Magnolia Madness

I cannot remember another year when the Magnolia stellata looked as beautiful - just had to share a few of my favourites. Two of the photos are from my sister-in-law Joanne's garden. The third is from the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington Ontario.

I had always managed to miss the Magnolia's period of flower at the RBG. Many years I would just stand under the lovely old trees mid-summer and imagine how pretty it would be with the branches full of blossoms and petals covering the ground. While the Saucer Magnolia or M. soulangiana were in bud and just starting to bloom, I was just delighted to see the petals from the M. stellata making a snow-like carpet at the base of their trunks.

In this area, we do have problems with scale, that is controlled, but not eliminated by horticultural oil. Magnolia grow well in both sandy and clay soil throughout this region - much to all our delight this year!