Charles Williams

Dear Customer,

The highlight of last year was the invitation from the RHS to stage the Master Grower display at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Show. Our large stand, which is featured on the front cover, was divided into four sections to showcase our propagation, growing on plants in the nursery, the packaging of our plants for mail order despatch as well as a finished garden with our usual selection of home grown varieties and more unusual trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants for which Burncoose is so well known. Our Master Grower garden was not judged but attracted considerable media attention with the assistance of the RHS and BBC. Phil Knuckey and his daughter, Cressy, produced an amazing and very different stand which did them and the business great credit. The plants of Dodonaea viscosa covered in fruits will be long remembered by all who saw them. Equally spectacular was the stock plant of Calycanthus ‘Venus’ on our stand at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show which was again kindly sponsored by Hand Picked Hotels.

The spring of 2025 was unusually mild, fine and dry. This produced one of the best and longest displays of tree magnolias in flower seen in Cornish gardens for a least a decade. Good weather means more garden visitors to Cornwall and more plant purchasing. Conversely, the steep and above inflation hikes in the minimum wage, National Insurance, and business rates added a heavy burden to our cost base and, regrettably, led to some consequential reductions in our staff numbers. The current economic climate does not encourage investment in the development of our business but, thankfully, we made many improvements during the mail order bonanza of the previous lockdown years.

We have had to apply modest price increases to our 2026 catalogue but customers must accept that the government drive to becoming peat free comes at a high price in terms of the cost of production using more expensive and risky peat alternatives. Sustainability and greening policies do not just impact upon our electricity prices, and inflationary pressures face small businesses at every turn.

Now regulatory costs and restrictions on plant imports do not make life any easier. It remains absurd that we still cannot send plants to customers in Northern Ireland even though it is part of the UK.

On a more positive note the catalogue and website lists scores more varieties of camellias than ever before and we also now offer a third larger 4-5 litre size in some varieties. The number of new species and scented rhododendrons reflect the successes over the last 4 years of our propagation department. Growing rare rhododendrons from seed takes many years and considerable skill. Overall there are over [250 – maybe more later] new plant introductions to our 2026 catalogue for you to try in your own gardens.

Lets hope that 2026 avoids the severe winter storms and summer heatwaves which can be so disruptive and damaging to our gardens.Thank you all for continuing to support one of the very last of the UK nurseries which still offers such a huge and diverse range of plants by mail order (4000+)

Yours sincerely,

 

Charles Williams VMH
Senior Partner, Burncoose Nurseries