Then to Carnon Downs Nursery Centre which has recently been bought by Derek Broad and his family who already own garden centres in Launceston, Crediton and Barnstaple. Lots of signs of renovation and improvement and I struggled to get to the plant sales area due to building works.

Helleborus ‘Ice N Roses’ has a pleasant flower with a pink picotee edge.

Saxifraga ‘Early Carnival’ starts red and fades to white with a pink stripe.

A large Citrus Lemon with a full crop of fruit.

Calamondin Oranges with fruit too.

Jasminum nudiflorum (Winter jasmine) looking superb.

An interesting mix of Jasminum nudiflorum and Sarcococca confusa.

Anemone ‘Harmony Double Pink’.

Anemone ‘Harmony Blue’.

2024 – CHW
To Burncoose for a Management Meeting.Osmanthus x burkwoodii especially fine by the till.

A good combination; Rhododendron ‘Praecox’ and Rhododendron ‘Christmas Cheer’.

At the entrance to Burncoose garden a Magnolia ‘F.J. Williams’ in full flow.

The sad demise of a Styrax japonicus tree which blew over recently. This was originally a seedling pinched from the Punch Bowl in the Valley Gardens of Windsor and carried back to the YMCA hostel in my lunch box. About 47 years old.

Prunus ‘Felix Jury’ is absolutely stand out today. What a colour!

Camellia reticulata ‘Miss Tulare’.

First flowering of this camellia gifted (as cuttings) from Hergest Croft Gardens but originating from Marwood Hill and Jimmy Smart.

A second Melliodendron xylocarpum now in full flower.

Euonymus echinatus with buds.

2023 – CHW

The pace of magnolia flowering has speeded up in this mild and warm week.

60 tonnes of new gravel laid at the front of the castle with Arthur and a tractor. Many years since we last did this. Not ideal for wheel chairs but good for security as you can hear cars coming more easily.

The large Magnolia campbellii seedling above Crinodendron Hedge has leapt out in 48 hours and here set against a drab sky.

The pale flower Magnolia campbellii by Tin Garden which was showing colours a fortnight ago is now out too.

Prunus coradinae a gorgeous foretaste of spring.

Rhododendron siderophyllum just creeping out.

Camellia lutchuensis is out but the flowers hang down and are hard to see properly.

Rhododendron ‘Choremia’ was not showing 2 days ago.

Magnolia ‘Lanarth’ now full out.

Rhododendron grande just starting below Hovel Cart Road.

2022 – CHW

A video proving that Storm Eunice has left our magnolias largely totally unscarred even in the teeth of the wind which most of the garden was not. A few more pictures here to prove the point.

Work proceeds in the Kitchen Garden but now stalled by wet weather.

Eunice did fell this fir tree onto the old remains of the potting shed but no additional damage.

My earliest memory of the Kitchen Garden was meeting the Jobson children about here. At that time in the very early 1960s they lived at the Vean. The Vean is very close as you see here. I think an old photographs exists of the meeting which is perhaps why I think I remember it.

Jaimie’s new (but as yet unnamed) magnolia hybrid in the flesh below Kitchen Garden (Magnolia sprengeri var. Diva ‘Burncoose’ crossed with Magnolia campbellii var. mollicomata subsp. ‘Lanarth’). Even better in situ than the cut flower we saw earlier. Planted in 2016. The Lanarth pollen came from a flower from Lanarth itself.

The view back to the nearly cleared Kitchen Garden from the new magnolia hybrid.

The splendid Magnolia ‘Lanarth’ (New Zealand form) at Donkey Shoe. Despite Eunice at its absolute best.

The New Zealand Magnolia ‘Lanarth’ and a Magnolia campbellii Alba Group seedling growing side by side.

Flowers showing on Magnolia ‘Sweet Sixteen’ which got dieback in 2018 and a pruning by me in 2020.

The huge Michelia doltsopa are just coming out speeded up by the recent gales blowing.

Camellia x williamsii ‘Citation’ and Magnolia ‘Bishop Peter’. Some wind damage to ‘Citation’ but not to the Bishop!

Flowers nearly out high up on Magnolia ‘Ian’s Red’.

Camellia lutchuensis just coming out but no scent in the winds today.

Camellia pitardii with its first flowers out for this year.

Jaimie’s other new hybrid above the veitchii in the flesh. Fully covered with darker flowers this year whereas only 10 or so last year and three the year before. You do need to wait a year or two to get a proper view on a new seedling magnolia cross and whether it is worthy of a name. for the shape of the flower and the colour I am now fairly certain that this is. The cross is Magnolia ‘F J Williams’ x Magnolia campbellii – crossed in 2005 and planted 2011.

First rather poor flower on the new German bred Magnolia ‘Diana’ which awaits planting out.

Magnolia ‘Caerhays Splendour’ from the front door.

The 1947 planted Magnolia ‘Lanarth’ from the front door. Only its fifth year of flowering. Superb colour but only slightly out as yet.

2021 – CHW
Various piles of plants in the back yard selected to go to different areas of the garden. I guess we are about halfway through this year’s planting programme but the nursery/field grown rhododendrons will add a couple more days to the two to three days it will still take to get this lot sorted next week or the week after. In Lockdown 3 we are well ahead of a normal season’s planting in March.

The camellias at Donkey Shoe are starting to show properly.

New steps installed at Hovel Cart Road to make it easier to get up the bank. For my benefit perhaps in the week I will get the jab!

Brief but violent hailstorms carpet the Rookery.

Followed by a rainbow over the back yard.

More geese are visiting the lake but the pair of swans are seeing them off in a fury of flapping wings.

Another nice little bit of history. This Massey Ferguson tractor was first bought and registered by my great uncle, Charles Williams, on 31st January 1955 and then sold on to my father. It has recently been fully restored locally and is in full working order. Burncoose still operates and uses a 1964 Massey Ferguson tractor. These vehicles were clearly built to last! A copy of the original registration documents are copied here.