Magnolia Society Blog

When you are a magnoliaphile in the Northern Hemisphere and it is 28°F in Warsaw, 17°F in Chicago, and 7°F in Beijing, the best thing to do is fix yourself a cup of something warm to drink and cozy up to some plant catalogs.

Don’t have any on hand? Our Where to Buy Magnolias page – recently updated and grouped by geographic areas – will give you some suggestions for where to look.

Perhaps the 181 varieties of Magnolia available from Burncoose Nursery in England will tempt you.

Or head down under to Yamina Rare Plants for Magnolia ‘Felix’ among dozens of others.

Maybe Magnolia Raspberry Glow™ from Klehm’s Song Sparrow Nursery might be just the thing to cheer you up on a dark winter’s night. Prefer to have some in-person advice on magnolia selection? Roy Klehm will be speaking at our 2013 Annual Meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, in April.

Don’t see your favorite magnolia supplier on our list? Send us your suggestions for additions. And happy spring planting!

For magnolia lovers, the place to be right now is California. From now through March, San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park is celebrating “Magnificent Magnolias.”

Their collection -- dating back to 1939 and containing 51 species and 33 cultivars -- includes many prized specimens such as Magnolia campbellii 'Strybing White' (pictured here in a photo by Joanne Taylor), which at 80 feet is the largest magnolia at the Garden. This special white form of the species was grown from seed purchased in India in 1934, propagated at the Golden Gate Park Nursery, and planted here in 1939.

From a magnolia-inspired cocktail class with Master Mixologist H. Joseph Ehrmann, owner of the renowned bar Elixir, to a magnolia mobile making class for families, this celebration includes something for everyone. Expert and self-guided walking tours of their exquisite collection are offered from now through March – with some of the tours taking place by moonlight. Visit the San Francisco Botanical Garden website for all the details.

A lunar new year celebration in mid-February will focus on the collection’s magnolias from China. As attendees at last year’s annual meeting of the Magnolia Society can attest and as noted in Botanical Gardens Conservation International’s 2008 Global Survey, the San Francisco Botanical Garden is host to some of the most significant magnolia conservation work outside of China.

With University of California Botanical Garden just across the Bay and Quarryhill Botanical Garden not too far away, the San Francisco area is an ideal destination for seeking out rare magnolia species from China.

And on February 13th, plan to head south to Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, for our Magnolia Study Day. Magnolia Society President Andrew Bunting and Board Member Bill McNamara will join Huntington’s Kathy Musial and Tim Thibault in a half-day of presentations and tours of their collections.

Let the magnolia season begin!

North America is currently captivated by season three of the high manners and high drama of Masterpiece Theater’s “Downton Abbey.” Shot on location at Highclere Castle, just west of London, England, it is a good reminder that old estates are excellent places to find mature tree specimens.

Some very fortunate Magnolia Society members will find that out first hand this March when they meet up for our England tour. They will have the opportunity to visit some particularly lovely English estates -- including Caerhays Castle, Borde Hill, and Wakehurst Place on the upcoming trip to Cornwall and Southeast England in February.

Alas, this tour -- led by Jim Gardiner, Director of Horticulture for the world-renowned Royal Horticulture Society, former Magnolia Society president, and author of Magnolias:  A Gardener's Guideis already sold out. But you can still either join the waiting list by contacting Just Go! Holidays -- or plan to live vicariously through the photos and collected observations that will be posted on our website during the tour.

In the meantime, as you watch the lush landscape settings on “Downton Abbey” this season, keep an eye out for magnolias. It might be just the excuse you need to go back and re-watch seasons one and two!

In the February/March 2013 issue of Organic Gardening Magazine, now on newsstands in North America, Magnolia Society President Andrew Bunting shares his passion for magnolias in the cover article “Magnolia Magic.”

Check out the online article for descriptions of some of Andrew’s favorites, including M. 'Butterflies' pictured here, and this photo gallery for some inspiring images of the featured specimens.

From the yellows to the “Little Girls” to Magnolia acuminata, there is sure to be something on this list for every garden. Bookmark this article and take it with you to the nursery in the spring!

It’s that time of year when Magnolia Society memberships are due, but this year we have new tools for renewing your membership online. Here’s how:

If you have provided your email address to us in the past, please go to this page where you will be prompted to log in. Note: If you haven’t logged in before, click on the Password Help link on that page to receive your temporary password to use the site.

If you haven’t given us your email address in the past – or the website doesn’t seem to recognize you – please use this Join Us link to renew your membership.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any difficulty using the new site. And stay tuned for member-only features – such as Seed Counter offerings and access to the Journal archive -- coming soon to the website.