Tikorangi The Jury Garden

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Iolanthe yesterday morning after the storm - the petal drop was prodigious

Another fierce storm here two nights ago sorted out the durable magnolias from the fly by nighters. Poor old Mark Jury has gone for the year. He only looked sensational for a week. But his progeny are faring better. It is pretty remarkable how much petal drop we can get from Iolanthe and still have a tree full of flowers. The winds blew the petals over 40 metres away. These are short, sharp incidents of storms which last a few hours only but the strong winds and torrential rain certainly causes damage to magnolia blooms. Viewed from a distance, Felix Jury looks great but seen close up, there is quite a bit of damage and bruising and it is the same story on Iolanthe, Milky Way, Lotus and Athene. Cultivars which flower down the stems (as opposed to the short lived stars which set flower buds only on the tips so there is one mass flowering and then it is over) extend the season and there is a second chance to open undamaged blooms. Our white stellata is bravely flowering on through all conditions. Suishoren can blow apart rather easily whereas Manchu Fan takes pretty well all the bad weather in its stride.

Burgundy Star opening its flowers

Burgundy Star is the last of our reds to open and the original plant in our carpark is nowhere near to peaking yet. It is a very dark red and on the tree appears to have lost much of the magenta tone which can dominate the other reds. Mark is still hoping that he will get a good plant which is pure red (and we have some hopeful candidates on the track) but in the meantime Burgundy Star makes a very deep red pillar. It being three quarter liliiflora nigra, we are hopeful it may have more hardiness than some of our other selections.

The Snow Flurry series flower on

Serene is the last flagship magnolia to flower here and is just opening the first flowers. None of the American yellows are open yet, but these mostly flower too late for us and are breaking into leaf at the same time. The doltsopa hybrid Snow Flurry series of michelias flower on and are wonderfully rewarding. The season on the michelias lasts considerably longer and we have many to follow. Alas we have to be very circumspect about what we show of new breeding lest it cut across the chance to patent later so this diary will not be showing the flowerings which make us most excited here.

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Leonard Messel, just opening

Our magic early spring weather continues (and believe me, we never take the absence of both wind and rain for granted here) and more magnolias open every day. Leonard Messel is showing his first flowers. Leonard is sold as a small growing magnolia in this country, to be planted perhaps where something shrubby rather than a tree is required. So we were amused to pace out our plant which is only about 20 years old at the most and to find that its footprint is not a lot smaller than many of our substantial magnolia trees. It is just shorter in stature so it looks smaller but it still measures nigh on nine metres across. Leonard Messel looks splendid on its day when in full flower, but the petals and form lack much substance and in a windy climate such soft characteristics mean it can start to look rather raggy.

One of the early flowering Snow Flurry series

Michelias have been the subject of an intensive breeding programme here for some time now and the early whites are all coming into flower. Botanically michelias have been reclassified as magnolias, but we admit that for clarity and understanding, we lean towards calling them michelias in conversation. We refer to these early whites as the Snow Flurry series and while we can not post a photo of the one we have selected for probable release, we have shelter belts full of the also rans, or rejects. Indeed we have so many that Mark now calls them his sustainable woodlot as he chainsaws off branches to feed our small (very small in number but increasingly large of size) herd of beef cattle to get them through the shortage of late winter feed. Coppiced michelias – these may be a first.

Mark's sustainable woodlot of reject michelia seedlings

Besides Lanarth and campbellii, it is the also rans in the deciduous magnolias which are the most spectacular today. Too good to chainsaw out but not quite good enough to put into commercial release, we have a run of what Mark calls his instant campbelliis flowering around the boundaries. Instant because they flower on very young plants (it can take many years for campbellii itself to flower), but this strain of magnolias bloom too early in the season and the trees grow too fast and too large for modern gardens. It is likely that they will remain forever in our shelter belts and on our boundaries where they can look splendid for us.

Rejected campbellii type hybrids