Magnificent MAGNOLIAS
Ginny Clark on the perfect antidote for winter gloom
IT’S ALWAYS EXCITING when we get new release plants available for the home gardener. It’s even better when these have been bred here in New Zealand, thus only available to us, the humble urban gardener.
In New Zealand we are lucky to have some of the best magnolia breeders in the world. As a result, we have a wide range of colours and types available to us that flower from a young age. If you choose carefully your garden can have magnolias blooming from now until October. Magnolias are perfect for cheering up a dull space in the dead of winter.
A new release for 2022 is Magnolia Honey Tulip. Bred in the Taranaki, this marvellous early spring flowering tree has golden honey blushed blooms shaped like a tulip. She will make a lovely addition to a small garden as a small specimen tree.
Her cousin Magnolia Black Tulip is also a must have and is renowned for its deep black/red tulip shaped blooms, which are out right now.
Magnolia Vulcan, in my opinion, is one of the best. You will see the huge burgundy red Vulcan flowers in Tauranga gardens now. The colour of the big flowers against a blue winter sky is really quite something.
Magnolia Genie has sensational black, red buds which open into large deep maroon flowers. Genie is a small bushy tree, so again is excellent for the smaller garden.
Three other stunning recent release magnolias that will be available again this season include:
■ Magnolia Summer Magic has a dark green foliage and huge flowers that colour from purple to dark pink. This magical tree blooms from an early age every spring with a second flush of flowers in the summer.
Summer Magic grows no more than 1.5m wide and only 4m tall in 10 years making it perfect for the smaller urban space.
■ Magnolia Baby Bird is another exclusive variety. It has lovely soft creamy yellow tulip shaped blooms all over the small compact growing tree which will eventually get to 4m.
■ Magnolia Sentry reaches just 3.5m tall and only 1m wide making her ideal for that
difficult to fill narrow garden space. Perfect for the urban slither of garden! The flowers are goblet shaped crimson with a pale pink inside.
Of course, there are other magnolias available now too like Denudata, Burgundy Star, Athene, Red As and the Stellata types. So, if you are looking for something new in the garden and you do not have much space then one, two or all of these may just be perfect for you or a pressie for a new homeowner.
When planting dig in plenty of compost, stake the tree securely, feed with slowrelease fertiliser and water well through the first couple of summer seasons and you will have a tree that gives you pleasure for many years.