aged one week. We did wet the baby’s head.
