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"Possibility and promise greet me each day as I walk out into my garden. My vigor is renewed when I breathe in the earthiness and feel the dirt between my fingers. My garden is a peaceful spot to refresh my soul." Meems






Welcome to my Central Florida Garden Blog where we garden combining Florida natives, Florida-Friendly plants, and tropicals.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Fragrant Flowering Southern Tree


The month of May brings along with its arrival so much life. Growth is abundant and free. All living things seem to flourish in this beautiful spring month. Reminders of springs past are blooming with fragrances so rich the power of them permeates the gentle breezes of mornings and evenings.

Don't you just love it when you actually smell a sweet scent in the garden unexpectedly! At once the familiar intoxicating fragrance is recognized encouraging me to look up to find the pristine petals opened wide in the large Magnolia Grandiflora or as its more commonly known, the Southern Magnolia tree.

Besides the perfect shape of this tree and the wonderful blooms it produces, I use the shiny over-sized evergreen leaves in fresh flower arrangements all year long but especially around the holidays.

The large, showy white flowers (8-12" diameter) that appear in spring and the cone-shaped seed pods covered with red seeds in the fall are a good trade off for the messy leaves that litter the ground in winter.

Happy to have one of these southern icons in my back garden I am breathing deeply as I mill about the garden.

22 comments:

  1. What lovely photos, Meems! It seems your magnolias are very happy, and I agree they are grand southern trees. We are on the very northern edge of their range, and all the ones around here are looking poorly after our dip below zero in Jan. I'm so happy you shared yours.

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  2. Oh how I love to smell Magnolia blossoms, Meems. There's nothing that smells any better I don't think..

    When I lived in Texas, I would stop by the park (where there was a huge Magnolia tree) --and take one blossom to my office at work each day as long as there were blooms. The office smelled SO good....

    Have a great day tomorrow.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  3. Beautiful pictures, I can practically smell them!

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  4. I have to n my small backyard that I wouldn't have planted. I like them and they smell so wondeerful right now and they bloom off and on all year down here. I wouldn't have planted them because the get so large and the backyard is so small.

    Great pictures of the blooms!

    Jake

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  5. That is truly a grand flower! I have always wondered whether I could grow a magnolia tree here...

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  6. I love magnolia trees, and I always associate them with the South, even though we have a couple varieties here in the Midwest. I envision Scarlett O'Hara sitting under the magnolia tree in her hoop skirts:)

    I just finished dinner, but those tomatoes from your previous post are making me hungry for a delicious BLT!

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  7. Meems,

    We love these flowers so beautiful and they fill the air with a lovely aroma. Stayed at a beach house once that had a large lawn full of them in full bloom it was something.

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  8. What beautiful shots of the magnolia blooms. I wish I could grow it up here in the cold north.There is just something about the blooms that you have to love.

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  9. The magnolia flowers are perfect and look simply stunning! Beautiful pictures!

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  10. Makes me yearn for some red velvet cake in the shape of an armadillo....

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  11. Love magnolias! Ah, the sweet scent on an nice evening, sitting on the front porch.

    Cameron

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  12. There really is nothing as sweet as the scent of a flower on a warm day. Beautiful photos.

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  13. Ah, that's a grand looking magnolia!
    Katarina

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  14. Oh I do love the scent of Magnolia, but I just can't stand the mess they make with the leaves.

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  15. Those blooms are spectacular, I can only imagine the sight of the entire tree!

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  16. I wouldn't mind the fallen leaves at all. I think I could be happy with a garden of just magnolias and gardenias. Has God created any lovelier fragrances?

    Have a JESUS-filled day! ^i^

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  17. Meems, There really is nothing like the sweet smell of a magnolia in flower...Many candle companies have tried but they are always failures at duplicating its scent. The color is a perfect creamy white and you've captured it beautifully. ...gail

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  18. The white shades of that flower are striking. Layer upon layer of beauty.
    Brenda

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  19. i am so jealous! i must get by while your 'southern magnolia' is still in bloom! my newly planted magnolia tree is producing new leaves, but no blossoms this year. however, after waiting for years for the mister to agree to having a magnolia in our yard (he hates the mess they make), i can exercise some more patience for my tree to produce flowers. your pics prove they are close to perfection in their beauty!

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  20. Meems, I simply marvel at the perfection in that blossom. And I can almost smell it all the way up here! I remember that intoxicating scent when I was in Little Rock, Arkansas a few years ago. Mmmmmm...

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  21. meems i really love this all white version of a magnolia bloom...i saw a fascinating variety at the farmer's market wednesday. it looked so tropical...the leaves like banana leaves and the bloom was at least 6/8 inches across.
    yours are wonderful and i am sure you can't help but be intoxicated with it's heady scent.

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  22. This tree is the reason I wanted a magnolia so badly in my Colorado garden. I grew up with them and miss them terribly. Your photos really do the gorgeous blooms justice, now if only I could smell them too. Luckily I did some research and found a tree that will most likely make it here (Magnolia 'Jane'). It's blossoms are pink instead of white but at least I'll have a beloved magnolia in my garden.

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Have a blessed day,
Meems


September 2010

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