Magnolia campbellii ‘Raffillii Group’ on the drive.

Magnolia ‘Lanarth’ (seedling) and Magnolia campbellii Alba Group (seedling).

The rather inferior sister seedlings to Magnolia ‘Caerhays Splendour’ on the drive.

It has some very pale and windblown flowers at the tips of the lower branches.

First flowers showing on Magnolia ‘Iolanthe’. A long way to go yet.

Jaimie’s unnamed Magnolia x veitchii cross on Bond Street.

Magnolia dawsoniana outside the front gate now out low down. Some frost damage.

Camellia japonica ‘Matterhorn’ below the Acacia cultriformis.

Camellia japonica ‘White Nun’ beyond the old Playhouse.

Camellia japonica ‘Dewatairin’ beyond the old Playhouse (a Higo camellia).

Illicium anisatum covered in flowers beside the old Playhouse.

Camellia reticulata ‘Arch of Triumph’ beyond the old Playhouse.

Camellia reticulata ‘Mouchang’ beyond the old Playhouse.

Camellia brevistyla beyond the old Playhouse. It’s getting crushed by the reticulata and we need to propagate.

Camellia japonica ‘Fire and Ice’ by the Acacia cultriformis.

2024 – CHW
People often talk about how magnolia leaves fall to the ground and then, eventually, all that remains are leaf skeletons. Flower arrangers and those who enjoy dried flowers for Christmas (and sometimes spray paint them) often collect the skeletons in the autumn. It is, however, fairly unusual to see piles of skeletal leaves surviving un-rotted into March. Here under a Magnolia dawsoniana.

The shrubby and spreading Chaenomeles ‘Geisha Girl’ on the lawn is making a show just as the leaves emerge.

Magnolia ‘Pegasus’ is so like the more modern form of M. cylindrica that most people could not really tell the two apart. I am sure propagators have added to the muddle along the decades. The original M. ‘Pegasus’ was a seedling of M. cylindrica supplied by Hilliers to Trengwainton Gardens and named by Roy Lancaster. It may be a M. cylindrica x M. denudata cross but we will never know for certain.

A young Camellia reticulata ‘Captain Rawes’ bought from Stervinou Nurseries in France has flowers identical to our old original plants which once also had large flowers like this. The Tregullow form of this same plant has rather darker flowers and was out a month earlier.

I said earlier in March that the primroses outside the front door were disappointing this year. I was wrong and spoke far too soon!

Rhododendron ‘Mrs J.C. Williams’ now full out.

Rhododendron ‘Ciliicalyx’ making a good show.

Gorgeous new leaves on a young seedling Acer forrestii.

Magnolia x veitchii ‘Peter Veitch’ now perfect!

Magnolia sieboldii leafing up already.

Corylopsis sinensis ‘Spring Purple’ now well out but no new red leaves showing yet.

2023 – CHW
The original RHS herbarium record of Camellia saluenensis as collected by George Forrest on Mount Tengyueh in 1917. Originally called C. speciosa, then C. pitardii and, as today, C. saluenensis. One of the parents of the new C. x williamsii strain of camellias bred here in the 1920’s. Not sure how this appeared on my desk but I believe Jaimie is hosting an RHS tour later this week.

Frankie digs out the layered stumps on the lower side of the laurel hedge below the Main Ride.

Frankie digs out the last of the large leylandii stumps in Kennel Close on a wettish day leaving everything perfectly flat, neat and tidy. Nobody could better a Tregunna for doing a VIP job like this!

The Melliodendron xylocarpum in Rockery is now full out.

Magnolia ‘J.C. Williams’ and Magnolia ‘Kew Surprise’ on a very wet afternoon.

Magnolia dawsoniana ‘Chindit’.

Magnolia ‘Anne Leitner’ just coming.

Magnolia ‘Antje Zandee’ well out.

2022 – CHW

A few camellias showing up well at the top of the drive.

Camellia japonica ‘Mathotiana Alba’

Camellia x williamsii ‘Mary Phoebe Taylor’ is exceptional with huge flowers that droop down a bit from the bush.

Camellia japonica ‘Dear Jenny’

A recent planting of new hydrangea species in groups of three on the drive.

The laurel windbreak below Red Linney gets a haircut.

Metasequoias like their roots in water. A drain from the drive empties here. Perfect!

Camellia reticulata ‘Fée de l’Aulne’ – flowering for the first time. Not that wonderful really.

The normally later flowering Magnolia ‘Serene’ is already out.

A decent dark red Rhododendron arboreum which I had not noticed recently.

The flower catkins on Acer negundo var. violaceum are a delight blowing in the east wind.

Another young Magnolia ‘Cleopatra’ flowering at a young age.

We lost the label off this unnamed but hand pollenated cross a few years ago (or it was pinched) and sadly it is not on the planting records. Quite similar to M. ‘Anne Leitner’ or M. ‘Antje Zandee’ and an excellent thing in a good place to be seen on the drive.

Magnolia loebneri ‘Mag’s Pirouette’ at its absolute best in the Hovel hydrangea triangle. Nearly as good as loebneri ‘Powder Puff’ and ‘Wildcat’ I think.

Magnolia denudata ‘Forrest’s Pink’ now full out and fading in colour.

First few flowers showing on the old Azalea amoena on the drive.

The first Aesculus hippocastanum into leaf is, as usual, the one below the main fernery.

2021 – CHW
Everything frosted in Old Park below the top path, but the felled sweet chestnut trunks have been dragged out and the mess on the path tidied up by Frankie.

Camellia ‘Gay Baby’ just out rather later than the other smaller flowered varieties of this sort.

Rhododendron magnificum by Georges Hut. We need to do some trimming to give this plant more room. Only two flowers this year.

Leujocum aestivum ‘Gravetye Giant’ just out in Tin Garden. Bulbs planted in the autumn and out earlier than expected.

First flowers after the pollarding two-and-a-half years ago of the Magnolia sprengeri ‘Gordon Trudgeon’ (as my father named it) in Tin Garden. Prior to the clearance here we had not seen the flowers for decades as they were hidden in trees and, latterly, very sparse. Very close to the true sprengeri diva.

Then a big excitement. Another new sprengeri to match ‘Dusky Pink’. This is a seedling grown Magnolia sprengeri var. sprengeri from Westpelaar originally. A fantastic dark colour for its first flowering.

Magnolia campbellii ‘Wakehurst’ just out.

Compare what we have just seen to Magnolia sprengeri ‘Westonbirt’ also in Kennel Close (the one on Hovel Cart Road is much older and larger). A very good first flowering of a great plant.

Magnolia ‘Angelica’ has improved considerably from its first flowerings which I criticised.

Magnolia dawsoniana ‘Valley Splendour’ is another superb plant – so much better than dawsoniana itself.

Magnolia ‘Vulcan’ x Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’ is still unnamed as far as I know.

Magnolia ‘Aphrodite’ is performing better and better.

Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’ x Magnolia ‘Pickard’s Ruby’ is excellent too but, as yet, unnamed.

Magnolia campbellii ‘Princess Margaret’ which should have been named ‘Windsor Surprise’ but for the princesses’ intervention. Caerhays bred along with ‘Kew Surprise’.

The true, original, and small growing (Trewithen) Magnolia cylindrica just coming out. Pure white flowers unlike newer introductions which have a purple stripe at the base of the flower.