A pink tinge to the fruit tassels on Carpinus japonica.

Fagus sylvatica ‘Black Swan’ is struggling into leaf and desperately needs real rain.

Crataegus calpodendron in flower. From the USA and Canada with no thorns to speak of.

Crataegus orientalis.

Crataegus induta has these peculiar leaflets at the base of its large leaves. An unusual characteristic for this Turkish species.

Fagus sylvatica ‘Bicolor Sartini’ grows beside ‘Black Swan’ but is romping away.

A newly planted and entirely new to us here Quercus oglethorpensis – what a name!

Viburnum parvifolium just coming out. A compact but rather vigorous small shrub.

2024 – CHW
So to the Tregrehan Rare Plant Fair.As usual the Burncoose Nurseries sales tables is next to Penberth Nurseries and we see the delights of Cistanthe grandiflora on the corner nearest us.

The Burncoose sales table with more colour this year than for several years.

Syzygium smithii with a purple fruit which will then turn red.

Meliosma pungens flowering harder than I have ever seen beside the car park.

Lathyrus grandiflorus flowers in a vase.

Tom Hudson’s Deutzia longifolia in all its splendour as it always has been on the day of the plant fair.

Aechmea gamesepala on Lower Kenneggy Nursery’s stand.

At last I manage to purchase a stock plant of Lonicera subaequalis. Roy Lancaster had promised a plant for some years but it is hard to propagate and we have failed to find it elsewhere. Grown by Roseland House Nursery.

Also a stock plant of Luzuriaga radicans which is listed in Hilliers as a shrub rather than a climber.

Solanum pyracanthum with its horrid prickles above its leaves.

Prostanthera baxteri looked very tender. Another new species.

Paeonia ‘Bartzella’ – a good double yellow.

2023 – CHW
Over the next couple of days the idea is to catch up on our Syringa species which flower later than the Syringa vulgaris varieties that are well over.

Syringa wilsonii (S. tomentella) in its second year of flowering. The flowers spikes are getting larger.

Viburnum wilsonii alongside it has made remarkably quick growth. The flowers are good but the berries are exceptional.

Still a few flowers on Michelia figo ‘White Caviar’.

Melicytis obovatus is now almost a small tree – albeit multi-stemmed.

Tail end flowers on Magnolia x brooklynensis ‘Black Beauty’.

Flowers on Ilex yunnanensis which is developing well as an upright shrub. At Rosemoor it is used as a columnar windbreak.

Pterostyrax psilophyllus var. leveillei nicely out with its odd tri-lobed leaves.

The blown over and cut back Catalpa bungei Duclouxii group (as I see we must now call it) is already providing good flowers on the more or less instant regrowth.

Starting new growth on Schefflera rhododendrifolia.

2022 – CHW

Catalogue proofing of the Burncoose 2023 catalogue going well with about one more full day to complete the first proof this long bank holiday weekend. The Jubilee service at St Pauls served as a backdrop.

Styrax japonicus ‘Sohuksan’ (‘Emerald Pagoda’) is, as usual, the first of the styrax to be out by quite some way. What a display here when you get up in under the tree.

A young Pterostyrax psilophyllus var. leveillei flowering extremely well with the leaves yet to appear properly.

The beautiful bronzy new growth on Fagus longipetiolata.

Gorgeous yellow new growth on Picea glauca ‘Piccolo’.

The best young plant with a proper set of flowers and decent sized leaves that I have seen on the several Rhododendron obiculare planted out recently. This one in the old Orchid House Nursery bed.

A newly planted Sophora davidii flowering away.

The Catalpa bungei f. duclouxii which blew over is, as expected, shooting away well. The name change from C. duclouxii is unhelpful.

New growth on a young Lithocarpus harlandii – a new species to us.

2021 – CHW
Colin French has sorted the muddle over what I thought was Allium trifoliatum outside the front gates here. I did actually notice this growing at Burncoose as well this week opposite the mist houses in the main bluebell patch. Sixty-seven recordings of this plant in Cornwall since 2000 and circa 100 pre 1999. I went to get more photographs of what we now know is Ornithogalum umbellatum subsp. campestre but flowering had already finished (seven to ten days) and the plants had vanished for another year.Also attached are Colin’s photographs of ‘bugloss’ (Lycopsis arvensis) in the Porthluney car park and his notes:

It is Star-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum subsp. campestre). It was once grown by the horticultural industry in Cornwall for cut flowers and is sometimes found as a relic of cultivation in fields and is occasionally found as a garden escape. I did not find it growing anywhere in and around Caerhays myself, so would to know where it was growing (outside which front gate?) so I can make a record of it on the database.

I have finished the first part of the survey and will return again in August. Once nice find I had was of Bugloss (Lycopsis arvensis) which is growing at the back of the beach car park (at SW97444140) – the car park with the cafe. There were two plants flowering yesterday. It is quite rare in Cornwall and is one of those plants that is a joy to find.I am fairly certain that I saw this growing on the hedge by the Lookout last year but probably misidentified it or ignored it as I had no idea what it was.

Deutzia subulata in full flower now on the bank above the path down to White Stiles field. Right next to Deutzia pulchra which is not yet out. Both were gifts from Roy Lancaster. A small but now substantial species of great beauty with its pink buds and white flowers. Planted here in 2007.

First flowers ever here on Pomaderis elliptica planted last autumn above Higher Quarry Nursery (the proper name may be Pomaderis apetala?). Anyway a large evergreen New Zealand shrub. Hilliers say it needs a warm, sunny, sheltered position or a conservatory. We will see! It is actually in shelter and dappled shade. Frankly not that exciting as yet! Proving, yet again, that rarity and dullness so often go together.

The ancient Rhododendron floccigerum still has a single flower but the fallen plant has been comprehensively layered to ensure its survival. This is the way to preserve old rhodo relics like this.

The original 90+ year old Magnolia (Manglietia) insignis full of bud with the first flower out today.

A disaster! I had thought that the 60 to 70 year old Magnolia dawsoniana (seedling but true to name) outside the front gates had merely had its new growth and early leaves frosted. Now I fear it is dying. The second tree, of a similar age, has grown through the frost and leafed up opposite on the other side of the drive. Perhaps it will be strong enough to produce secondary growth with dieback or perhaps it is a victim of the second (February) ‘Beast from the East’?