2023 – CHW

The Royal Isle of Wight County Show.

Met Alan Titchmarsh who was enjoying the members lunch.

Not sure what you call this?

Dorset Horn sheep.

Dutch spotted sheep.

Suffolk sheep.

Miniature Ouessant sheep once only found on an island off the Brittany coast where their size was immaterial as no wolves present. Bred for wool and special clothing.

Fancy pigeons.

Tractors aplenty.

Pigs on parade.

Mass parade of sheep.

2022 – CHW

To the nursery to help the propagation team with naming a few rhododendrons in the garden as the rhodo cuttings season is underway despite the heatwave.

The entrance has been livened up with leftovers from the Hampton Court show. A few problems with having to remove RHS prohibited plants from our stand (oaks) and we had to remove all the flowerheads from our agapanthus as they apparently had an agapanthus midge infection. This of course made the plants unsaleable and the stand received only a Silver Gilt. A similar death of nursery exhibitors as at Chelsea and Mr Weed again canvassing views but will he do anything? Rose tent only half full and not that many gardens either. Visitor numbers anecdotally down.

Primula florindae – a red form I had not seen before.

Rosa ‘Pascali’ with a tail end flower in a pot.

Hydrangea arborescens ‘Emerald Lace’ just coming out. This is an unusual form.

Tail end flower on Rhododendron hunnewellianum in the garden.

Rhododendron ‘Polar Bear’ – some plants out and some not.

Seedheads forming on a youngish Meliosma veitchiorum for the first time.

Illicium henryi in full flower but hidden away. Masses of cuttings here.

Manglietia [?] covered in flower. A 30+ year old plant which I need Tom Hudson to help identify. My guess is Manglietia fordiana (var. fordiana)?

Flowers on Eucryphia lucida ‘Pink Cloud’. The first Eucryphia to be out?

The old Hoheria glabrata on the drive is still putting on a good show in its few remaining branches.

Meliosma dilleniifolia on the drive still not out yet.

Ligustrum lucidum with better flowers than one imagines for a privet.

Superb crop of styrax species recently potted on from the main seed bench.

Tray upon tray of recently pricked out and potted on seedlings.

Puya chilensis from seed.

Unbelievable germination of magnolia seedlings this year from the main seed bench.

What a joy it is to have Cressy in charge of propagation. We are growing more than ever ourselves efficiently and successfully despite the learning curve and a few dramas in this very hot weather.

2021 – CHW
Cobaea scandens growing away on the side of a house in Seaview. I have admired this for several years but too early in the season to collect any seeds as yet. The reference books describe this as an annual but it clearly is not in a warm seaside location. A vigorous climbing or scrambling plant which flowers away for months and months. It would be a welcome addition to the Burncoose catalogue.A visit to the Isle of Wight distillery ‘brewing’ 1,300 litres of gin a day in an extension to the back of a pub. Their gin is 42% proof! Forty employees but bottling and packaging organised elsewhere.

A small vineyard below the pub.

Some hutch development nearby.

And a ‘modern’ new housing development.

The view over Brading Marshes from Robert Lovegrove’s farm.

This is the electric fenced area for lapwing breeding on the marshes by the RSPB. They may keep out foxes but the ravens and crows seem to have been left uncontrolled.

We saw a young sea eagle and a marsh harrier but too far away to begin to photograph in this 2,000 acre marsh reserve. Many twitchers on the edges. No doubt the sea eagles enjoy the lapwing chicks as well.

2020 – CHW
A visit to Treseders nurseries at Lockengate to successfully purchase three Vallea stipularis from the Andes which becomes large shrub or small tree. Just the job for where the three Daphne have died outside the front door in the recent drought. A replacement for the Fuchsia exorticata which once grew well here but died for the same reason.I also bought a plant of the white flowered Jovellana sinclairii which is quite similar to the Jovellana punctata which is on our website.

Musa velutina with a very peculiar flower! I have never seen anything quite like this before.

Agapanthus ‘Brilliant Blue’ was another good dark form not seen before.

Acanthus hungaricus is not a species which Burncoose stocks but not that different really.

Kniphofia ‘Mango Popsicle’ – an attractive colour.

Geranium ‘Orkney Cherry’ with dark brownish leaves and contrasting bright flowers.

Iris hookeri with very pronounced and rounded seed heads.

Alstroemeria psittacina with flowers that are an odd mix of red and green. A tall growing species nearly over by this stage in the year.

2019 – CHW
Some more garden centre visits and a few new plants of note.Schizophragma integrifolium ‘Windmills’ was very attractive and stand out especially before the flowers are fully out and just the ‘windmills’ show.

Hydrangea arborescens ‘Emerald Lace’ in full flower which I had not seen before. The leaves are not those of any other arborescens variety and contrast nicely with the frilly greenish flowers.

Hydrangea arborescens ‘Eco Pink Puff’ was unusual too. When fully out the flowers do not really resemble a hydrangea and there are no outer florets or petals at all.

Agreed to swop website pictures with Eddington House nurseries to fill in some of both of our blanks. With no proper signal for a phone the hassle of using a slow computer is just too much in Seaview. Something to sort out on return.

2018 – CHW
Off to the ever improving Eddington nursery just on from Seaview and near the Priory Bay Hotel. A huge range of well grown herbaceous plants and a far better selection than any Isle of Wight garden centre. They lost lots of freshly split and re-potted agapanthus in The Beast but not their Melianthus major or much else.The new plants which we should consider for our next catalogue include:Achillea ‘Terracotta’

Linaria ‘Peachy’

Acaenia microphylla ‘Kupferteppich’ – particularly fine groundcover in the sun

Verbena rigida

Knautia macedonica ‘Thunder and Lightning’

Veronica longifolia ‘Marietta’

Salix udensis ‘Golden Sun’ with incredibly yellow foliage even in full sun

Elymus arenarius ‘Blue Dune’ – incredibly blue foliage in full sun

Geranium pratense ‘Algera Double’

Digitalis ‘Spice Island’ – a striking orange foxglove

Aruncus ‘Horatio’

2017 – CHW

I am sure that I planted this cedar tree as Cedrus atlantica but, although green needled in winter, its new growth is certainly now a glaucous blue. Perhaps not as blue as our other Cedrus atlantica ‘Glauca’ trees though. Anyway, you can see three stages of cones here; very immature and just forming, fully formed, and last year’s which are brown and disintegrating.

Off to the greenhouses where I am well impressed with the level of care and astonished at the range and quality of the plants being grown on so well by Asia.
A new named Rhododendron occidentale from Glendoick with double white flowers with a small yellow flare is exciting. The label says ‘Cres City Doll’ which needs investigating.

Hydrangea davidii, which grew well at Burncoose before dying of cold, is just out. Looks a bit sickly but with one or two vigorous new growth shoots.

Here is what is ready to be planted out next spring! It is going to be a long job. Wonderful new growth to be hardened off and scarcely a casualty. All potted on in a timely manner earlier in the year.

Since my last visit to the greenhouse at least six sorts of enkianthus seedlings have come up in profusion.

Many rhododendron seedlings coming on apace in their seed trays and many more pricked out into cell trays or larger pots.

A batch of our own hedychium seedlings from the top wall now in cell trays.

The germination of magnolia seed this year has been variable but generally successful. The trays have many strong good seedlings in just a few weeks from germination. Those potted on already have almost doubled in size. After many years we are finally getting this right and growing a proper crop!

Lots of last year’s cuttings not quite properly rooted from last autumn and still on bottom heat. Hopefully pot soon.

But already a load of new rhodo and enkianthus cuttings are set on the mist bench as are some hydrangeas.

A propagator fulfilling all her potential in an exemplary manner and a joy to witness Asia! Many new plants for the Burncoose catalogue in two to three years’ time from this lot.

2016 – CHW
Deutzia pulchra, originally from Roy Lancaster’s Chinese collecting, is superb below the drive. I missed it last year. This is a new plant in the Burncoose catalogue this year. Quite a tall growing species with huge racemes of lily-of-the-valley buds and (perhaps) flowers. A very good deutzia which I put a close second to Deutzia ‘Strawberry Fields’; quite a bit later into flower too than most other deutzia species and not all the racemes come out at once. Best planted on a bank so you can look up at it as here.

Styrax japonica ‘Pink Chimes’ is almost over on the drive. Another plant on a bank which it weeps over so one can look up at it. Not as weeping as Stryrax japonica ‘Pendulus’ (white flowers) but droopy and hides its beauty. The flowers have a pink flush or pinkish centres and have been out here for at least a month. I showed this (touching the plant) to a non-gardener recently and they kept looking (puzzled but polite) into the middle distance. That is why you need it on a bank!

2015 – CHW

The famous Needles.