Interactive Map & Burncoose Garden Pictures

With photos and descriptions in the guide below, you can explore and learn about some of the spectacular specimens growing in our gardens, some of which have been here for over a century!

Garden Map Legend

1. Magnolia campbellii 'Alba'

This is usually the first tree magnolia to flower in the garden in February or early March.
Greenish white in bud it opens a pure white. This is however a New Zealand form and the flowers are smaller and more rounded than the original Chinese plants at Caerhays Castle Gardens.

2. Camellia x williamsii 'J.C. Williams' and 'St Ewe'

These two large groups touching the drive are the first two crosses in the now famous line of williamsii camellias bred at Caerhays by J.C. Williams in 1923.
The first flowers appear in November or December and continue until late April.

3. Hydrangea 'Joseph Banks'

An article and photograph in 'The Garden' magazine of 1896 record this clump of hydrangeas as having 725 flower heads and being 35 years old.
The clump still survives today proving the longevity of hydrangeas.

4. Wollemi nobilis 'Wollemi Pine'

This conifer, which is a relative of the Monkey Puzzle, was considered extinct until rediscovered in a secluded valley in New South Wales, Australia.
It is clearly tender but has so far survived minus 5°C here.

5. Eucryphia nymanensis 'Nymansay'

Visitors often forget what a spring woodland garden can offer in summer.
This multi-stemmed small evergreen tree is a blaze of colour in August with a mass of small round white flowers.

6. Rhododendron loderi 'King George'

This is perhaps the best scented rhododendron of all with large drooping white flower trusses in late April or early May. You should smell it before you actually see it!

7. Schima khasiana

Tucked away in its own small microclimate is this unusual evergreen with large white camellia like flowers in September and October.

8. Magnolia 'Joe McDaniel'

This is an unusual Gresham hybrid from the USA with bowl shaped purple flowers with a white picotee edge.

9. Rhododendron genestierianum

This is probably the most unusual and certainly the rarest rhododendron species in the garden.
It has striking peeling red bark and small trusses of flowers which are almost black in bud opening dark mauve.
Some flowers appear at almost any time of the year but mainly in March and April.

10. Michelia doltsopa

There are two 25 year old plants set just back from the drive which produce a profusion of sweetly scented creamy flowers in April and May.
On a still day the scent can carry right up to the nursery entrance.

11. Magnolia sargentiana var robusta

This is by far the tallest magnolia in the garden at around 80 feet.
In March every twig seems to have a drooping pink flower and the petals fall to coat the path with a sweet magnolia scent.

12. Dicksonia antarctica

This Australian tree fern had visited many Chelsea Flower Shows before it became too large to manhandle and was eventually planted out.
Tree ferns originally arrived at Falmouth Docks where they were used as ballast to prevent cargoes moving about but the trunks were soon seen to re-shoot.

13. Rhododendron macabeanum

This is a graft from the original and striking yellow form at Trewithen Gardens.
The brown indumentum on the underside of its huge leaves distinguishes it from the equally large leafed Rhododendron sinogrande which has white leaf undersides and is growing nearby.

14. Araucaria araucana - 'Monkey Puzzle'

This tree was recorded by Thurston as being over 100 feet tall in 1930.
It is probably much the same height today although it has now developed a side shoot.

15. Rehderodendron macrocarpum

This unusual rare tree flowers in late May
and has numerous trusses of pendulous white flowers followed by large dark pink fruits which take 2 years to germinate.

16. Kalmia latifolia - 'Calico Bush'

This huge clump contains several different plants with trusses of white and pink flowers in June or early July.
At that time it is far and away the best plant in the garden again disabusing the notion that Burncoose is simply a spring garden.

17. Magnolia 'Daphne'

This small magnolia grows on the very edge of the pond and flowers in May.
It is the best yellow yet of the many supposedly yellow flowered magnolias which have appeared in our gardens in the last 20 years.

18. Sasa ramosa var 'Nebulosa' and Sasa veitchii grow happily together

The taller growing S. ramosa has green leaves while S. veitchii has light brown edging to its leaves in winter.
Until the 1960's these bamboos were sent from Burncoose to London Zoo to feed the pandas.

19. Magnolia x brooklynensis 'Woodsman'

This unusual magnolia flowers in late May.
The flowers are almost black in bud opening with yellow, pink and greenish stripes. An unusual colour combination which is not to everyone's taste.

20. Davidia involucrata - 'The Pocket Handkerchief Tree'

In April this tree produces the large pendulous white bracts which give it its common name.

21. Magnolia 'Kew's Surprise'

Despite its name this plant was first bred and raised at Caerhays Castle.
It has huge translucent pink flowers which are a wonderful spectacle even on an overcast day.

22. Rhododendron 'Red Admiral'

This Caerhays bred plant is one of the forerunners of spring.
Its huge red flowers appear in February or March. There are other clumps further up the drive alongside No. 8 above.

23. Bluebells

The bluebells underneath this large stand of beech trees are perhaps the best known feature of the garden at Burncoose.
In late April and early May the light green of the new beech leaves contrasts admirably with a carpet of blue

24. Magnolia sprengeri diva 'Burncoose'

This magnolia was bred by Arnold Dance, head gardener at Burncoose for 40 years.
It was planted in 1965 and first flowered in 1972. It was awarded an Award of Merit by the RHS in 2000.

25. Camellia x williamsii 'Monica Dance'

Named after Arnold's wife this is an unusual semi-double camellia with irregular dark pink striping in its petals.
The first flowers normally appear in January and continue until May.

On YouTube

Gardens in 2024 video
Gardens in May 2023 video
Gardens in 2022 video

About The Gardens

The drive from the Lodge at the front entrance to Burncoose House is about a quarter of mile long running almost due north to south with the garden going down to an area below the house where there is a pond and boggy area. At no one point does the garden exceed more than a few hundred yards in width.

Probably the most important date in the life of Burncoose Gardens came on the night of 18th/19th December 1979. A strong wind was blowing all day on the 18th but we were woken in the early hours to the worst gale ever. We spent the night in darkness listening to the trees crashing down one after another and at first light we went out to a scene of absolute devastation.

The main drive was blocked for nearly a third of its length with over a hundred trees piled one on top of another. It took nearly three months just to open the drive and five years later we cleared the last tree.

Up until 1984, when the Nursery opened at Burncoose, apart from the occasional fetes and open days the garden here was completely private and rarely seen by anyone other than invited guests. Since the late 1950s the 30 acre garden was being very well maintained by the Head Gardener, Mr Arnold Dance, and it must have been a great intrusion when we arrrived.

Much of the charm of Burncoose Gardens is the carpets of bluebells, daffodills, primroses, snowdrops and wild violets which grow in abundance in the late winter and spring, and we have been careful not to spoil this natural effect. We have tried to keep the woodland garden as informal as possible.

There are many delights to see in the garden at Burncoose which is open to the public most of the year and even in the summer and late autumn we have a fine collection of hydrangeas which, on our acid soil, flower the most intense blue and purples.