Magnolia

Big, Fuzzy Pods

| Flower Roberts

Our big leaf magnolia took over a dozen years to produce its first big, beautiful blooms. After thirty years of its living here in our yard, it has finally made numerous  pods.

Magnolia macrophylla pods


Magnolia macrophylla pods are larger, rounder and fuzzier than the cultivated type that is common in the south, Magnolia grandiflora.

M. macrophylla Pod


They remind me of royal scepters. Green and yellow pods are very fresh and should not be harvested until they turn tan or brown in late summer or fall. These can be used in arrangements.

Magnolia pod/fruit/cone


There are also medicinal and culinary uses for the seeds. I have never harvested pods, but I may try to preserve one of these in the fall.


I love everything about this tree. It is one of my trees that I literally hug when I visit it.

FLOW

Under the Magnolia

| Flower Roberts

I love to stand under this Magnolia macrophylla. It has the largest single leaf and largest single bloom of all the North American native trees.

Magnolia macrophylla

This tree is naturally found in only certain spots of North Carolina. I admit to moving this one out of a friend’s yard, near Charlotte, several decades ago. It has thrived in its new location.

Its common names are Bigleaf Magnolia, big-leafed cucumber tree and umbrella tree. It is a native of the southerneastern United States.

Its leaves splay out from central branches like opened umbrellas. It has an interesting form even in winter as these braches reach up like arms of candelbras.

I am lucky to be able to see its big white blooms from up on our deck. These flowers are so high that they are hard to see and impossible to smell from the ground.

Magnolia macrophylla blooms in April in NC

This tree is a treasure.

FLOWER

Magnolia Time

| Flower Roberts

If I had not come home yesterday and taken my camera out into the gardens, I would have missed the Magnolia blooms.

Magnolias do not wait. They do not linger until noticed. They bloom and brown in their own time.

I did come home. I did take my camera out in the afternoon.

The blooms are brown this evening.

Beware of wasted time and missed opportunities.

FLOW

My Gran’s Magnolia

| Flower Roberts

I got to wander around in my friend Sandra’s yard this weekend.

As I stood under her Magnolia tree I took a trip back in time, to my maternal grandparents’ yard.

Their home was on a hill looking at Hibriten Mountain.

At the drive was a huge Magnolia.

I played under that tree. I thought the blooms were magic.

Gran had a special vase just for a bloom.  I have it now.

The pods reminded me of bear’s claws.

My sister and I mentioned the tree to Gran while she was in a nursing home, near the end, basically unresponsive.

A tear rolled down her cheek.

I don’t know how to explain loving a tree or bush or flower,

but some of us really do.

FLOWER

 

My Friends’ Magnolia

| Flower Roberts

Almost thirty years ago, we were given a young Bigleaf Magnolia (Magnolia macrophylla) tree from the yard of some friends.

We admired a larger one of these trees through a sky-light in their dining room.  It looked like big green umbrellas.

Magnolia macrophylla
Magnolia macrophylla

The Cunninghams dug up a small one for us that evening.

The tree is now over twenty feet tall.

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Last year it had its first ever bloom.

This spring it has eleven.

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Worth the wait?

You tell me.

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Wait for the FLOWER.