…dark leaves offset the red flowers to good effect. Loropetalum chinense ‘Fire Dance’ Loropetalum chinense ‘Fire Dance’ Lonicera alseuomoides has produced a crop of black berries which now look ripe….

…being fairly early years for a little colour.The first excellent and darker Magnolia ‘Lanarth’ seedling in Old Park is just out. Look at the colour in a fallen petal! Magnolia…

…flowers at all this year. It is about 12ft tall. 2019 – CHW Cotoneaster moupinensis covered in juicy dark black berries. I do not think we have admired this before….

…open early but the colour is good even if the flowers are small. Colour varies. Those blown open early are too pale but some are a good dark colour as…

…I admired shortly before Jeremy Peter-Hoblyn’s recent untimely death or a seedling from the original. It is a wonderful dark pink and, as you would expect from a campbellii, a…

…darker colour on this old plant than on the younger plants elsewhere. Rhododendron mucronulatum Rhododendron mucronulatum Rhododendron mucronulatum A few days on and the snowdrops at the Four in Hand…

…a bad ornamental plant for a dark corner. Here it is being enveloped by a podocarpus. Osmanthus heterophyllus ‘Aureomarginatus’ Osmanthus heterophyllus ‘Aureomarginatus’ This oak limb quickly cut up and sorted…

…‘Lipstick’. A wonderful dark anemone form but is it so different from Camellia ‘Anemoniflora’? Camellia ‘Lipstick’ Some split branches on Magnolia delavayi at the top of the garden so we…

…its location in the garden. Camellia ‘Tregye’ Camellia ‘Tregye’ Camellia ‘Tregye’ Camellia ‘Sundae’ is new to the 2018 catalogue. Rather like Camellia ‘Bokuhen’ I think? Even Camellia ‘Amemoniflora’ but darker?…

…evident. Rhododendron ‘Yellow Hammer’ A good dark form of Rhododendron mucronulatum above the two Magnolia veitchii shows up nicely. A darker and larger flower, I think, than the other two…

…‘Glauca’ absolutely smothered in flower cones. Cedrus atlantica ‘Glauca’ 2021 – CHW Early autumn colour on Stewartia x henryae.Magnolia ‘Cleopatra’ now has even more dark secondary flowers. Magnolia ‘Cleopatra’ A…

…dark pink flowers and an exceptional cherry which I first saw at the Savill Gardens years ago. Three plants in a clump in Tin Garden. Wonderful bark as well. Prunus…

…A fine array of Dicksonia antarctica seedlings are coming up here and there in dark shady wet places around the fernery. Dicksonia antarctica Dicksonia antarctica Yet more unusual fungi which…

…dark green edged with yellow. The odd leaf is sometimes completely yellow. The plant is only 10 years old but already 8ft tall and 6-8ft wide. Stachyurus chinensis ‘Joy Forever’…

…have flowers which are not nearly so dark a red as the deceased one. Rhodie didymum cross Rhodie didymum cross A clump of three Rhododendron didymum x ? hybrids by…

…figo the flowers open out flat and have gorgeous dark pink centres as you can see here. Looking in the Eisenhut reference book I see that there are even more…

…Slipper’ Azalea ‘Silver Slipper’ Azalea ‘Silver Slipper’ Podocarpus lawrencei ‘Purple King’ may have very dark old leaves but the new growth is delightful. Podocarpus lawrencei ‘Purple King’ Podocarpus lawrencei ‘Purple…

…flowers when full out unlike the one in the Rockery seen last week. It is not quite a lilac form but there are much darker ones when one inspects the…

…out a week or so before (this proved not to be correct). Magnolia ‘Southern Belle’ Magnolia ‘Southern Belle’ Aesculus woerlitzensis with dark red flowers. Aesculus woerlitzensis Aesculus woerlitzensis Aesculus bushii…

…evergreen leaves? Rhododendron wadanum ‘Album’ Staphylea colchica ‘Black Beauty’ now into leaf. It will get darker yet. Staphylea colchica ‘Black Beauty’ Juglans major has interesting new growth. As nice as…