Spring flowers in the far West of Cornwall

I think that the awful winter has made us all much more conscious of the arrival of spring this year.  Or maybe it is just the wonderful weather we have had this week.  I looked at my garden, which is quite small, and realised that there were gaps where things had not survived so I have been visiting garden centres and nurseries in search of perennials.  I have to say that most places had very little stock but the places I went to had added attractions in the form of gardens full of magnolias and camelias which are wonderful this year.

First stop was Burncoose Nursery www.burncoose.co.uk.  This is a specialist tree and shrub nursery between Redruth and Falmouth.  It belongs to the Williams family who also own Caerhays Castle in mid-Cornwall.  They are the family responsible for all the camellias with 'Williamsae' in the name.  I have never been to Caerhays but Burncoose has a wonderful woodland garden.  The magnolias were magnificent.  The tree above was the first one I saw.  The blooms were huge, if rather difficult to photograph against the light.

The camellias and rhodendrons were not really out which surprised me but I suppose that Burncoose is ten miles further inland than we are.  There was a second wonderful magnolia in similar shades of pink:

There was also a tree with flowers in the most wonderful shades of cream with pink stamens.  It reminded me of wedding dresses from my childhood.  Unfortunately a lot of the blooms had 'gone over' but I did manage to get some close-ups of stamens.

The stamens were really pink even though the petals were not.

The next day I went to Trewidden Garden www.trewiddengarden.co.uk   It belongs to the Bolitho family who also own Trengwainton but because Trewidden is not National Trust it gets far fewer visitors. I found there was also a connection with Caerhays as one of the Bolitho women married a Williams and this led to the garden acquiring a unique magnolia.  There have been a lot of improvements to this garden since I last visited a couple of years ago and the camelias were magnificent.  

As you can see I had my fill of pink!  I finished the week by popping into Germoe where I remembered that this time last year the churchyard had the most wonderful display of primroses.  I think they have naturalised over many years.  

The daffodils are also very good.  Germoe is a tiny place near Praa Sands, more of a hamlet than a village and as it is off the main road I don't think many people know about it.  The church is a typical Cornish granite building dating from the middle ages.  Well worth a visit if you are passing.