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One of the spring sights that always impresses me is a magnolia tree in full flower. There are several of these not far from where I live and they were magnificent just a couple of weeks or so ago. Their pink flowers are gone now, so last year I was surprised to see magnolia flowers in a garden we visited in mid-May.
I am so used to seeing spring magnolias in flower around here that I was unaware (or had possibly forgotten) that there are summer-flowering magnolias too. A quick read up on them was required!
Depending on the variety, magnolias can flower from spring up until September but I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen any of these late-bloomers. There’s a particularly lovely white-flowered magnolia (Magnolia sieboldii) which I would love to see – and photograph, of course!
It was a matter of luck that I was able to photograph the magnolias here. The flowers are often too high up on large trees for me to be able to get near enough to them. These were just at a nice height for me! Hopefully I will find more of these lovelies on future garden visits…I will certainly keep my eyes open for them.
Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature 
I would never have thought of magnolias in Britain. A quick check of Wikipedia reveals that “the natural range of Magnolia species is disjunct, with a main center in east and southeast Asia and a secondary center in eastern North America, Central America, the West Indies, and some species in South America.” That article includes a photograph of the Magnolia sieboldii you mentioned.
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Thanks for the link, Steve. Magnolias were brought into Britain by plant hunters and are a garden or arboretum tree here. Many get really large but a friend has the smaller ‘stellata’ in her garden and it’s white flowers are a pretty sight in spring.
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Very pretty pink flowers!!
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Thank you Indira! Their raggedy petals are pretty! 🙂
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I really like the second photo. The way the curve of the petals shapes the light inside the flower is wonderful. We have a similar flowering tree here that everyone calls a ‘tulip tree.’ I got curious, went looking, and now am thinking it might actually be a tulip magnolia. It’s certain that I’ve never seen a true ‘tulip tree’! What an amazing sight!
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I’m very glad you like the photo Linda! 🙂 Magnolias are very photogenic but I rarely get the chance to photograph one. Thanks for the link! Both trees spectacular in flower, but I do think the tulip magnolia is the more beautiful of the two. A few years ago, our local council planted some trees on the green in front of our house. A couple of them have leaves very like that of the Liriodendron, which makes me think that they could eventually get far too big for the site. (And not good news for our solar panels if they’re close enough.) However, they don’t appear to be growing well, so we’ll see…
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Such exquisite flowers. I hope it won’t be long before you will come across Magnolia siboldii.
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Thank you Tanja – I’ll be very happy to see any of these beauties! 🙂
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Magnolias are so impressive. I wish I had room for even a small one.
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Me too, Jill, but my garden’s just not big enough! So I just have to admire other people’s magnolias instead.
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