The large Michelia doltsopa above the Auklandii Garden and Magnolia ‘Mr Julian’ look wonderful from Rookery Path above. Both are just past their best.

Sadly just above Rookery Path the newly registered Magnolia ‘Lanarth Surprise’ has been blown to smithereens so we will have to wait another year to see this again. Many more buds than last year.

A nice 25 year old Michelia doltsopa seedling above the foliage (japonica) camellias is flowering. Now about 20-30ft tall and looking well in a good spot.

In 2010 we planted three more Michelia doltsopas together nearby. All three are doing well but one has a very different leaf structure, size and form than the other two. We have seen this before with younger michelias where those with bigger chubbier leaves flower more quickly and much more profusely than those with smaller more upright leaves. Almost male and female forms as we have said before. However we cannot yet prove if one form sets seeds and the other does not and probably this is nonsense anyway. Does this leaf variation mean that some of the supposed Michelia floribundas (see yesterday) are actually differing forms of Michelia doltsopa as some have argued? The flowers are so different that I do not think so.

Next door is a big surprise. Rhododendron arboreum 5392 which turns out to be the Blood Red arboreum the last clump of which died in Forty Acres a while ago. I am not sure whose wild seed collection this was but I assume the RHS/RCMG seed distribution list 20 years or so ago. These three plants were put in in 2009. I should have smelt a rat as Jaimie entered a flower of this at Rosemoor and asked me if it was ‘Blood Red’ arboreum. The judges agreed and first prize in its class.

Above it the three huge original plants of Magnolia kobus var borealis are just starting to come out. Magnolia ‘Kews Surprise’ is not.

We always forget that there is another original old Magnolia campbellii above the cashpoint but hidden away behind the Magnolia veitchii (white form and late flowering). From the Rookery and against a blue sky the top bit of it is just coming out today. The rest of the flowers are nearly over and have been out for five weeks. Readers of the diary may remember that I photographed this tree which still had last year’s green leaves on it in January.

The first full out corylopsis on Rookery Path – I saw some exhibits on the show bench at Rosemoor but this is the first here. Coryolopsis willmottiae (sinensis) I assume.

The first flowers on the Magnolia campbellii Alba seedling in the Auklandii Garden with some early Rhododendron sutchuenense hybrids framing it off. Looking down on them is the best way to see magnolias.

I might now recap on the best plants seen in Rosemoor Gardens during the show which we need to add to the Burncoose catalogue for 2017. There were not that many actually as Torrington is about a month behind Caerhays in flowering time this year. There is evidence of recent frost damage and a colder winter than ours.

Hamamelis (mollis) brevipetala

Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Aphrodite’

Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Rubin’

Betual albosinensis ‘Kenneth Ashburner’

2015 – CHWThe three old plants of Camellia reticulata ‘Captain Rawes’ below the Engine House are on their last legs. Despite additions of well-rotted manure over the years old age has caught up with them. At least some of these reticulatas were planted in 1897. Unlike most camellias reticulatas do not reshoot when cut down so one cannot reinvigorate them this way. This plant has always proved impossible from cuttings but James Williams’ gardener at Tregullow has managed it. A young plant now thrives in the Auklandii garden although it is a bit darker in colour than our originals.

Rhododendron ‘Bo Peep’ is at its absolute best on the main ride (the yellow form) and on the drive (the pink form). This was a JCW hybrid between Rhododendron lutescens and Rhododendron moupinense which received an AM in 1937. Normally out first in February; this year’s show has remained for weeks due to the continuing mild and calm weather.