I dream of Magnolia Genie

I am on a bit of a magnolia thing at the moment.  It is their time of year so I hope to be forgiven.  Ilove seeing them in front gardens as I pass by and I seem to have accidentally acquired a few in my garden when I pause to count.

There is the large soulangea in the front garden: the sight of whom when I first saw this house, started my falling in love with this garden.  There is a small stellata in the Conservatory Border, M. Leonard Messel, M. Jade Lamp, the other Magnolia I bought with no label and M. Fairy Blush and the  other small stellata I bought last year and have recently planted into the side garden (more of this one another day.)

I also have Magnolia Genie, bought six years ago just as the pandemic was setting in.  I kept this tree in a pot for a couple of years and this was a mistake.  The tree was in flower when I bought her, but then would not flower again.  I hoped that getting her into the ground would resolve this issue.  

I planted her out near where the dead trunk of the eating apple tree holds up my Wild Edric rose.  A couple of times she nearly flowered but then hard frost hit and the buds failed.  This was very disappointing.  She was not thriving at all and frankly, I considered digging her up and moving her elsewhere.  But I know that magnolias are no fan of being moved; so whilst I kept thinking it, for once the wisdom fairy insisted I held my nerve and I did not dig her up.

Then this year, suddenly there were buds.  Good sized buds that lasted long enough to start to split open.  

I paid great attention to progress.

as the days have warmed up in the past couple of weeks, the pace speeded up.

and of course, as regular readers would expect, I also was worrying about frost.  We are still in the frost zone with at least another three weeks before I would expect to be safe from it.  She has just got through a couple of cold nights so my optimism is high.

So far so good; the flowers are opening and they are well worth waiting for.  I am hopeful now the tree will continue to progress and start to thrive as hopefully it has set its roots down.

Time will tell.

Take care and be kind.

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