Magnolia update and more...

After what seems like an eternity, Butterflies finally has open blooms, and none too soon as the weather channel says 25 degrees tonight and tomorrow night. If this does in fact occur, most of the magnolias just coming into open full bloom will have their blossoms destroyed. I guess I need to think in terms of  how lucky we have been through the years... I can't recall ever having a bad all encompassing frosting of magnolia blossoms here in the gardens. Maybe we'll luck out this very night as well... if not, it's time to concern my thoughts with other things... garden-wise and otherwise.


As my friend Frog Pond says, "if the blooms don't look great close-up, stand farther away!" This grouping of two Bettys and two Pinkies proves his point... If you look closely at the (darker) Betty on the right, there is a lot of tepal browning caused by the severely cold winds we're experiencing this season. This morning the NE wind feels like blades of ice piercing the skin as I meandered through the gardens...

There is one young and thus smaller tree, the blossoms of which I would very much like to protect tonight, but I'm not certain that will be possible if the winds persist until dark as the coverings fly about in all directions. It is the Toro, blooms pictured below. They are still not fully open, but what an interesting blossom...

Here and there about the gardens are magnolias about to show there first blooms ever... I've been waiting in some cases for several years to witness what they will be like. In these cases, I'll simply cover the individual buds with a plastic baggie.... Red Baron is good example and will be simple to protect...

My fully matured Amelanchier canadensis is in full bloom today...

The hardy primulas I started from seed get a bit more attractive with each passing day... I suspect that these will be able to stand up to tonight's freeze...

Frog Pond and I had the opportunity to spend the past couple days in a beautiful community in Southern Michigan. The weather was perfect and in addition to spending time visiting some wonderful nurseries, we spent many hours with a local landscaper who grows thousands of rhododendrons and azaleas. Additionally he shared many hours with us, taking us to visit some of his wonderful landscaping projects and even introducing us to a customer or two, who shared their gardens with us as well.


I realize that despite discouragements such as this very cold weather after so much warmth, and the consequences of that situation, gardening is a constant process of learning and trying to advance new horizons. My next hurdle is to try to do more with rhododendrons and azaleas (including evergreen azaleas) in this climate and soil, which will certainly be a bit of a challenge to their success and my determination. I don't necessarily want to always take the safe route in gardening... were that the case, I would be without foreboding today as the natives will certainly manage well through this unseasonable cold (actually not unseasonable, it's the week of 85 degrees that caused this problem). I am fully responsible for any foreboding that I may feel at this moment because of plant choices I have made. When things go wrong, I am saddened... but in the majority of years when things go well, this gardening life is amazing.


I purchased a number of plants, especially evergreen azaleas, on this trip and will share more relating to that as the spring goes on. One simply can't allow one bad season to affect one's attitude towards gardening, even though discouragement pervades one's mood when things out of our control go wrong. As we traveled home yesterday, we saw beautiful peach orchards in full bloom and that area of the country was expecting frost as well. After all is said and done, my gardens are nothing greater than an interest... a hobby that brings good and on freezing nights such as this... bad and disconcerting (but temporary) moments to my life. Frog Pond and I were in full agreement that our heart goes out to all, especially those with orchards, who depend on their plants for their livelihood... we are greatly saddened for them and hope for some saving adjustment in the weather for us all.


Wavecrest Nursery near Saugatuck, Michigan was one of our stops. There were many beautiful and impressive trees in bloom, but the thing that most impressed me were these 50 (ish) year old specimens of Larix decidua. I will close with photos of these and request 'warm' thoughts from you for these next two nights... take care, Larry

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Daffodils and Butterflies...

The daffodils that are blooming are the early ones... there is an unusual break time-wise between them and the many later ones which are just showing buds in many cases. This apparently relates to our very hot weather that brought on the early ones rapidly and the switch to quite cold temperatures which has slowed everything else down considerably. This is the first time I've experienced this and the large daffodil bed looks rather sparse compared to other seasons when more overlap occured.

The 'Butterflies' in the post title refers to the magnolias of the same name. They still has very few open buds presumably due to the constant cold, but the trees are attractive enough in bud never the less. This is one of Phil Savage's hybrids and used acuminata as seed parent. It gains its hardiness from acuminata, but blooms are susceptible to frost damage which will quickly turn them brown.The blooms average 10-16 petals and are not particularly large, but they arrive in great numbers each year. Butterflies is also a rapidly growing tree and blooms from an early age.... Larry

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More on Magnolias...

Yes... there have been a number of posts about magnolias lately and there will be more if we keep avoiding getting mushed by frost. After all,  there are 62 magnolias in the gardens and just now magnolia blooms really are 'la fleur du jour' at Oak Lawn. Of course hardly a day goes by when I don't express some concern with the temps... tonight for example we are predicted to have 32 degrees or below and unfortunately the winds will be very light. We just finished two days with winds cold and up to 40 mph which caused some browning of blooms, but since many of the blossoms were quite fresh, they held up better than I expected they would. For tonight I've covered what I could and am once again hoping for the best.


There are several magnolias in what I consider to be "full bud" and ready to pop open... they'll hold up to the cold better than any blossoms that have fully expanded at this point. The two 'Butterflies' trees are really going to be a sight once we get a warm sunny day... here are some photos from this morning...

In the following photo, 'Butterflies' is flirting with 'Galaxy' which is much darker colored this year than normally, probably due to the cold temps of the past week.

Another tree which has been on hold for a few days but I suspect will burst open very soon , is Magnolia soulangiana 'Brozzoni'. While a few of the magnolias are a bit shy on flower buds this year, some are blooming the heaviest I've ever seen, and Brozzoni is in that category...

Magnolia 'Simple Pleasures' continues its marvelous process of opening only a portion of its buds at a time... this will go on for weeks. It is pictured below with Magnolia 'White Rose', some of the blooms of which are showing browned areas due to the high cold winds we've been experiencing.

I think my biggest disappointment of this magnolia season would be if my 'Toro' blooms were to freeze. Two years ago the plant put out a half dozen blooms and they were amazing, large and very interestingly colored. Last year there were only a couple blooms, but this year is a different story all together. The tree is covered with huge buds of raspberry to muted yellow tones. And to think this tree may eventually reach 50- 75 feet in height. It will be important to retain the lower branches if possible and I can almost picture what a glorious sight it will be...

The little girls are doing their thing as well... pictured below is one of two 'Ann'(s) in the gardens and  'Betty'(s) with 'Pinkie'(s) ... I enjoy the colors on these trees although the blossom form isn't necessarily my favorite except for Pinkie... in the last photo of the group, some the last blooms of 'Spring Snow' can be seen cavorting with buds of 'Betty'.

One of the trees thin on flower buds except towards the top this year, is this 'Wada's Memory'. My experience has been that this is quite out of character for this plant...

I've been checking out this naturally hybridized seedling that I mentioned the other day. The more I see of it, the better I like it. In a magnolia blossoming world where bigger seems to mean better, and I admit to being guilty of feeling this way myself, this precocious little 8' sapling is displaying the most delicate little 1 and 1/2" blossoms that are absolutely lovely. Because of its location I am sure that Wada's memory is one of the parents and I expect that one of the "Little" girls is the other, hence the soft pink tones.

The following pictures are not particularly impressive, but I have to say that I am as excited as I can be about their subject. A year and a half ago I started primula seeds in late November and I am just now seeing the resulting blooms. I can picture dividing them into a great number of plants and filling these spaces with them... the colors are wonderful and have caused me to reconsider my preference for more subtle tones (only) in primulas...

I spent another wonderful day with my gardening friend 'Frog Pond'. This time we spent a few hours checking out every detail of my gardens and then went looking for nurseries with plants for sale, which was not very rewarding as it's way too early in the season. We also had our usual plant exchange from each other's gardens which is always fun. After my friend returned home, he sent me a few photos of what's blooming there and I'll share some of them here. I especially enjoyed seeing his Magnolia 'Crescendo' which was named by him and is becoming available throughout the world. You may recall that my young Crescendo tree had a problem last fall with all its roots severed except for one, I have no idea why. I dosed it with lots of rooting hormones and it came through the winter just fine, and is about to present me with its first four blooms ever. In fact, there are several magnolias in the gardens that will be blooming for the first time this year... that's always very exciting.

As an aside, many folks mentioned that they wanted to come at magnolia season this year for a garden visit... I expect some will be surprised to learn they will have missed them all together... despite a return to normal temps, the cycle will have passed about four to six weeks earlier than normal.

At any rate, here are some photos from my friend's garden taken this morning... with that I bid you well... Larry

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