Spring in the Garden: Star Magnolia

Aside from the more prosaic yellow forsythia, one of the earliest bloomers in our garden is our Star Magnolia (Magnolia Stellata).

You might wonder why we would dedicate an entire post to a single plant... and the truth is that we think it's really pretty and since it's quite easy to grow in most climates, it's a contender for "beautification" in virtually any setting... and it adds flowers at a time of the year when little else is in bloom.

It is one of those "bare branches bloomers" that fills with beautiful (and slightly disorganized) white flowers, long before any green starts to show on the branches.

The fuzzy looking buds will become more flowers

Ours is now in full bloom (as of March 22nd), a little earlier than usual thanks to a very mild winter, here in the Pacific Northwest. Normally, early April is more its flowering time.

We take pictures of it every year, so the time stamps on the photos paint a pretty accurate picture of flowering season!

Our Star Magnolia is about 15 years old now, but it remains more of a "large bush" than an actual tree, even though we have never pruned it... beyond some very minor "cutting to shape" of branches overhanging the lawn.

That might not be such a bad thing, since the previous owners of the property planted it very close to the septic tank, so we want to avoid any "root invasion."

That said, these plant do eventually grow into small trees, particularly if you help shape their rather sprawling growth habits. As mentioned, we don't really have a lot of room for growth, so we're not going to let it get a whole lot bigger than it already is.

The first signs of life actually manifest in late February, when the rather fuzzy buds start growing. In the budding stage, they seem quite hardy, and even when we have had significant late winter freezes it has not affected the explosion of blooms!

The white flowers have long "floppy" and somewhat waxy petals, and are about 4"-5" across. They seem to last about 2-3 weeks when they're on the bush/tree, but if we try to cut any and bring them in as cut flowers, they start dropping the petals almost immediately and are usually dead within a day or two.

This fly clearly thinks there is something good here!

I really can't determine that they have any scent at all (and I have a pretty good nose!), but the heart of the flower often has insects around it, so I have to assume that they do give off some kind of scent that perhaps only insects can detect.

Of course we have to keep in mind that their flowering season is extremely early in the year and there are very few insects out and about at this time of the year, and this is definitely before any of the bees start flying around, even the early bumblebees that visit our apple trees when they bloom.

To give a sense of scale, the round bush at left is about four feet tall

Overall, this is one of our favorite "signals" of early spring in the garden... and it's a lovely "showy" plant that pretty much takes care of itself and require very little ongoing care and maintenance.

In our coastal climate, it is a fairly slow grower but a very reliable one.

I was trying to get a close-up here, but I don't think the macro setting on my phone quite understood it!