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.

Oyama magnolia flower bud

This fairly large (5-6 cm) flower bud superimposed naturally on the plant's leaf was interesting to observe and it made an interesting image; a mature flower bud of our Oyama magnolia (Magnolia sieboldii) adjacent to one of its leaves.  The perianth of the flowers are a very pure white so the buds made a stark contrast.  It's been described as looking like a shrub bearing hard-boiled eggs. How lovely that descriptive image!  The flowers are pendant on the plant and the red androecium contrasts nicely against the white perianth, but they are a bit hard to see until the plant gets taller than yourself.  This is a very attractive late spring flowering magnolia, and while not in the common nursery trade it can be bought mail order from several sources. It seems fairly hardy in zone 5.

Friday Fabulous Flower - Oyama magnolia

Wow!  Just wow! A new magnolia in flower is just so exciting!

  Our Magnolia sieboldii, the Oyama magnolia, is several years old, a somewhat skinny shrub about six and a half to seven feet tall. It's winter hardiness has always been a worry, so TPP did not know what to expect after the severe cold this past winter. Surprisingly, there was no winter damage and it has produced a handful of flower buds; it's first flowering. As the buds enlarge, they shed the bud's outer layer leaving a flower bud that looks a bit like a pointed boiled egg.  When open the flowers are 3-4 inches in diameter and composed of 9 white tepals in three whorls of three. The many stamens are pink-red in color, and the outer most are larger and more petal-like.  The flowers are borne on the ends of branches and pendant, so you must walk under the plant and sort of look up to see how pretty the flowers are. Enjoy!

Friday Fabulous Flower - Eggs on a bush

Last Friday the Phactor failed to post a fabulous flower for a very interesting reason; the hotel internet cafe had their filter set way high and it denied access to my blog on the basis of its "adult" content.  Well, this is hardly a kiddie blog; we are all adults and most of you act accordingly, but do you think it was the algal orgy or just the naked truth about sex (an attempt to pander for hits) that failed to filter?  At any rate, today's fabulous flower buds look like eggs on a bush, and here to negate the adult status of this blog it is necessary to point out we mean egg as in bird egg, not egg as in gamete or sex cell.  Oops!  Both the Morris Arboretum and the Scott Arboretum have collections of magnolias, but given our early spring, the BGT was a bit late for their flowering.  However the Oyama magnolia (Magnolia sieboldii) flowers later along with the sweet bay magnolia.  The flowers are pendent and have quite striking whorl of red stamens to contrast with the creamy white perianth so they look quite good when viewed from below, which means this shrubby species will have to get fairly tall to afford you this view.  Our 5 yr old specimen  is 7-8 feet tall but has yet to flower.  It seems marginally hardy in our area but did well with the just past mild winter (no die-back).