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| A Star Magnolia outside Valley Lodge |
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| Magnolias in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden |
Magnolias do grow in the northern United States including New York and New Jersey where I lived. The New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, the courtyard garden at the Frick, and Frelinghuysen Arboretum all have beautiful displays. My favorites though were the Magnolias in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. They have the most magnificent Magnolia Plaza there and you can smell its fragrant blooming trees from blocks away during Spring.
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| homemade magnolia wreath inside my conservatory |
I even had a few Star Magnolia trees in my own garden. And one Sweet-bay Magnolia that I grew mainly for the fruit pods and waxy leaves I used in my Christmas decorating. But even so, Magnolias up north always seemed so out of place to me.
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| my front door |
I think Magnolias look their best growing in the Southeastern United States. Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, the Carolinas, Virginia and especially Northern Florida where I went to college.
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| photo of Susan by Esme |
I do not have any photographs on Facebook or on my laptop of the gorgeous magnolias on the campus of the University of Florida. They are all in old photo albums back in storage. I do remember that there were some truly grand specimens growing all over the original parts of the campus.
But here is a photo of my Florida college friend Susan in front of one of the (younger) blooming Magnolias on the campus of Florida State University where her daughter is currently enrolled in their prestigious Music School. (Susan is on left; the Magnolia is on the right. Wearing that scarf and jacket, she could be mistaken for a young Magnolia herself!)
Like the Jacarandas, the Magnolias here in South Africa are certainly not native, but then again neither am I!
Whoops! See (I stand corrected.)
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