Also a first flowering in Kitchen Garden of Magnolia ‘Big Ben’ which looks good already. No record of the parentage but MSI register says New Zealand bred. Our plant direct from Lunaplant and planted Jan 2024.

A wind battered flower or two left on Magnolia ‘Pickard’s Ruby’ x M. campbelli subsp mollicomata ‘Werrington’. Lunaplant have ‘Avalon’ and ‘Michael’s Purple’ listed with this parentage. From what we saw yesterday I guess ‘Avalon’ as this was a 2017 planting and ‘Michael’s Purple’ is a brand new Lunaplant name (or so I guess). What a bloody muddle this is becoming! ‘Michael’s Purple’ is not MSI registered unless very recent indeed. This plant is just beside the seat in the Camiellia sasanqua planting.

A newly planted Magnolia ‘Miss Marble’ with two impressive first flowers. This is MSI registered as M. ‘Pickard’s Ruby’ x M. ‘Black Tulip’. This is also the same parentage as the equally impressive M. ‘Venus’. Both were breed by Michael Gottschalk in Germany. This plant is below White Styles.

A newly planted Magnolia ‘Avalon’ with its first tiny flower.

Magnolia ‘Pink Pyramid’ was planted in 2020 and is a Vance Hooper, New Zealand hybrid between M. ‘Aurora’ and M. ‘Genie’. Looks good for a first flower.

Magnolia ‘Cup Cake’ has plenty of flowers at the far end of Old Park.

Magnolia ‘Ledvina’ is another I cannot trace as a name.

Magnolia ‘Atlas’ x M. ‘Star Wars’ is at the end of Old Park and looking good but, again, I cannot trace a name.

Magnolia ‘Mark Jury’ – good to have a second plant coming on nicely. Flowers rather battered today at the end of Old Park.

Magnolia ‘Just Jean’ is a John Gallagher raised and registered M. x soulangeana seedling. Far end of Old Park.

Magnola ‘Sybille’ is Philippe de Spoelberg’s M x soulangeana x ‘White Giant’ x M. ‘Leda’. Clearly correctly named at the far end of Old Park.

Magnolia ‘Black Swan’ is a very fine hybrid between M. ‘Pickard’s Ruby’ and M. ‘Caerhays Surprise’. Just getting established now in the centre of the Old Park. 2019 planted.

Magnolia ‘Theodora’ is Maurice Foster’s UK bred M. ‘Dark Shadow’ x M. campbelli var mollicomata. Rather wind battered and over today.

2023 – CHW
Attached is the application to register Jaimie’s new magnolia hybrid with the Magnolia Society International together with a selection of photographs of the tree and flower taken today. There is no certainty that the name ‘Queen Elizabeth’ or the plant itself will be accepted by the Registrar. We will have to wait and see.

2022 – CHW

A horrid cold SE wind. Hardly ideal for the magnolia flowers so I have rushed off to capture what is performing today in Kennel Close in case it all gets ruined. A boring list perhaps but an interesting record of these seven to fifteen year old plants as they mature.

A well established Magnolia ‘Red Lion’ on Bond Street. Preferable in colour to its sister seedling M. ‘Star Wars’ as I have mentioned before.

Magnolia ‘Cleopatra’ still in bud. Rather darker than Dr Millard’s flower from yesterday but blown nearly out overnight. Not too far off in colour when open I suspect.

A single poor/battered flower this year on Magnolia ‘Black Swan’. We have yet to see this flower properly here although the plant is growing well.

Magnolia ‘Cleopatra’ x Magnolia ‘JC Williams’ has promise.

Magnolia ‘Pickard’s Ruby’ x Magnolia ‘JC Williams’ is now named as ‘Anne Leitner’. Excellent and very saleable.

Magnolia sprengeri ‘Daisy Diva’ performing well although one wonders at it really being a sprengeri? Bred by Mike Robinson (M. sprengeri var. diva x M. x soulangeana ‘Lennei Alba’).

Magnolia ‘Judy Carlson’ is definitely improving with age. Excellent in bud with the reddish flash.

Magnolia ‘Antje Zandee’ battered and not yet out.

Magnolia sargentiana ‘Blood Moon’ covered in flower as a young tree. Nothing exceptionally different but a good enough form.

A young Magnolia ‘Betty Jessel’ – quite superb but the wind is ruining it.

Magnolia ‘Plum Pudding’ (?) is a totally different colour to our other New Zealand plant which was a specific gift from Vance Hooper (so very likely to be correct). My picture (as here) is in the Eisenhut reference book (Page 282). Which is correct I wonder? This one has an Eisenhut 677 number.

Prunus ‘Collingwood Ingram’ is nearly as good a red as the P. campanulata ‘Felix Jury’ of a day or two ago.

Magnolia denudata ‘Double Diamond’ not yet open but with many flowers. A large tree now at Burncoose and called denudata ‘Dubbel’ originally I believe.

A newly planted Magnolia ‘Pink Pyramid’ with one small flower.

Magnolia ‘Vulcan’ x Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’ has a cabbage-like flower and looks impressive.

Magnolia ‘Aphrodite’ (M. ‘Black Tulip’ x M. ‘Deep Purple Dream’) not quite out yet.

Magnolia ‘Sir Harold Hillier’ has just a hint of pink but still absolutely excellent and full of flower today. Not quite the pure M. campbellii var. alba but never mind! Probably the best magnolia out today in the wind in Kennel Close.

Magnolia ‘Sweet Valentine’ with plenty of buds high up. A very columnar habit.

Magnolia ‘Hot Lips’ now at its best and thankfully planted right by the path.

Magnolia ‘Pink Sensation’ well worth its place as a pink campbellii type and covered in flower. This is an Ian Baldick hybrid which was originally known as ‘Ian’s Pink Giant’ according to the Magnolia Society International records.

Magnolia dawsoniana ‘Chindit’ – not especially dawsoniana-like at least at this early stage in bud.

2021 – CHW
Lockdown is a time for cleaning out old family paperwork and this amusing 1972 invoice for my mother’s automatic triumph dolomite car has emerged. £1,500 for a car 50 or so years on makes you think a bit about the value of money and inflation as we start to worry about inflation again. I drove this car in my teens, and I think my brother finally ran it into the ground in London after a few scrapes.Frost overnight has thankfully caught only the magnolias planted the lower side of the main drive where the cold air settles in the valley. Philip Tregunna always said that we should never plant magnolias below the drive for just this reason and he was right even if we have not entirely observed this rule.The Magnolia ‘Delia Williams’ on the lawn has caught it!

However, the magnolia on from the Rockery is not too bad.

Camellia reticulata ‘Lila Naff’ is just out.

The second plant of Magnolia campbellii ‘Valentine’s Torch’ below Donkey Shoe has a couple of flowers out and the yellowing is more pronounced.

Already the New Zealand Magnolia ‘Lanarth’ is shedding tepals onto the ground.

Magnolia ‘Betty Jessel’ showing colour.

As is the Magnolia sargentiana robusta in the ririei opening.

Another dead snakebark maple with fungal infection at the base.

Magnolia sprengeri var. elongata just coming.

Rhododendron barbatum (from Crûg) only now in flower. Rather late out!

A rhododendron labelled irroratum but without the darker eye. Need to check where this came from.

Then a wonderful surprise. Suddenly the young Magnolia sprengeri ‘Dusty Pink’ has several flowers out. A gift from Jim Gardiner and I must send him some pictures as this was from wild collected seed in China. Slight frosting overnight. What a colour and what a shape to the flower and on such a young plant.

Magnolia ‘Pickard’s Ruby’ x ‘F J Williams’ has a flower well reflecting its parentage. Has it been named yet? Need to check the lists.

Tom Hudson’s gift of three Rhododendron ririei have never looked better.

Bluebells well up.

Narcissus cyclamineus looking very fine in the sun.

2020 – CHW
The new Heerdegen / Reto Eisenhut book on magnolias has just arrived. Loads of pictures and a wonderful reference book (especially for the newer magnolia crosses) even if it is all in German! Quite a lot of this garden diary and Burncoose pictures have been included with our permission. In fact many of the 2019 flowering Michelia and Manglietia here are included although I am not certain that all the naming is perfect.

The Eisenhut catalogue and sales system has always taken a while to get to grips with. They list alphabetically by species with named clones and some hybrids and then, secondly and again alphabetically, by clonal or hybrid names which meant most things have two reference numbers for the same plant. Thankfully most of this has been amalgamated into one list with tail end sections on New Zealand bred hybrids and on ‘crosses and new things’. The latter is of particular interest because we have quite a few of them now of flowering size here which are recorded as unnamed crosses with just the parentage on the original label. Subsequently many of these have been registered and given names which we had not quite caught up with although the pollen parents were our original Caerhays crosses.
For example:
‘Black Swan’ = Magnolia ‘Pickards Ruby’ x Magnolia ‘Caerhays Surprise’
‘Anne Leitner’ = Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’ x Magnolia ‘JC Williams’The book has my strongest recommendation for all magnolia breeders and collectors. I attach a copy of a sample page of the ‘crosses and new things’ to whet the appetite.Here are a few more real plants:

Magnolia ‘Vulcan’ x Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’ just emerging.

Magnolia ‘Purple Sensation’ (this is Magnolia campbellii subsp. mollicomata ‘Lanarth’ x Magnolia liliiflora).

Magnolia campbellii ‘Wakehurst’ with three flowers full out. Very nice indeed!

Magnolia ‘Felix Jury’ – one of three plants we have in the collection. The other two still in tight bud.

Magnolia ‘Cleopatra’ – rather windblown.

Magnolia ‘Shirazz’ (Magnolia ‘Vulcan’ x Magnolia denudata) nearly full out and very dark against a dark sky. Planted in 2006 and already 20ft x 15ft.

Michelia doltsopa just emerging high up on the big plant by Georges Hut.

The white form (alongside the pink form) of Rhododendron irroratum.

This sister seedling to the true Magnolia ‘Caerhays Splendour’ resides on the drive. It is a small flowered imitation of the real thing but not too bad really.

Leaf on a clump of Enkianthus in the first week of March. Things are rushing on despite a wettish week.

Jaimie planted a few magnolias in the 1992 post hurricane replanting at the top of Forty Acres Wood above Dry Walls. This wood is due to be thinned shortly so he took the opportunity to cut around them in case there was a disaster. This is a Magnolia ‘F J Williams’ seedling which is not bad and may one day give a glimpse of colour from miles away. We should plant more random seedlings in new woodland as we have along Bond Street where they show up well today.