I’ve Got One Outside

Where do Magnolia Tree’s come from?  In invested fifteen minutes in the topic and quickly ascertained that the tree was first studied in the west in the early eighteenth century.  But were Magnolia’s endemic plants of one region or another that, like pumpkins and potatoes were later introduced to the Old World from the New World, or vice versa, when human, transcontinental migration intensified. 

It would appear that China, and Japan, as well as North America have had the tree for tens of millions of years.  So even though Billy Holiday sang about Magnolia’s “sweet and fresh” and I associate them with the deep south of the U.S., they are a flora of the world.  I’ve got one outside my house near the garbage cans, that is very beautiful. 

This compound we live in here, is not particularly different from the other compounds.  They’re all more or less the same overpriced, underwhelming constructions that vaguely replicate a suburban experience in the U.S.A.  The last one we resided in was fine but it was distinguished in one important way:  whoever served as their Chief Horticulture Officer had a big budget and took his or her work very seriously. There were things blooming all year long and at this time of year the grounds really exploded with blossoms.  Our current joint by comparisons has lots of dull cedars, the odd cherry blossom and, of course, our Magnolia. 

So while I miss all the variety, there is a month or so, every year when I’m very glad for our Magnolia Virginiana.   The tree is now in full bloom.  It exploded, as it always does into a radiant, pulsating wash of white, seemingly overnight.  Every morning, as I leave for the gym at 6:20AM, I am compelled to pull out my phone and snap yet another picture or two of the tree.  I don’t need any more pictures of this tree.  I have hundreds I suppose.  But aside from my family it is likely to be the most beautiful thing I see all day.  Already the petals have started to fall.  Soon it will be a not-unpleasant field of green leaves.  But this bloom is temporal and it compels me to try to capture it, anything to maximize and prolong my appreciation of this remarkable tree in bloom.

Tuesday, 3/27/18