On a whim, I bought an Ashe Magnolia, or Magnolia macrophylla var. ashei, about this time last year. It’s a rare, native understory tree now endangered in its home state of Florida. Huge leaves — nearly 2′ long — are what drew me to it. But I was really looking forward to the 10″ flowers.

This spring, my gangly little 4′ stick of a tree rewarded me with a single blossom…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then today…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The petals curl up about an 1″ underneath, so it really does measure about 10″!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The scent is intoxicating!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our backyard now smells like a pricey brothel.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2012 at 11:45 am and is filed under projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.