I had thought that we did not have any decent plants of Rhododendron giganteum but of course we do as they were seedlings grown by Jeremy Peter Hoblyn. What they are is Rhododendron protistum var. giganteum. The confusion in my mind comes from what we called Rh. giganteum in Orchid House Nursery which never looked well but did flower. It was eventually smothered by Berberidopsis corallina and died. When I look back the flower and leaf was that of Rhododendron magnificum. The two are not that much different. I do not think we currently have Rh. magnificum. Here are two of our 5 young plants.

Magnolia laevifolia ‘Summer ‘Solstice’ has flowers which open out flat. This puts it a cut above other named forms.

Rhododendron niveum every bit as good as what we saw in Northern Ireland last week.

Flower buds (usually single) on Illicium merrillianum (KWJ 12113).

New growth on Schefflera delavayi.

This newly planted Daphniphyllum aff. longeracemosum (BSWJ 11788) had lost all its leaves and I feared was dead. It now looks like reshooting.

Bronze new growth on Lithocarpus hancei.

A good young Rhododendron ‘May Day’.

Rhododendron griffithianum now full out.

My favourite Rhododendron floccigerum.

Two more Rhododendron protistum var. giganteum also planted in 2019.

Magnolia laevifolia ‘Fairy Cream’ now at its best.

Magnolia laevifolia ‘Kunming’ flowering for the first time that I have noticed.

Magnolia laevifolia ‘Gail’s Favourite’ – too small as yet to tell if this is any good.

Rhododendron glanduliferum.

Rhododendron ‘Tinkerbird’ – pinkish-red in bud opening white. Nicley scented but a sprawling habit. We have planted this out (from pots) twice at Burncoose but lost the plants to frost. The 3 plants here were grown on in a nursery bed before planting out. Planted 2019.

2023 – CHW

The newly planted Euonymus monbeigii with surprising and vigorous new growth and emerging flowers below it in Kennel Close.

Betula utilis ‘Forest Blush’ with large numbers of enormous catkins for the first time with us.

Fagus sylvatica ‘Bicolour Sartini’ very fine as the new growth emerges. The tree is making headway.

The first of the newly planted Crataegus species to flower. Crataegus induta. Nothing very different!

Magnolia ‘Ula’ is a new German bred, Ian Baldick cross, flowering here for the first time and, as yet, not that startling as you would expect in a first effort 2 years after planting. It is clearly a very late season flowerer and is far better in maturity as the pictures on the Lunaplant website show. Burncoose now stock this and we have no website pictures as yet so those will have to do for now.

Crataegus miuvacis has been in the ground for 6 years and now performing well but I do not remember and decent fruits as yet?

2022 – CHW

Juglans ailanthifolia with a crop of male catkins well behind the new growth which I have not seen before. We did see tiny reddish female flowers one year as I think I remember?

Magnolia ‘Daphne’ now full out but with the leaves much in evidence despite the lack of rain. This plant is in full sun and the leaf much further on than another two in partial shade.

Sorbus hedlundii (KR 1810A – best clone) just coming into leaf.

Still spectacular leaf colours on Tilia endochrysa.

Magnolia x brooklynensis ‘Stellar Acclaim’ in bud, partly and fully out to show the extreme colour changes. Quite good in bud but rather plain (and hardly yellow) when fully open. A lengthy flowering season though.

A very pale form of Rhododendron augustinii by Tin Garden and quite different to the one we looked at a couple of days ago on the drive.

Hairy leaves just emerging on what I believe is the Chinese form of Magnolia globosa.

Rhododendron ‘Hotei’ just out in a big clump by Georges Hut.

Rhododendron ‘Pink Pebble’ flowering better than for years after overhanging branches were removed. A Rh. williamsianum hybrid but not one of ours.

2021 – CHW
Rhododendron ‘Mrs Lionel de Rothschild’. Needs layering or propagating as we used to have a huge clump, and this is all that is left – one plant.

Down at Burncoose the diseased turkey oak by the tree fern has been tidily felled.

Honey fungus strikes one of these two Rhododendron bureavii. May is when you usually first see the problem of drooping leaves as here.

Staphylea holocarpa – the pure white form at Burncoose. Ours here are all pink or pinkish (Staphylea ‘Innocence’).

Tree surgery complete at The Copper House here around where the proposed new entrance will go in.

The wisteria on the top wall at Caerhays is suddenly out.

A young Rhododendron wallichii covered in flower.

Only one flower this year on Rhododendron smirnowii. Interesting new shoots.

My grandfather’s Rhododendron ‘May Day’ covered in flower.

2020 – CHW
A trip to the greenhouses to look for new plants which I had not (in the main) seen before.

Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’ just coming out on a wall. The whole plant was cut back hard to four main stems but has reshot well. This is however its first decent flowering since the cutback.

The stock plant of Berberidopsis beckleri is now in a shady corner on the top wall in shelter. It is not a climber as such but we can train it up the wall in time I hope.

Hydrangea anomala spp. quelpartensis is a dwarfish semi-climbing or creeping hydrangea which the nursery once stocked and could now easily do again.

Quercus palustris ‘Flaming Suzy’ presumably performs in the autumn or have I missed a spring show?

Corylopsis spicata ‘Golden Spring’ living up to its name.

Staphylea colchica ‘Black Jack’ was a gift from a Swiss nursery friend. A new one for the Staphylea collection and well worth propagating by the look of it.

Quercus yunnanensis with a new set of leaves.

Illicium merrillianum with good new growth.

Extraordinary male and female flowers on show on Akebia longeracemosa.

Vaccinum ovatum full out beside the greenhouses.

Ilex spinigera with berries forming on a young cutting recently potted up.

New growth on Abies forrestii var. georgii. The new Hillier’s says this name should be var. smithii. Very slow growing and squat in habit so far.

Trachycarpus princeps with light bluish new foliage. Looks too tender perhaps for us.

Hydrangea sargentiana ‘Gold Rush’ is a standout plant in May! They will need dappled shade when planted out next spring for this effect to last well.

Deutzia subulata flowering nicely. Another newish deutzia (1981) introduction from China to propagate on for the catalogue soon.

Aesculus x mississipiensis with three flowers (properly Aesculus x bushii in the new Hillier’s).

Asia has propagated a fine batch of Ilex cornuta which can go into the next year’s nursery catalogue.

Magnolia fraseri var. pyramidalis with its first two flowers here. The old plants of M. fraseri which died out 15 to 20 years ago only flowered (yellowish) much later in the summer. Very odd mix of green, yellow and white in the two buds. Exciting to see them fully open in a few days.

The Daphnephyllum macropodum on the drive which I thought was nearly dead has put on some new growth and flowers!

Rhododendron ‘Assaye’ full out all over at 30-40ft tall in a clump.

2019 – CHW
To Exbury for a Garden Society tour and lunch in Exbury’s centenary year.

On the tables were superb displays:

‘Douggie Bettridge’ (fortunei x ‘Jalisco’)

‘Charlotte de Rothschild’ (fortunei subsp. discolor x ‘St Keverne’)

‘Naomi Paris’ (‘Aurora’ x fortunei 1926)

‘Hawk Crest’ (wardii x ‘Lady Bessborough’ 1940)

‘Gibraltar Bastion’ (‘Bibbani’ x elliottii 1939)

‘Ayesha’ (discolor x arboreum 1926)

‘Ilam Cream’ (loderi x ?)

‘Jessica Rothschild’ (decorum x hotei)

On the garden tour some notable (non rhododendron) plants in this amazing rhododendron garden:
Platanus orientalis – the original trunk and suckers which have now fallen sideways on this extremely elderly tree.

Cornus hongkongensis with bronzy new growth and flowers forming. A bit more colour in the new growth than in our tree of this species?

Laurelia serrata in flower which I had not seen before.

The very rare and record tree – Fokienia hodginsii which I had admired at Exbury twice before.

Sorbus harrowiana – in flower. Another new one to me although we have planted this.

All our old plants of Viburnum plicatum ‘Mariesii’ have died out but here was a superb clump.

The new Davidia involucrata ‘Sonoma’ which (unusually for a Davidia) flowers at a very young age. This plant was 6-8ft tall with 20 to 25 handkerchiefs.

At one end of the front of the house an elderly Diospyros kaki in flower but with old fruits from last season still in place. The tree has fallen and layered itself over many decades. Only Roy Lancaster could positively identify it.

Halesia monticola in full flower. Better flowers I think than Halesia carolina.

The presentation to Lionel de Rothschild.

2018 – CHW
A trip with Jaimie and Michael as planned to inspect what we have to cut down to reshoot after the cold spell. Not nearly as bad as I had feared. Some hoherias will need severe pruning, some not. We lightly pruned Carpinus kawakamii and Quercus insignis on the trip. The smaller michelia have dead buds but now new growth is thankfully starting. Lindera megaphylla, although leafless, is shooting all over the crown. Rhododendron stenaulum will be lightly pruned to start with but has more new shoots than we expected. It will get the Mount Congreve treatment to the stems. The drimys look much better than I feared and need a tidy up rather than hatstanding. The original Stewartia pteropeliolata has very few leaves left but is reshooting strongly. Even the ancient Camellia reticulatas which are leafless have new growth shoots breaking. Dung and fertiliser for them soon.

On the trip we, of course, get wildly distracted by nice new things.

Magnolia ‘Honeybelle’ is new to us and not bad for yet another yellow.

Staphylea holocarpa ‘Rosea’ excellent as usual.

Magnolia ‘Lois’ as good as ever!

A fine young Rhododendron decorum full out.

Rhododendron ‘Beauty of Littleworth’ which we must layer and try aerial.

Our old Litsea japonica tree died and fell over in the recent gales. At the base it has several root suckers. Strangely the new growth on some of the suckers is bronze and, on others, light green as you can see. It is different from Neolitsea sericea (formerly Litsea glauca) although I remember the old tree being called Litsea glauca? Neolitsea sericea has very different new growth.

Ribes longiracemosa with its first extended flowers in the Isla Rose Plantation.

Magnolia ‘Green Bee’ is another good one. Nearly as good as ‘Lois’ and ‘Daphne’

2017 – CHW
The first cut of Kennel Close is now complete and it all looks very smart here. Two more cuts will probably be needed.

A big campaign to cut all the ivy out of the deciduous azaleas on the drive is well underway and well overdue! Some will be cut back to reshoot during the ivy removal. A few hydrangea clumps will have to go as well and one of them had to be spared for a bit as it contained a nest of fledgling long tailed tits.

At last some flower on the semi evergreen Polylepsis australis but it is not that impressive! Tiny greenish flowers with reddish anthers. The bark on the trunk is lovely though on its own and as good as Rhododendron cubittii or Rosa roxburgii.

A good show on Azalea ‘Hotspur Red’ with its orange flash beside the polylepsis.

A fine clump of Rhododendron canescens hidden away in the back of the drive. I did wonder if these were Rhododendron viscosum but think not because of the extreme length of the anthers and stamens in relation to the flower. A very delicate pink in the shade.

Magnolia ‘Sunsation’ in a more shady area than the one above the greenhouse. This won the cup for the best magnolia spray at Rosemoor 10 days ago. More yellow and brownish in colouring without the pinkish flash you get in full sun.