I’m not from the south but I could be. I love the beautiful flowers of magnolias. When My oldest moved to South Carolina with her husband I had my first over the top magnolia experience. Walking downtown Beaufort the overwhelming scent of sweet lemony magnolia was amazing. Since that time it has been a bit of a passion to have magnolias in my garden.
In South Carolina one of the most planted magnolias is the ‘Magnolia Grandiflora’. It is a lovely evergreen with large flowers and glossy green leaves. The blooms are bigger than your hand and creamy white. The trees can grow very large and somehow manage to escape the winds of hurricanes. I love the cultivar ‘Little Gem’ and ‘Bracken’s Brown Beauty’, both are more compact and able to handle the load of our occasional snow without broken branches.
A favorite from just a few years ago is the Magnolia ‘Black Tulip’. This is a cultivar that I’ve been planting about 5 years. Monrovia Nursery is now growing and selling it. I love the dark red/pink color. Now if you know me I’m not a big fan of pink. I like colors to be what they are. Either red or white, pink seems between colors not either.
This lovely tree was planted last year and it seems like it responded well to partial sun instead of full sun. The one I had planted in my old garden was not as saturated in color as this one. I think there is a definite benefit from the partial shade it gets in the morning.
One of the first to bloom in my garden is the Magnolia maudaie. This has a little brown on the edge of the blossoms now because it was blooming in the beginning of March. We have had a couple of cold days since it bloomed and the frost damaged the blooms just slightly. The blossoms are well worth the trouble if they don’t get a late frost.
A relative of the Magnolia is the Michelia which looks like a mini Magnolia. The outside of each blossom is covered in a fuzzy dark brown sheath. The blossoms, while small, are still beautiful, creamy, and fragrant. The evergreen leaves are glossy miniature versions of the Magnolia grandiflora. The delicate stamens and petals are amazingly like the bigger magnolias.
Now on my list is a new cultivar called Magnolia Sunsation. I saw it at the Northwest flower and garden show this year. After the show I tried to find the cultivar but ended up calling the company that had them in the display garden. I’m ready to go next week and pick up a 12-foot specimen. I’m excited to have a cultivar this new in my garden.
Here are the particulars (source):
During the 2011 Magnolia Society meeting in Rhode Island, a majority of ladies in the crowd raved about this abundant bloomer with its rosy-accented flowers. It’s a wonderful selection due to the warm color tones, blooming later than any of the other yellows and before the emergent leaves. August Kehr, the hybridizer, would have never accepted much credit for this plant he created, but he deserves all our thanks for his exceptional work, including this plant. Interesting story: On the way to see Augie from Raleigh, NC Pat McCracken and Mark Krautmann decided to accept August’s invitation to name all of his (at that time, only numbered) superior yellows. Before we got to Hendersonville, where he and his wife lived, we came up with Stellar Acclaim, Sunsation, Solar Eclipse, Hot Flash, and Sunspire. Augie was too modest to name his own “children”.
Flower Color: Yellow
Zones: 5-9
Growth Habit: Tree
Height: 20-30
Spread: 8-10
Light Needs: Sun-Shade
Flowering Season: Spring
Leaf Color: Green
These wonderful plants are good contributors to the garden. The structure of trees is important in the layering of the garden. They also provide shade where needed. Color at different times of the year, whether in leaf or in flower is a good addition to the garden.
