Friday Fabulous Flower - Oyama magnolia

Is there anything better than having a cool magnolia flower in your garden?  Magnolia sieboldii, Oyama magnolia, is pretty near its cold hardiness limit here in the upper Midwest, and worse, it doesn't handle late frosts or freezes very well, so this year TPP was expecting the worst from a not so late freeze, but earlier warm weather had pushed bud development along.  Still things turned out well. This year its flower buds survived unharmed and the result is quite nice, especially as it flowers later than most of the magnolias. Our plant is fairly young, planted in 2013, and it's basically a shrub having been frozen back a couple of times. The flower buds end up looking almost like  hard-boiled, shelled eggs hanging from the end of a branch or twig. The tepals are quite white, and the pendant flower has a cup-like shape, so look up.  Inside the flower sports a helix of red anthers.  Appropriately ours is located in a Japanese garden bed with lots of other Asian species.  Dr. Chips has a nice one in his yard if you happen by his place, and there is a nice specimen at the Morris Arboretum that usually flowers for Mother's Day.

Botanical Geek Tour #4 - Day 3

Another interesting and quite beautiful day for botanical touring.  Of course it was Mother's Day, and you know flowers sort of attract mothers and kids, so gardens were sure to be busy today.  This AM we did the Morris Arboretum, and everyone was quite impressed; it is a beautiful arboretum with very nice gardens as well.  Morris houses a number of very large trees, and the most impressive specimen was a Kadsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonica) of an impressive size.  More on Morris later.  Next after a stop at a brew-pub for some lunch the tour took in the Scott Arboretum that occupies the campus grounds of Swarthmore College.  It was eerily quiet as this is after graduation, and campuses never quite seem right largely devoid of people, but without question, this is the most extensive and diverse arboretum to occupy a college/university campus, and in this category, the Phactor has seen a lot of college campuses.  From somewhere the Phactor managed to recognize and remember Torreya, another huge specimen, having only seen a small tree once before.  Unfortunately our timing was off for the magnolias (too late), however some nice specimens of Styrax were seen at several locations.  The concentration of botanical gardens in the Philadelphia area is impressive and probably a greater concentration of botanical gardens does not exist anywhere in the USA.  In addition to the itinerary covered so far, there is the Camden Children's Garden, the L. W. Barton Arboretum, the Philadelphia Zoo (tomorrow), the Shofuso Japanese Garden, the Awbury Arboretum, the Highlands Gardens, the Ambler Arboretum, the Wyck House Garden, Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve, H. Schmeider Arboretum, Hortulus Farem Garden, Tyler Formal Gardens, the Hagley duPont Garden, Nemours Mansion and Gardens, Welkinweir, Wintherthur, the Arboretum at Barnes Foundation, Chanticleer, Haverford College Arboretum, Henry Botanic Garden, Jenkins Arboretum & Gardens, and Tyler Arboretum.  Can't understand how it was that we could only work in 6 in 3 and a half days.  Ah, but tree affectionados take their time.  So details will be forthcoming.  Oh, yes, and there's a bell, liberty, and all the rest too.