The white form of Rhododendron moupinense on the drive. Not a patch on the red form we saw yesterday which Jaimie plans to cross with his own Rhododendron ‘Maisie’.

I have never seen the magnolias in Giddle Orchard look better.

Magnolia ‘Blue Diamond’ – odd name and nothing in the register.

Ross has felled the dead sycamore below White Styles.

Suddenly severe frost damage below White Styles.

Magnolia ‘Susannah Van Veen’ – the New Zealand cross akin to ‘Caerhays Belle’.

Magnolia ‘Caerhays Belle’.

Magnolia sprengeri ‘Westonbirt’.

Camellia japonica ‘Strawberry Parfait’ with a variety of different coloured flowers.

The original Magnolia ‘Lanarth’ above Crinodendum Hedge.

2024 – CHW
A planting day at Burncoose. The magnolias are a week behind those at Caerhays.

Magnolia ‘J.C. Williams’ very fine at the garden entrance.

Magnolia sprengeri var. diva ‘Burncoose’ a good colour this year.

Magnolia x sprengeri var. diva ‘Burncoose’ and the Record Tree Magnolia sargentiana var. robusta.

A spectacular show from the Record Magnolia sargentiana var. robusta.

Magnolia ‘Chyverton Red’ and Rhododendron ‘Cornish Red’.

Magnolia ‘Vulcan’ and Magnolia campbelli ‘Charles Raffill’.

Magnolia ‘Brixton Belle’ has a dwarfish habit.

The view over the Tennis Court from the lower paddock.

Magnolia ‘Albatross’ at its best in the lower paddock.

Magnolia ‘Sweet Valentine’ – lower paddock.

Magnolia ‘Sir Harold Hillier’ – lower paddock.

Magnolia sprengeri var diva – lower paddock.

The remnants of the huge turkey oak felled last autumn as a threat to traffic on the main A39 road.

Magnolia ‘Genie’ flowering early in the nursery.

Magnolia cylindrica ‘Lv Xing’ which we used to call M. ‘Sunrise’.

Magnolia (Michelia) ‘Eternal Spring’ nicely out in a tunnel.

Skimmia japonica ‘Pygmy’. I have never seen it flowering better.

Viburnum tinus ‘Lisarose’ fully out.

2023 – CHW
Jaimie is considering putting forward his Rhododendron ‘Maisie’ for an award at the next RHS/ RMCG show at Rosemoor.

Magnolia ‘Delia Williams’ now full out.

Rhododendron ‘Ostara’ and Camellia japonica on the Main Ride.

Corylopsis spicata and Camellia x williamsii ‘Brigadoon’.

Magnolia ‘Philip Tregunna’ now full out.

Magnolia campbelli from afar.

Camellia x williamsii ‘Caerhays’ in the shade.

The newly planted Magnolia ‘Snowblood’ now fully out in Kennel Close. Not bad for its first year!

Magnolia ‘Copeland Count’ has considerable die back from the 2018 Beast from the East but has recovered well and has several buds. The tree was cut back from 20 feet in height to only 6.

Camellia japonica ‘Adolphe Audusson’ looking very good below Tin Garden.

The top of Magnolia ‘Bishop Peter’ with a decent background today.

First flowers showing high up on the Donkey Shoe Michelia doltsopa.

2022 – CHW

Cold NE wind continues to do the garden no favours. Bloody freezing in fact but at least the ground is drying up. Rain now forecast for the rest of the week and the gardening weekend.

A morning tour with all the staff members of Edward Buckland Chartered Surveyors, who were going on to attend their much delayed Christmas party!

Magnolia ‘Red Lion’ on Bond Street in the wind. We saw it yesterday from above the on the drive.

We have planted lots of different Ron Scamp Cornish bred daffodil varieties along under White Stiles field on the visitor route to Old Park. Here are a couple of attractive doubles – ‘Tamar Fire’ and ‘Gossmoor’. Poor pictures in the wind I am afraid.

This is a young Magnolia ‘Chyverton Red’ opposite the daffodils. Blown open of course and not exactly ‘red’ at all in the first flowering but then this variety, which grows as a mature tree on the drive (and flowers later in the season), is not that ‘red’ close up either. The tree at Burncoose by the rockery is a stronger colour but not really ‘red’ like some of the New Zealand hybrids like ‘Ian’s Red’ or ‘Red as Red’. Nigel Holman bred this and Treseders Nursery offered this first for sale in 1965 so it predates New Zealand breeding.

This is incorrectly labelled ‘Jersey Belle’ (further along the path under White Stiles) as we knew last year and is clearly a young Magnolia ‘Caerhays Belle’ (‘Jersey Belle’ is a totally different cross between M. wilsonii and M. sinensis and we have a decent plant or two elsewhere).

This is a new one to us flowering for the first time in the middle of Old Park. Michelia doltsopa ‘Rusty’ which has no picture with it in the listing in the Eisenhut book:
This evergreen up to 5m tall variety is one of the hardiest forms of Magnolia doltsopa with strongly scented white flowers in early spring. Plant in sheltered sunny position. [Translation from “Magnolien und Tulpenbäume” by Heerdegen/Eisenhut]
Our plant came from Eisenhut in 2013/4 and was badly scarred and leafless with dieback in March 2018. Surprisingly it has recovered and has grown on 3 or 4ft in height. Although a little frosted today I am unsure what the name refers to exactly. The buds are orange but not much more so than on Michelia manipurensis which is what at least two of our oldest M. doltsopa are believed actually to be (see my article on Michelias on website) by other experts. The flowers are however more creamy than the more usual (here) yellowy then more white and they have an odd almost double flowered appearance as they fade away which is unusual and I have not seen before. I will enjoy showing this to Maurice Foster on Saturday if it lasts that long as he is one of the great experts!

A Magnolia campbellii var. alba seedling glistens in the windy gloom in Old Park.

Rhododendron arboreum subsp. cinnamomeum ‘Tony Schilling’ is nicely out at the far end of Bond Street. Only one of the three plants is flowering. One to remember for layering and seed collection. This got an FCC in 1974.

2021 – CHW
Camellia x williamsii ‘E G Waterhouse’ just coming out on the drive. Reminds me of ‘Waterlily’. Most of the other varieties below the top lodge are nearly over now or frosted a bit.

The new laundry building motors ahead.

These blue barrels will be used as supplementary pheasant feeders for all the birds which survived the last, much-shortened, shooting season.

Prunus nipponica var. kurilensis ‘Brilliant’ on Hovel Cart Road in flower. A variety which I never knew we had. Too shady here really for it but not a bad show. Pink buds opening white.

We have layered the oldest clump of Rhododendron ‘Assaye’ over the years. As the huge branches have died or fallen over, we have simply left the layers in the same place without moving them at all to take over as there was always enough light for them to prosper. Here you see the old trunks and two sets of layers of different ages taking over. That is how you maintain an original Caerhays cross!

The first of the darker coloured magnolias above the wall remains unfrosted.

Much more frost damage to the magnolias than yesterday after a second night’s frost of -4.8°C (at the Hovel). It has crept further up into the garden but still has not touched much above the wall.

Through the arch looks dreadful!

However, the original Magnolia campbellii remains untouched.

The second original M. campbellii above the sales point, which I had not looked at yet this year, is fine too.

Buds just breaking on Magnolia sprengeri diva ‘Burncoose’.

The ancient clump of pink Rhododendron arboreum by the greenhouse are partly out.

Acacia melanoxylon is now just out above the wall. One tree is and one is yet to come out.

Rhododendron scabrifolium var. scabrifolium still just alive above the top wall under the Acacia melanoxylon.

Fuchsia excorticata just showing.

The magnolia through the front arch has also taken a frost battering although it escaped the night before.

And Magnolia ‘Delia Williams’ on the lawn is now drooping brown paper bags! Such is life!