Caerhays Estate - Magnolia Collection

View of entrance to front door

Walk view

Visitor Quote

"'Caerhays is a truely remarkable garden. With its range of trees and shrubs it is a paradise for the plant lover. Everyone can love its setting in the valley by the sea, and the beauty of its plants, like the blaze of pink of the Magnolia Caerhays Belle against a blue sky just behind the castle, surely one of the wonders of the horticultural world. It is so encouraging to feel and see the energy now going into the renewal and development of this world famous garden.'"
Sir Kenneth Carlisle

An introduction to the NCCPG National Magnolia Collection at Caerhays Castle Gardens.

The National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens (NCCPG) was founded in 1978 with the aim of arresting the decline in the range of plants available to the public. The charity, based at the RHS Wisley Gardens, administers the National Plant Collection Scheme which now consists of around 630 collections held on 450 sites and safeguarding around 70,000 species and cultivars.

Magnolia Caerhays "Surprise"

A National Plant Collection Holders' job is to protect a particular group of plants and both to display them to the public as well as ensuring the survival of the genetic material for the future. In 2000 Caerhays' application to become a holder of a National Collection of Magnolias was accepted by the NCCPG. As well as having a good existing collection of species and cultivars (preferably from wild collected seed), Collection Holders must search out old and new varieties and cultivars to add to their existing collections so that a whole range of genetic propagating material will be available for comparison and research from one source for future generations. It is because of the risks of all ones conservation eggs in one basket that the NCCPG prefer larger groups of cultured plants to be held in duplicate National Collections in more than one place in the country, where the plants may grow and survive quite differently. Caerhays is therefore only one of now 4 National Magnolia Collections. The others are at Wentworth Castle (Yorkshire), Windsor Great Park (Berkshire), and Bodnant (N. Wales).

There are just over 40 species of magnolia, maglietia and michelia in the Caerhays collection. Alongside this there are a further 170 named cultivars and some 250 (as yet) unnamed seedlings. In addition Caerhays has imported a range of exciting new cultivars from China which was, at the opening of the last century, the origin of many of the oldest magnolias growing in the gardens today. Further additions to the collection have come from New Zealand, France, Holland, Belgium and Switzerland, although many of these represent the work of magnolia hybridisers in the USA and Sweden. In the last two springs some 30 new cultivars have been planted out to add to the collection. Another 40 remain in the nursery beds until they get larger.

Michelia Doltsopa

Magnolia "Miss Honeybee"

A National Collection Holder must have at least 75% of the species and cultivars listed in The Plant Finder or Hillers Catalogue to be eligible. He must also undertake to label all the plants in the collection in a clear and accurate manner and to enable the public to view and compare them.

Jaimie Parsons, the Head Gardener at Caerhays, must therefore take a great deal of the credit for the new labelling of the Caerhays collection and for the computer listings and history of the full collection which are available for viewing on this site. Some of the best-known Caerhays species and homebred hybrids are featured pictorially further on but, in time, the plan is for the collection to be able to be viewed pictorially on a fully interactive basis.

Click Here for more about the magnolias at Caerhays Castle Garden

Click Here for The 40 Best Magnolias at Caerhays Garden

Download a printable copy of the complete Magnolia Collection
(XLS 155k)