Jury evergreen Magnolias or Michelias
Fairy Magnolia Blush in full flower
Mark’s michelias (syn: magnolias)
Mark comments that to get a plant on the market takes so many years that by the time it is finally released, he has long since moved on. The exciting stages here are the first flowerings on a new hybrid and the time when it is decided that a cultivar is good enough to put into trialling. This is why it has taken us so long to get his Fairy Magnolia Blush and Honey Velvet onto our website.
Fairy Magnolia Blush - clipped twice a year
Michelias have been reclassified botanically as magnolias but to the general public, they are likely to remain known as michelias. We tend to swing between in what we call them but the Fairy Magnolia branding adopted and trademarked by our agents (Anthony Tesselaar International) recognises that these are magnolias but marks out the different territory to the big leathery leaved, grandiflora types which are what most people know as evergreen magnolias.
Mark has been working with michelias in a concerted breeding programme for around fifteen years now and we have many hundreds, if not into the thousands, planted around our property. The crosses have become increasingly complex but sadly we have learned some hard lessons about not divulging information as freely as we used to. In fact we could be described as positively evasive these days but we find late winter and spring very exciting here as the new crosses flower and show further progress, even breakthroughs at times.
Fairy Magnolia Blush - extending the colour range
Fairy Magnolia Blush is the first release of a new range of compact growing cultivars with increased flower colour and size. It is a downstream foggii hybrid but considerably denser in its growth and more compact than straight foggii crosses. Unclipped, it makes a dense, large shrub to about four metres high by two metres wide. However, it is easily shaped by clipping twice a year and our row of pompom standards have been kept to around one metre in diameter. The flowers open from pink buds and have a definite pink flush. At the start of the season, we have deeper colour and we think that the colour may prove deeper in hotter and drier climates than ours. Its flowering season extends up to three months, although late flowers will not be as good as early to mid season.
Honey Velvet - a dianica or yunnanensis selection
Honey Velvet (Magnolia dianica syn. Michelia yunnanensis) This is just a species selection but chosen for its large flower which is honey cream rather than creamy white, extended flowering season and healthy performance. Some dianica selections are inclined to defoliate when we get a wet and cold spring, but Honey Velvet has not shown that tendency here. It is hard to beat a lovely dianica in flower.
Honey Velvet, front left and the more usual cream dianica to the rear and right
