Magnolia bonanza

One consequence of our late spring is that plants held back by the cool weather are all rushing to flower.  As a result our gardens had quite a few magnolias in flower all at once.  Right now Magnolia soulangiana, saucer magnolia, M. liliflora 'Ann', tulip flowered magnolia, and M. x butterflies are all in flower at once.  So that would be pink/porcelain, purple/pink, and yellow flowers terrific.  TPP couldn't be happier.

Lab materials getting thin

Come on spring!  It's hard to teach a plant taxonomy lab without some spring flora to work on.  Some Cornus mas and some Bradford pear finally decided to flower after a week and a half in the glasshouse. A couple of mimosoid legumes are starting to flower, and TPP missed an opportunity with a tropical caesalpinioid tree that flowered over the weekend by surprise (all at once it drops whole new twigs bearing several leaves, and flowers out of very large buds - managed to catch it once for some pictures), but some pickled Cassia and Wisteria flowers will help the students get an idea of the bean family sensu lato.  Same goes for some members of the lily family to compare to some walking iris (Dietes).  Pickled specimens are never the best, but they are better than nothing. So far it's only been snowdrops.