If someone could actually live in the Louvre or the Metropolitan Museum of Art, that person would probably be totally blas\u00e9 about great art.\u00a0 I live in a neighborhood full of great works of nature\u2019s art, especially trees.\u00a0 At this time of year the magnolias shine in large numbers.\u00a0 While not completely blas\u00e9 about those gorgeous trees, I am more inclined to notice them when visitors point them out.<\/p>\n
Last week a visitor from a more northern climate gazed in appreciation at the thousands of tulip and star-shaped magnolia blooms currently shining forth in the spring sunshine.\u00a0 My eyes opened and ever since then, I have paid more attention.<\/p>\n
And they are worthy of that attention.\u00a0 Modern magnolias are descendants of some of the most ancient flowering plants, dating back to the Cretaceous period, which ended about 79 million years ago.\u00a0 Now and then, beetles pollinated magnolias, with modern bees and flies also performing that vital ecological function.<\/p>\n
The word \u201cmagnolia\u201d means different things depending on where you call home.\u00a0 If you live south of the Mason Dixon line, you might think of the classic southern magnolia or Magnolia grandiflora, with its huge, lemon-scented flowers and equally enormous, indestructible leaves.\u00a0 Those glossy leaves often appear in holiday decorations all over the South and occasionally elsewhere. Southern magnolia may be hardy as far north as USDA plant hardiness zone 7, but the trees really grow best farther south.\u00a0 I saw a glorious specimen in bloom near the main buildings of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.<\/p>\n
If you live farther north, \u201cmagnolia\u201d probably means the tulip-shaped blooms of Magnolia x soulangiana or saucer magnolia.\u00a0 This most popular of all magnolia hybrids blooms in early to mid spring and sports large flowers in shades of white, pink and purple.\u00a0 It grows to a height of twenty to thirty feet tall, and is glorious in flower.\u00a0 The leaves aren\u2019t bad either, with a pleasing elongated oval shape, prominent veins and silky, soft undersides.\u00a0 Breeders have had a field day with soulangianas, creating many variations in flower color, growth habit and mature size.\u00a0 It pays to be choosy when selecting one.<\/p>\n
Probably the second most popular magnolia is the Japanese star magnolia or Magnolia stellata.\u00a0 It is a small, elegant tree that rises to about twenty feet, with a spread of up to 15 feet.\u00a0 The compact size makes this showy tree very well suited to smaller gardens and planting areas.\u00a0 \u201cStar\u201d in the common name refers to the appearance of the narrow petal-like tepals, which are pink in bud and generally white when the blossoms open.\u00a0\u00a0 A few cultivated varieties, like \u2018\u2019Rosea\u2019 feature buds that open into pink petals.\u00a0 Double or many-petaled forms sport flowers that are less like stars and more like waterlilies.\u00a0 The eponymous \u2018Waterlily\u2019 variety is a perfect example.<\/p>\n
In the 1950\u2019s hybridizers crossed star magnolia with another small species, lily magnolia or Magnolia liliiflora, and come up with the Little Girl Hybrids, all named for girls\u2014\u2018Ann\u2019, \u2018Betty\u2019, \u2018Jane\u2019 and \u2018Judy\u2019 are just a few–and growing eight to fifteen feet tall, depending on variety.\u00a0 The Little Girl hybrids do best when planted no farther north than USDA plant hardiness zone 7.<\/p>\n
Suppose you want to go farther afield and plant something that your neighbors don\u2019t have.\u00a0 For roomy situations, I like cucumber magnolia\u2014Magnolia acuminata.\u00a0 It is a tall tree, growing fifty to eighty feet tall and wide, with greenish white flowers reminiscent of southern magnolia.\u00a0 It also features large, oval leaves in an attractive shade of dark green.\u00a0 Cucumber magnolia is a parent of many yellow-flowered varieties, including the hybrid \u2018Elizabeth\u2019, which grows in my garden.\u00a0 \u2018Elizabeth\u2019s flowers are like yellow tulips and are magical when backlit by spring sunshine.\u00a0 It is somewhat smaller than its cucumber parent, topping out at thirty to 50 feet tall.<\/p>\n
Magnolias generally flower on the ends of the branches and, in the case of the popular soulangianas and stellatas, the flowers appear before the leaves.\u00a0 The trees prefer uniformly moist soil and fare best in full sun or very light shade. \u00a0Mulch to conserve moisture, applying organic material to a depth of two or three inches.\u00a0 Be careful not to pile up mulch in a \u201cvolcano\u201d configuration with the mulch touching the tree\u2019s bark.<\/p>\n
Some smaller magnolia varieties may have to be limbed up a bit to keep them looking like trees rather than shrubs, but this is not difficult and can be handled with a pruning saw.<\/p>\n
If magnolias have a flaw, it is their susceptibility to cold, wet weather.\u00a0 A soulangiana may display glorious flowers on a fine spring day, only to have those blooms decimated by a single overnight blast of unseasonably chilly weather or cold rain.\u00a0 In my town, this seems to happen about every four years or so.\u00a0 Judging by the number of magnolias around town, most people think the beauty is worth the risk.<\/p>\n
Good local nurseries should have at least a few different magnolias to choose from, depending on your needs.\u00a0 For a wider selection, try RareFind Nursery, 957 Patterson Road, If someone could actually live in the Louvre or the Metropolitan Museum of Art, that person would probably be totally blas\u00e9 about great art.\u00a0 I live in a neighborhood full of great works of nature\u2019s art, especially trees.\u00a0 At this time of year the magnolias shine in large numbers.\u00a0 While not completely blas\u00e9 about those … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2],"tags":[1380,1026,1375,1377,1378,1379,1381,1376],"class_list":["post-1850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","tag-cucumber-magnolia","tag-landscape-trees","tag-magnolia","tag-magnolia-stellata","tag-magnolia-x-soulangiana","tag-saucer-magnolia","tag-spring-flowering-trees","tag-star-magnolia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1851,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1850\/revisions\/1851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nJackson, NJ 08527, (732) 833-0613, www.rarefindnursery.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Print catalog $3.00.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"