Tag: spring bloom

  • Magnolia Season: Noticing the South’s Grand Flower With Full Attention

    Magnolia Season: Noticing the South’s Grand Flower With Full Attention

    Late May in Georgia belongs to the Southern magnolia. Its blossoms are enormous, sometimes wider than a dinner plate, creamy white against dark glossy leaves, and they carry a lemony sweetness that hangs in the warm air. They are also fleeting. A single flower lasts only a few days, which makes the season an invitation to pay attention.

    An ancient flower

    Magnolias are among the oldest lineages of flowering plants still living. Their basic form appeared long before bees existed, and they are pollinated mainly by beetles, which is why the petals (botanists call them tepals) are thick and leathery enough to withstand a clumsy visitor. The center of the flower, with its cone-like cluster, looks ancient because it is.

    The genus is named after Pierre Magnol, a French botanist of the 1600s. The Southern magnolia, Magnolia grandiflora, is native to the southeastern United States and has become a symbol of the region, appearing on state flags and seals and in the front yards of countless old homes.

    A short practice for one tree

    Find a magnolia you can reach, in a park, a neighbor’s yard or your own. Then give it five unhurried minutes.

    • Look first at the whole tree: the shape, the way the leaves catch light on one side and show rusty brown fuzz on the other
    • Choose one open flower and study it closely, noticing how the tepals curve and where the color shades from white to cream
    • Lean in and breathe. Magnolia scent is clean and citrusy, nothing like gardenia’s heaviness
    • Notice the sounds around you: bees in nearby plants, wind in the stiff leaves, traffic in the distance
    • Find a bud that has not opened and a flower that is browning. Let yourself see the whole cycle in one tree

    This is a simple form of mindfulness, a way of resting attention on one real thing. People often come away from it feeling calmer, though the point is the looking, not any result.

    Bringing a bloom inside

    A magnolia blossom in a wide, low bowl is a classic Southern centerpiece. Cut the flower with a short stem early in the morning, float it in water and expect a day or two of beauty. The tepals bruise where they are touched, so handle them as little as possible. The large leaves, by contrast, last for weeks and look handsome in a vase on their own.

    Living with a magnolia

    Anyone who has raked under a Southern magnolia knows the tree sheds all year: leaves, tepals, seed cones with their bright red seeds in the fall. It is a messy neighbor and a generous one, giving deep shade in summer and shelter to birds. If you are thinking of planting one, give it room; mature trees are large.

    The bloom season moves fast. Blink and the white flowers are brown. That is exactly why it is worth stopping, this week, for one tree and one flower, before the Georgia heat closes in and the season moves on.

  • Azaleas, Dogwoods and Wisteria: Noticing the Spring Bloom in Middle Georgia

    Azaleas, Dogwoods and Wisteria: Noticing the Spring Bloom in Middle Georgia

    For a few weeks each spring, Middle Georgia puts on one of the great flower shows of the American South. Azaleas blaze in every shade from white to deep magenta, dogwoods open their pale four-petaled blooms in the understory and wisteria drapes purple over fences and pines. The display follows the cherry blossoms and overlaps with the heaviest pollen, and it rewards anyone willing to slow down and look. Here is a short field guide to the three stars of the season and a few ways to enjoy them mindfully.

    Azaleas

    Azaleas belong to the rhododendron family, and the ones most people picture, the dense evergreen shrubs covered in bloom, are mostly Asian varieties introduced to Southern gardens over the past two centuries. They thrive in the acidic soil and dappled shade under Georgia’s pines and oaks, which is why they are everywhere in older neighborhoods. Peak bloom in Macon usually falls in late March and April, depending on the year.

    Georgia also has native azaleas, deciduous shrubs with looser, more fragrant flowers in white, pink, orange and yellow. The native azalea is Georgia’s official state wildflower, and the Piedmont azalea, with its honeysuckle-like scent, can still be found blooming wild along streams and woodland edges in spring.

    Dogwoods

    The flowering dogwood is a small understory tree native to the eastern United States. What look like its four white petals are actually modified leaves called bracts surrounding a cluster of tiny true flowers in the center. Each bract has a small notch at its tip. Dogwoods bloom just as their leaves emerge, often a week or two after the azaleas begin, and they glow in the shade of taller trees. In fall the same trees turn red and produce bright berries for birds. Dogwood festivals are a spring tradition in several Southern cities, and the tree is beloved enough to appear in countless front yards across Georgia.

    Wisteria

    Wisteria is the most dramatic and most complicated of the three. The cascading purple blooms that drape over abandoned barns, fence lines and tall pines in April are usually Chinese or Japanese wisteria, vigorous vines introduced as ornamentals that have escaped into the wild across the Southeast. They are beautiful and heavily scented, and they are also considered invasive, capable of strangling trees and spreading through woodlands. Admire them freely, but think twice before planting one.

    There is a gentler option. American wisteria, a native vine, has shorter, less fragrant flower clusters and a much more restrained habit. Several cultivars are sold at nurseries for gardeners who want the look without the takeover.

    Seeing Them Slowly

    The bloom lasts only a few weeks, which is an argument for paying attention now. A few ways to do that:

    • Take the same walk once a week through April and notice what has opened and what has faded.
    • Stand under a dogwood and look up through the bracts at the sky. The light through them is one of the quiet pleasures of the season.
    • Smell a native azalea or a wisteria cluster from a few inches away, then step back and notice how far the scent carries.
    • Sit on a bench near a mass of azaleas for ten minutes and watch the bees and butterflies work.
    • Sketch or photograph a single bloom rather than the whole hedge.

    A note for allergy season: the showy flowers in this article are mostly insect-pollinated and release little airborne pollen; the yellow dust on your car comes from pines and other wind-pollinated trees blooming at the same time. If you have allergies, talk with your doctor about what affects you. For everyone else, the spring bloom is simply an invitation. It asks nothing but your attention, and it is gone by May.