Category Archives: Magnolia diary

Magnolia Diary number 6, 23 August 2009

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The view from the corner today

The view from the corner today

Winter may have struck early and cold here this year, but at the other end of the season a magical spring has arrived early. With no wind and fine sunny days, temperatures are now reaching up to 18 degrees celsius and the flowering is terrific. The early campbelliis have been and gone, as has Lanarth, Vulcan is just past its peak, sprengeri diva is flopping, sargentiana robusta and Sweetheart are at their peak. Felix Jury looks fantastic as does Black Tulip. The soulangeanas and mid season hybrids are all opening, including our newest release, Burgundy Star.

Mark Jury - first flowers this season

Mark Jury – first flowers this season

Felix Jury’s main output using the magnolia he named Mark Jury are all in the early stages of opening, as is Mark. Manchu Fan is opening – this hybrid performs really well here for us in the reliable, smaller growing white goblet class. Ruby, planted next to Manchu, is pretty ho hum here, as is Rustica Rubra. But then we tend to prefer solid colour in our magnolia flowers, rather than the pale insides to petals and that is just a matter of taste.

Starwars is opening on our roadside boundary (our road verges are astonishingly beautiful at this time of the year). Starwars was bred by the late Os Blumhardt and we were enormously impressed with how good it looked in the UK and Europe. In fact we wished we could claim it as ours. But here it is best in its bud stage. While it flowers very well, the tree is a rather large grower and the flowers lack good form when fully open and the petals lack substance. It was far more a stand-out plant in Europe than it is here.

The also-rans can be as impressive as any named variety on their day, and if they aren’t they get chainsawed out PDQ. You can’t name everything and to get a magnolia on the market means there are many (very many) reject seedlings. We keep chuckling at Baby Tulip which is basically Black Tulip shrunk down in size to be a shrubby stellata type of bush covered in baby dark tulip flowers. It is not good enough to name and release, but it is a little cutie which is a contrast to the enormous flowers opening on the likes of Iolanthe, Atlas and Felix Jury.

Referred to here as Baby Tulip

Referred to here as Baby Tulip

Magnolia Diary number 5, 19 August 2009

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Magnolia Felix Jury

Magnolia Felix Jury

When Magnolia Felix Jury first flowered, it was pretty clear that Mark had taken the step that his father, Felix, had been aiming for with his earlier breeding of Iolanthe and Vulcan. Here was the big campbellii type flower on a young plant with strong colour. Mark named it for his father, even though it may be seen as a slightly unexpected memorial for a man who was a quiet and modest person and of slight stature. The magnolia is none of these. It is large flowered, robust and simply spectacular.

What was even more gratifying for us on our recent trip to the United Kingdom was to see how very well Magnolia Felix Jury is performing there. We walked into the Garden House in Devon and there in pride of place at the entranceway was a fine specimen. It was in leaf but Mark still recognised it instantly. The head gardener confirmed that it is in such a prime position because it performs so spectacularly well and we found that in a number of other gardens around the country. To say that Mark was quietly chuffed is a bit of an understatement. There is no certainty that plants which perform well in New Zealand will be equally good overseas.

Magnolia Felix has been described as a giant pink cabbage on a stick

Magnolia Felix has been described as a giant pink cabbage on a stick

It is difficult to get full tree shots of magnolias, and especially for the original Felix which is planted in a grove of seedlings, but this plant in our park is about 12 years from cutting.

Felix Jury in our park

Felix Jury in our park

Black Tulip is also in full flower and it seems that this will be a good season all round here for deep colour. There are various theories internationally as to what affects the depth of colour but most seem to be anecdotal rather than scientific. We just feel that some years here we get better colour than other years. New Zealanders tend to take the red magnolias for granted and don’t really understand that the deep colours are unusual internationally.

Magnolia Black Tulip in full flower

Magnolia Black Tulip in full flower

Magnolia Diary number 4, 16 August, 2009

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Magnolia Lanarth - now past its best

Magnolia Lanarth - now past its best

One night of rain and Magnolia Lanarth is in decline for the season. Passing over. We don’t mind that Lanarth looks a picture of perfection for such a short time but we can understand that it is a problem for people who live on small sections and who prefer prolonged flowering.

sprengeri diva - great from a distance

sprengeri diva - great from a distance

Campbellii has peaked too but in front of our campbellii tree, Sweetheart (a Caerhays Belle seedling raised from a Ron Gordon plant and named by Peter Cave) is just opening and is very much pretty in pink. Sargentiana robusta and various stellatas are also opening. Sprengeri diva is in full flower and looks great from afar, but floppy and a tad scruffy when viewed close up. We need more substance in blooms in our conditions with wind and heavy rain.

Michelia doltsopa is flowering around the district. The form in our park was named and released by Peter Cave as Rusty but we have never sold it. Quite simply, we think it is too large. Sure, our plant is only around 10 metres tall – but it is a good 20 metres wide. By my maths, that means that Rusty takes up around 300 square metres of land area. That is a large plant growing from a central trunk and not suckering.

We intercepted the neighbours out sniffing on a morning amble yesterday (and diverted them to coffee). All Mark’s doltsopa hybrids are coming into flower and indeed the fragrance is delicious from the road as well as in our garden. The neighbours were wanting the full on scented experience, having detected it even while driving home.

Fairy Magnolia Blush

Fairy Magnolia Blush

For the domestic garden, Mark’s first michelia hybrid to be released is opening its flowers. Fairy Magnolia Blush is reasonably compact (and clips well) with distinctive pinky purple flowers of reasonably large size. This cultivar is on the NZ market and will become available overseas in the next few years.

The first flowers on Burgundy Star. Doltsopa seedlings behind.

The first flowers on Burgundy Star. Doltsopa seedlings behind.

The row of stock plants of Mark’s Burgundy Star are opening their first flowers though the original plant in our carpark is hardly showing colour. In our opinion, in the proper reds Burgundy Star takes the cake so far.

Magnolia Diary number 3, 13 August 2009

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Black Tulip opening now

Black Tulip opening now

At this time of the season, it is all the dark magnolias coming into flower. The only other colours we have are the soft pink campbellii and one early pink and white seedling which has been left in situ because it provides a contrast to the wine red, purple and deep rosy colours coming out all around the property.

Black Tulip is opening more flowers every day. This one has caught us by surprise with its instant popularity in the market place. Mark named it because the flower, while not large, had such a lovely tulip form and very heavy, dark petals which gave it good weather hardiness. And it is never going to become an enormous tree. The original plant never throws a pale flower so we were disconcerted to see that pale flowers can appear on trees in other locations. While we accept the occurrence of both dark and light flowers on Lanarth, modern hybrids are expected to be uniform.

If you line up a Black Tulip flower beside a good Vulcan flower, there is not much difference in colour. What makes Black Tulip appear so dark on the tree is that the petals (or, more correctly, tepals) are so thick that no light can shine through.

Black Tulip

Black Tulip

We usually advise people to plant Black Tulip in locations where it is to be viewed close up. In the landscape, the flowers can be so dark and relatively small that they tend to meld into the environment whereas viewed close up, it has certainly captured the imagination of the public. It is being trialled as a street tree in New Zealand and we recommend it for driveways, lawn specimens or back of the flower border in home gardens. On a very recent visit, we were gratified to see it as a flagship plant for John Woods Nursery in the UK and to hear that it is performing better than Vulcan. It appears that the British public are as charmed by the perfect flowers as the New Zealand public and can see it fitting into smaller, modern gardens.

But on a larger property, our personal tastes lean to something more over the top and flamboyant which has maximum wow in the landscape – Felix Jury is opening its flowers.

Magnolia Diary number 2, 11 August 2009

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Leonard Messel, just opening

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

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

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

Rejected campbellii type hybrids