Acacia longifolia has half flopped over and split in the gale. Wonderful flowers today. Exponential growth rates.

Another Magnolia ‘Phelan Bright’ at its best next to three Acacias.

Acacia verticillata just coming out. A large shrub but not a small tree. You need gloves to cope with this one but quite a sight as it performs here.

Acacia dealbata not over blessed with flowers this year. Cut it down to let it reshoot I think and then it might flower better? Lots of good trees of this as I commute to Burncoose each week but they flowered earlier than this.

Acacia pataczekii is also shrubby and named after Wally Pataczekii who discovered it only in 1974. Hence known as Wally’s wattle. A difficult one to pronounce! Not well known and I missed the flowers this year.

Acacia baileyana is a huge tree but the flowers are over. A. baileyana ‘Purpurea’ was also over but the new growth had yet to show so Karol and I didn’t bother with a video of it.

Acacia melanoxylon, the Blackwood, is a huge tree with attractive bark in maturity. There are two 25 year old trees above the wall and one above the greenhouse. Rather pale yellow flowers. On the west coast of Ireland this has become NICELY invasive!

Perhaps my favourite Acacia cultriformis which is in full flower today and possibly the most tender of the lot. I look in the RHS A-Z Encyclopaedia of Garden Plants and their picture looks unlike our plant. The common name of this species is ‘knife-leaf wattle’. Our plant has knife leaves but the RHS pictures does not!
Acacia boormanii was too small to photograph and flowerless still. We need to add to the collection Acacia retinodes which has very similar leaves to Acacia longifolia but the flower is quite different and Acacia covenyi which I see that Burncoose now stocks. One to find on tomorrows visit and bring back here.

The cut and grab machine has given more space to a couple of good specimen trees near Tin Garden by removing nearby laurel plants.

The mighty machine demolishes the overgrown laurel opposite Tin Garden.

This is labelled as Magnolia ‘Paul Cook’. The reference books differ on the parentage but, bred by Frank Galyon in the USA, it is supposed to be M. sprengeri var. diva ‘Diva’ x M. soulangeana ‘Lennei’. I think we have the right plant from the MSI register although the picture in the Eisenhut book is of a pure white inside to the tepals with no indication of pink on the outside of the tepals.

2024 – CHW
Magnolia ‘Yellow Lantern’ just opening and Acacia cultriformis just going over.

A hail storm which Geraint Richards and I just miss.

Then the rainbow.

Rhododendron hyperythrum ‘Omo’ received an AM in 1976. This is a Taiwanese species.

Lindera angustifolia against a blue sky.

Magnolia ‘Hot Pants’ just coming out.

A really good young Magnolia nitida.

Then the discovery of the day/ week – Halleria lucida from South Africa with loads of flowers and berries. The berries have yet to go black when ripe. I have once seen this shrub in flower before but it was late last summer. Very tender, rare in the UK, and attractive.

A good young Rhododendron calophytum.

Another rainbow over The Park.

Myrtus lechleriana scenting the air above Orchid House Nursery. (This is now properly Myrtus luma after the latest name change).

Another Staphylea holocarpa var. rosea which may well be cuttable for the show.

2023 – CHW

The first pair of swallows are building their nest above the dog kennels in the Back Yard and were first spotted here on 23rd March which is extremely early. No sign of any house martins yet.

Preparing the multiple Michelia species and hybrids exhibit for the Cornwall Garden Society Spring Show at Wadebridge this weekend has alerted me to two possible misnaming’s here and at Burncoose.

What we have named and labelled as Michelia foveolata has obviously been wrong all along as Tom Hudson and others said years ago. It is in fact Michelia platypetala or, more correctly, now Michelia cavalerei var. platypetala.

I strongly suspect from the description and pictures in the ‘Magnolias of China’ book that the Burncoose Michelia macclurei tree may well actually be Michelia cavalerei. The undersides of the leaves of cavalerei are blush-white while those of macclurei apparently have reddish hairs or indumentum on the underside of its leaves. Neither species is said to have leaf stipules. I cannot be certain from the rather poor ‘Magnolias of China’ pictures but, if the descriptions are correct, then Burncoose grows M. cavalerei.

In any event Michelia platypetala (M. cavalerei var. platypetala) is quite different from Michelia cavalerei as far as its leaf form and flowers are concerned. I am sure there is still a great deal for taxonomists to sort out in the naming of Michelia species and the Chinese are only part way there with classifying all their rare indigenous species correctly.

With their strong flower scent Michelias are notoriously promiscuous in gardens and cross fertilisation of species is highly likely.

Amid the gloom a few flowers high up on our Michelia cavalerei which is the same plant as grows (rather better) at Burncoose. I had not made the connection before now. Had we really never noticed this plant in flower as it is hidden away behind a Schefflera and 2 other Michelias? We do however now know that it probably isn’t Michelia macclurei.

Acer mandshuricum in full leaf already as usual.

A young Michelia cavalerei var. platypetala (from Raf Lenaerts 2017) in flower again this year for the second time.

Michelia floribunda var. tonkinensis (WWJ 11982) with a few flowers high up. Not as many flowers as last year.

2022 – CHW

More scented rhododendrons rush on into flower although April is still two days away.

Magnolia ‘Joli Pompom’ full out now.

Magnolia ‘Phelan Bright’ with its huge near white flowers.

The huge white Rhododendron arboreum above the Playhouse are at their best even though it may be their swansong.

These two young Camellia reticulata ‘Captain Rawes’ both have dieback. Despite the firm staking they have been blown about in the wind and the roots have been damaged. Traditionally reticulata camellias were grown on a wall for a reason.

First colour on Magnolia ‘Yellow Lantern’. The plant has had several branches snapped off in the late autumn winds over the years and has always reshot vigorously but the shape of the tree is a bit of a mess!

Prunus ‘Shirotae’ just coming out.

Dad’s unnamed hybrid at Red Linney is late into flower but not really nameworthy.

Magnolia ‘Felix Jury’ and Magnolia ‘Atlas’ on the drive.

Magnolia ‘Caerhays Surprise’ and Magnolia ‘Serene’ also on the drive.

Magnolia x loebneri ‘Mag’s Pirouette’ and Magnolia ‘Anne Leitner’ above the Hovel.

Spring lambs in White Stiles. Foxes have threatened and been dealt with.

2021 – CHW
A trip to Forty Acres but every magnolia frosted and just a few coming now with little colour. Old Park is much the same story.Magnolia x loebneri ‘Champaign’ flowering for the first time in Old Park. An odd name but quite pretty. A US loebneri hybrid which is an improvement on the pinks and well worth growing.

Wild collected Rhododendron racemosum in Old Park flowering especially well.

New gates and a nice bit of hedging for the new laundry in the farmyard.

Which is not far at all from completion after only about five weeks.

Then to Penvergate to see how that was looking.

A rather battered couple of flowers on Magnolia ‘Sibylle’.

The ancient Magnolia soulangeana at the end of Penvergate are still a good show.

Some of Dad’s hybrids are also performing well.