The perfection of Magnolia blooms

When I was growing up in England I was aware of magnolias as most towns had gardens with towering trees filled in spring with glorious light pink Magnolia blooms. It wasn’t until this last year that I realized what a huge variety of Magnolia trees were available. I think that this is partly the fault of garden centres that generally only stock a couple of options, namely the soulangiana and the stellata. However, there are around 400 varieties of Magnolias from different parts of our wonderfully diverse planet.

There is a type of magnolia available for every size of garden but it is worth doing some online research before you buy, considerations are:

  • Hardiness
  • Eventual size of tree
  • Number of years before the tree will produce it’s first flowers
  • the colour of the flowers

There is a fantastic specialist nursery on the edge of Lake Maggiore in Switzerland www.eisenhut.ch .  If you can, visit them in March when the magnolias are flowering.

The images in this post were taken last year in the Eisenhut park.

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