Every year, 70-80 garden tourists who also maintain blogs or other regular garden-related postings get together to see a city’s gardens. We call it a Fling and this year it was in Memphis.
Initially, I feared the heat of this mid-South venue; early June seemed a bit late for a visit. But it was just fine. We had a brief but exciting thunderstorm in the middle of the Saturday garden tours, but otherwise, it was comfortable enough, with a shady spot always at hand.
And as always, there was so much to wonder at in the private gardens we were privileged to see. I’ll get to that in another post, as well as the interesting garden-related connections Memphis has to Buffalo.
But first, before I talk about anything else, I have to rave about what were – to me – the most exciting plants of our tour. Everywhere we went, there they were in all their magnificent glory: Magnolia grandiflora, aka Southern magnolia and Lagerstroemia, aka crape myrtle.
By now, I am sure all our Southern followers are thinking of clicking away, not interested in my banal praise of plants that may be ubiquitous in their gardening environments. But I can’t help it. I was thrilled by them, especially the magnolias.
We have some magnolia cultivars in Western New York. They’re pretty in early spring, but drop their flowers pretty quickly and then they’re just kind of meh. These Southern ones, though. The trees – almost with a Christmas tree shape – seemed to line our route. The huge, waxy white flowers were often hanging low enough where I could lift them to my nose and revel in the lovely scent. I loved the leaves as well, though I can see where they’d need to be composted when fallen. Can’t envision them decomposing very quickly, either.
I believe there is some experimentation with Magnolia grandiflora going on in my region, but I don’t see crape myrtle staking a claim any time soon. In Memphis, these trees were quite tall, forming an arc of color overhead in some of the gardens we visited. I particularly remember a medium pink one, a huge specimen.
And apparently this is a flowering tree that stays in bloom for a decent interval. Those are hard to come by. Kousa dogwood is one that we have success with in Buffalo, though the flowers aren’t nearly as lush.
Though these are two trees considered common – and probably disliked by some – when you travel you look for regional plant life that you never see at home. It’s surprising how difficult that can be to spot. For example, most of what I saw in the Pacific Northwest last year were things we have in Buffalo, to varying degrees.
Anyway, thank you, Memphis, for welcoming me with magnolias.
I love Magnolia grandiflora! Thank you for the pictures and this post. We have these in the Pacific Northwest too! Though they probably aren’t as common here as in Memphis. My neighbor up the street has a huge one that totally shades her front yard and even with all the rain I think it takes 3 years for the leaves she lets pile up to decompose. Not garden related, but we had one in our yard in the house I grew up in. My mother used to use these and Camellia leaves in making deserts. She’d coat the top side in melted chocolate and then peel the leaf away when the chocolate hardened. She’d use the chocolate leaves to decorate cakes.
For the me the magnolia was the signature Memphis Fling plant — that and the daylilies. Crape myrtle is so ubiquitous here in Central Texas and throughout the South that I almost don’t see it anymore, but your post helps me appreciate it with fresh eyes.
Both trees are used here in landscapes in San Diego. But they rarely bloom as well or look as good as they do in the south. They need more water than most other trees recommended for here. Little Gem is as smaller magnolia and most common in landscapes here. Crape Myrtles need some reflected heat to bloom near the coast, but most also have some fall foliage color which is rare here.
I was amazed at the size of the Natchez white ones at the Memphis Botanic garden. The same selection is grown here but is about a quarter of the size at best.
I put two “Little Gem” Southern Magnolia trees at the back of my yard to block the back of a business. When they start blooming, the smell wafts deliciously over the whole garden. I keep mine limbed up, which is considered bad form, but it’s a small space. I’ve only had them for about 5 years, so time will tell if this is a good decision. Thanks for visiting Memphis this Fling.
In the early 90s, I moved to Atlanta for my first stint in grad school. At the time there was a shuttle that would transport those of us living in university-owned grad student apartments to campus. I’d grown up in Virginia and thus was familiar with magnolias, but that was insufficient preparation for the heady aroma that filled the air in spring when the magnolias were in bloom. We would open all the windows on the bus and be practically drunk on the magnolia fumes by the time the 15-minute ride to campus was over.
I never met a magnolia that I didn’t fall in love with. When we moved up here into zone 5b, I took a chance and transplanted my Magnolia virginiana, Sweet Bay. It is native to the US, but primarily to the southern areas. It has done very well, blooming more each year as it matures. It does lose its leaves each winter, whereas in the south it would assume a Rhododendron habit of being evergreen. If we don’t experiment with a plant’s tolerance, we’ll never know.