56-2 : Koen Camelbeke : September 17th 2007

This is an early autumn. Acer x freemanii, Euonymus americanus, Disanthus cercidifolius are already in full colour. It’s a great time of year. The low evening sun gives us a warm, filtered light through the trees and shrubs. And I try to enjoy it as much as possible, because summer was wet and cool and late summer was equally unpleasant. Thus a few warm and sunny days make it all worthwhile and people get happy and go outside… But let’s talk Magnolia!

Mike: The sprengeri diva you talk about (W688 from Peter Cave’s plant) is that the real thing? Is there actually still real ‘Diva’ around? I wonder whether your “tiny plant” would already be big enough to provide some scion wood… I find your pictures with the habit very interesting and I know from experience that it’s much easier to take a good close-up than a good overall shot. These pictures can indeed give an idea of how well a certain flower or colour stands out in the garden. I agree that ‘Honey Liz’ stands out. Very big, deep yellow flowers. But floppy. I do not really mind them being floppy, but many people equal floppy with untidy or even ugly. Did you try ‘Green Bee’? The also floppy flowers are smaller, but can even be more intense yellow than those of ‘Honey Liz’. Quite a sight! I once had an in-depth discussion on ‘Maxine Merrill’ with a.o. Charles Tubesing from the Holden Arboretum who has an original Phil Savage plant. The flower does favour subcordata but is paler yellow and the flowers open before the foliage. ‘Maxine Merrill’ has from loebneri the kobus genes for tepal number. So, I felt the same way as you when I first saw ‘Maxine Merrill’ flowering, but later became convinced that ‘Merrill’ is one of the parents. ‘Merrill’ is not a typical loebneri, it sometimes has few tepals and quite large.

Maurice: I agree with you praising M. sprengeri “diva” and its forms and hybrids. Sprengeri remains one of my favourite species within the genus, for many obvious reasons. I took over the “flower-power” index you talk about together with our collaborator Herlinde De Jaeck. Herlinde does a tour of first all and now a selection of Magnolia taxa every three days of the flowering season. She gives a code to the plant reflecting the flowering stage in which that certain plant is and we encode this on the computer. We have quite a big set of data now. And your request reminded me that time has come for writing something down! I was interested by your comments on the yellows. I agree that ‘Daphne’ is one of the best for flower colour, but was surprised by your statement that ‘Woodsman’ is not worth its space! I know that one should not discuss colours and tastes, but I have always liked ‘Woodsman’. Some years I prefer ‘Woodsman’ over ‘Eva Maria’ and other years vice versa; both are close to my heart. Anyway, our yellow flowering Magnolia’s were quite pale this year. Especially those that are already pale to start with (the first generation crosses). April was extremely dry and hot and I think that the high intensity of the sunlight (UV?) and maybe also drought (?) played a role. Does that make sense? I would like to note that apparently the Mag’s with denudata blood are most sensitive to becoming chlorotic on alkaline soil. Does your trial confirm this observation?

Lennarth: I must start with some bad news! For some reason our nursery man did not succeed in grafting the soulangeana’s you have sent. This is very strange as he is really a first class propagator. I do not understand what went wrong. Do you have a clue? Could you resend some material in due course (next summer?). Sorry about that! I will go out and collect some biloba seed to make it up to you! We have been very successful so far in protecting our young plants against deer damage by just placing 4 bamboo sticks around the main stem bonded together at their top with a plastic cord (that will wither with time). One rabbit however managed to enter the Arboretum. So far it only ate our young Astrantia’s but we need to keep an eye as it may switch to Magnolia in winter. I hope Philippe will then go out with his rifle as I have never ever killed an animal with a gun!

Mark: I would be interested in a picture of and your opinion on ‘Orchid’. This has been one of the most uninteresting and disappointing Magnolias in the collection for years. I would call it a failed “girl”. Really not worth growing. Or do we have a bad clone?

Dennis: Waaw! All these nice and new and interesting and stunning crosses! Where do you plant all these Magnolias? I suppose you must have a huge estate packed with our beloved plants? While America took a rest, Europe gave a great show of Magnolia flowers (another difference between the two continents?). Anyway, I was quite impressed by your sieboldii x grandiflora ‘Russet’ and ‘Yellow Lantern’ x ‘Butterflies’. I suppose these are not available as yet?

Equally impressive of course is the macrophylla hybrid. The leaf form (and texture?) are reminiscent of tripetala (not auriculate). The flower bud also makes me think of that species. But the open flower seems somewhat different. Macrophylla influence there? The leaves are HUGE. That must then be the heterosis effect? Do you know M. tripetala ‘Bloomfield’? A selection of tripetala for its big leaves.

Dick and Philippe: regarding the yellow trial. I believe it would indeed be a good idea to try something similar over here in Europe. Dick could you please send me the grant application (see your last contribution to this robin)? We could have a trial at Wisley where there is already a good collection of yellow flowering Magnolias near the Piet Oudolf borders. Maybe Mike (RHS Group Chairman) and Maurice (RHS Woody Trial Committee member) could help us organize or start such a trial? How does it work? We could then do the same over here in Wespelaar on the continent. Oops. Now I see that Philippe already “ordered” some scion wood of sieboldii x ‘Russet’ and ‘Yellow Lantern’ x ‘Butterflies’. So yes please Dennis, if that is possible, it would be great!

So, dear Friends, instead of writing something down of my own, I just answered to all your individual contributions. I hope you do not mind this different approach.

Let me end with two recommendations. ‘Royal Crown’: one of the best for re-flowering in summer. salicifolia ‘Miss Jack’: almost always very fertile and thus laden with small fruits and seeds. Attractive in September!

P.S. Two years or so ago I was struck by an orangey flowering brooklynensis Magnolia at the RHS Garden in Wisley (UK) which was labelled ‘Lois’. I knew it was not ‘Lois’ but had no idea what this great plant’s name might be. Jim Gardiner has now been able to retrace its steps and the correct name for this cultivar is ‘Judy Zuk’. One I would like to recommend.

Many greetings to all of you!

Koen

56-3 Mike Robinson 5^th. November 2007

This will be a brief contribution as I’ve turned into a domestic following my wife’s discharge from hospital. I hope this metamorphosis is temporary.

Lots of growth here in SE England, with one graft growing almost 2 metres. Little sun, but the flower bud set on the established plants is very good for the fourth year running. Almost all the considerable seed set has been munched by squirrels – the first time they have developed a taste for magnolias.

Low light levels so no flower bud on my younger plants of the Michelia section. However, as Maurice also said, Manglietia insignis is an upright shapely summer flowering tree. The flowers have a different and very pleasant scent.

I’m a bit concerned that the borderline Michelias have not hardened off their growth, so hope for a mild winter. Getting impatient with maudiae – not a flower on a 2 metre plant.

The RCM group has running a test of magnolias on alkaline soil at Tim Whiteley’s garden in Northamptonshire for the past three years. One or two species succumbed to the cold winters there, and it is too early to be scientific about the results yet, but most species seem to be doing fairly well, with the notable exception of s. robusta.

Welcome, Lennarth, to the company of those who believe deer is best on a plate. Here I have to plant almost all trees in 1.6 metre high wire netting enclosures about a metre in diameter (as Dick Figlar does, I think) – once the plants have outgrown these the trees survive the occasional browsing. Occasionally a deer gets enmeshed in the netting and runs off in a panic with it attached, and serve it right!

Your cross of Patriot x Pink Surprise looks superb - I’d love to see it in the flesh.

It certainly seems that the cultivars with kobus or stellata, and perhaps salicifolia (all the Japanese species) have more frost resistant blooms than the others spring flowerers. I wonder if the species from E China will be as resistant – My amoena is a hybrid, I think, so is no true test.

Both macrophylla and dealbata have been wonderful this summer – blooming to give a fine show initially then sporadically thereafter. I agree with Philippe about Mark’s hybrid tripetala x macrophylla – it looks almost all tripetala, but the hybrid vigour shown in its big leaves makes it a worthwhile addition.

Dealbata seems to setting seed here – which macrophylla never has: the plant is itself a seedling from Nigel Holman’s introduction to Chyverton

Mark, your seiboldii x grandiflora is a must have – congratulations. Was the seiboldii polyploid by any chance – crossed with the high chromosome grandiflora nearly always seem to reproduce as grandiflora? Sweet Love also looks very nice.

I’m interested to see that your Yellow Lantern x Butterflies seems to have11 tepals. Where did those extra two come from?

Dick, what happened to your Michelia section species in that ghastly spring frost? Anything to be learnt about hardiness: in particular what has re-grown after being cut to the ground?

Philippe: I still prefer Elizabeth to Yellow Lantern, but the comparison isn’t yet quite fair as Elizabeth here is 10 years older. At present it is more floriferous and spreading than Yellow Lantern.

Koen, My Diva W688 came as a scion from Peter Cave’s large tree in New Zealand. He assured me that this was a graft from the Caerhays tree – he is certainly the sort of man to have engineered material out of Caerhays when no-one else could. My plant has flowered at 1m high this spring, and checks out true. It is growing well and I want to distribute scions – next summer, all being well.

Most interesting to know that you rate Green Bee as of the same quality as Honey Liz. Maurice gave me a small graft last spring.

I do agree that Merrill is not a typical loebneri. Maxine Merrill has still to show any real quality here, but I

do believe it is a hybrid. The idea of a trail of yellows starting, at least, at Wisley is a good one. I’ll raise it with Jim Gardiner and with the Group committee.

Jim raves about Judy Zuk – it certainly looks a good colour Finally I saw a 2.5m plant of a recent wild collection of dawsoniana at Howick last month – not the

expected multi-stem, but a fast growing upright young tree on a single stem. What does it look like in the wild? Best wishes, Mike Robinson

56/4 Maurice Foster 12 Nov 2007

Probably the best autumn ever here, long and colourful, with a wet summer promoting good growth followed by a warm dry September and an almost complete absence of wind. Magnolias vary greatly in response, from Copeland Court, notable for a clear yellow like a Carya (on an average day) to sargentiana robusta, which remains in stubborn summer green. The rest are the usual admixture of dark brown, yellow and green. The seed set was big thanks to a very warm dry period (some days around 70F) which got the beetles going at flowering time and Big Dude suffered branch break through weight of seed. The long red cones were an effective feature. M salicifolia Iufer set seed this year. This impresses us as a plant for the small garden, a dense 2.5m+ after 10years, neat candle flame shape, free flowering with exceptionally large salicifolia flowers. Not much activity on the magnolia front in the dark dog days of November. We cut our last M grandiflora flower three weeks ago and are grubbing and chipping to gain more planting space.

But a lot of interesting points in the Robin. First, trialling yellows. An excellent idea and potentially of great value for TMS members. There are a lot of yellows about. Did I hear that Pat McCracken has collected something like 80? I have 2 questions: how many cultivars are involved in the US trial? Would a limited number be acceptable? How many could Jim accommodate at Wisley? Two, how long would the trial last to give us a reliable conclusion? Would 5 or even 10 years be needed for a thorough evaluation? What are the criteria?

For trials of trees the RHS Trials committee recognise the pressures of time and space, take a pragmatic view and rather than planting extensive long term tree trials, evaluate relative cultivar merit by visiting existing, including national, collections in different locations.

If space and time do actually limit the possibilities, is there any value in an informal posse of itinerant cognoscenti getting together for a few days and visiting existing mature(ing) collections in Europe -Herkenrode obviously, maybe Holland, Windsor, Wisley, etc etc. and reaching a reasonable concensus on relative garden merit using the RHS AGM criteria in conjunction with the owners/curators?.

Lennarth, the question of the benefits of grafting onto a hardy rootstock is intriguing and I agree with Dick’s reservations. However some fastidious woodland rhododendrons seem to do better grafted onto ponticum, and lower altitude Asian sorbus onto rowan, probably through more tolerant and more vigorous root action. One possible advantage to grafting high on kobus might be that damage to susceptible plants from basal late frost barksplit (not uncommon here with lowest temperatures at ground level) could be mitigated as kobus is tough as an old boot. Also, kobus has a dwarfing effect and consequently shorter extension growth, which ripens better and resists cold better?

Mark, what is your pH? There doesn’t seem any pattern to your chlorosis susceptible/resistant plants with brooklyensis, acuminata hybrids and loebneris on both sides of the equation. We use a seaweed/ sequestered iron mix for roses as a remedy which seems to have an almost magical effect. The RCM group trial is on pH8 which is a real test but only species measured.

From memory our Butterflies, grafted onto kobus took 9 years to flower and frankly the flower quality was scarcely worth waiting for. Slow flowering does seem a characteristic of the cultivar. But it is genuinely precocious and always the first to flower. I agree about Black Beauty -lacking distinction is a most polite way of putting it - but if you plant it below sightline level you can see the custard yellow interior and the contrast means you may give it another year…… Dennis, your hybrids are amazing. A 9 inch 16 tepalled sieboldii style flower on a good grandifolia foliage form used to exist only in the realms of imagination. Is it fully evergreen? If you need a UK test bed I’m sure we could find room! Yellow Lantern x Butterflies looks a very elegant flower form. Does its habit favour the nice upright character of the seed parent or the shrubby port of the male? If Sunset Swirl (and Pink Heaven) has the vivid colours of Daybreak and is flop-free it is well worth registering. Does Sweet Love look as if it will make a real tree from the male influence? Is the flower as big as it looks? Altogether, a quite stunning gallery.

Dick, we could still see the effects of the big freeze on the native vegetation on the Blue Ridge in June. But the regrowth recovery was remarkable and rhododendrons and kalmias were awash with flower. I enjoyed the Raleigh meeting and learned a lot – in some ways it’s the people more than the plants that make these events - but was very unhappy to miss your collection, having to leave immediately.

Philippe, your Cangshan wilsonii sounds very like the Forrest plant (M taliensis) and the one seen by Roy Lancaster at Huadianba, north of the main range which he describes as differing from the Wilson type only in its less hairy leaves, hairs occurring only on the midrib, veins and petiole. You are doubtful as to its hardiness in Belgium -it might be hardy here and if you had a scion to spare I would love to add it to the collection and conserve it. I don’t think it was collected by the 1981 SBEC expedition. Your image of the campbellii on the Mekong/Salween divide looks like the pale forms of mollicomata seen in Cornwall probably from original Forrest plants, but I’ve never seen a pure white mollicomata, so could this be the type campbellii that far east? Surely not, but intermediates must exist. I gather that the typical campbellii alba of Bhutan spreads east into Arunachal Pradesh but recent trips have not moved into the eastern end of this Indian province to see how far it goes and I fancy further north in Tibet over the hill you would find mollicomata. Any thoughts on where the two meet and possibly introgress? It would be useful to plot the forms in their geography. Where does east meet west? In the far NW corner of Yunnan on the W flank of the Mekong /Salween divide above Gongshan there is bright purpish-pink mollicomata but while it has the slightly waisted bullet flower buds, the pubescence is not convincing and the tepals relatively narrow. Dark maroon young growth is common. I don’t recall ever seeing a campbellii in China that had not been cut. They seem to manage to flower from the regrowth before being cut again. You mentioned M decidua. How well is it growing? I find it stuck for 2 years and only this last year of high summer rainfall has seen it begin to look healthy, with around 20” extension growth for the first time. It also seems slow to ripen the wood. Now about 1.5m.

Koen, I don’t much care for Woodsman and would choose Eva Maria in preference. It may be my siting as it is a bit drawn up and you can’t stand back from it. The rather pinched fluted flowers are at the top, a dull colour and it really does not contribute to the garden landscape. I put Orchid in more or less the same uninspiring category. It’s rather like the old Japanese var called dorsopurpurea, with narrow tepalled flowers of unexceptional colour and character. There are so many better things to plant and without unlimited space decisions have to be made, and after drying thoroughly (no use green) the logs burn pretty well. Delighted that you propose writing up your ‘flower power’ index. I would value a copy. It is a unique set of data, both interesting and of enormous potential value to the membership in making decisions about what to plant. As good as, if not better than a trial….. How many seasons on board now? Will you produce a league table? I’ll be interested in how the summer plants fare and I dare think that two of my favourite garden plants, Elisabeth and David Clulow will be near the top, and the old soulangiana alba superba if the real thing is on your list. Hurrah for quantity plus continuity.

Best regards to all and, if its not too early, a Happy Christmas and a very Good Magnoliaceous New Year.

Maurice.

56-5 Lennarth Jonsson : 5 December 2007

Dear fellows of this Round Robin, In the end of May I was optimistic to get a decent summer though the normal lack of precipitation. June started warm and nice getting some rains in the nights. The row of M. acuminate var. subcordata happened to open in those days (about 2 weeks earlier than usual). You might recall I have said that seed setting is quite sparsely with me. But this year I harvested quite a few seeds from 3-4 trees (out of 14) M. acuminate var. subcordata. It is obvious that a warm temperature is extremely crucial for seed setting but the flowering of many magnolias can occur at a temperature lower than required for seed setting in my climate. My hypothesis is that the native insects that can pollinate magnolias over here are not programmed to be active at temperatures possible for magnolia flowering. The evolution has taught these pollinators to keep dormant until the summer has been established.

Anyway, the summer turned out to be one of the wettest and coolest since 1987. E.g. July in the province Blekinge is known to be reliably warm (on the average 16 – 17^oC) and persistently dry but this year this part of Sweden became the wettest in the country! At the Ronneby airport (some 45 km from my garden) a precipitation of 252 mm was recorded. It was the highest since the 1920s. And it August became almost the same. The reason was hot air moving north from the record hot weather in the Balkan peninsula meeting the artic air from north west over the Baltic Sea. I heard that the highest recorded in Reykjavik, Iceland, this year is 11^oC! Even in Blekinge we had highest of the day not exceeding 11-12^oC.

In my garden the rain in July gave almost 90 mm and the cool temperatures did not induced much of evaporation. So no doubt the soil had all the most required. Though the cool temperature all the magnolias and other exotes grew more than they have done for 10 years! It is clear that it is not the temperature or the poor soil that has been the bottle neck but the moist. Irrigation is most urgent in normal summers but that is not feasible in the island as it might give infiltration of brine water from the sea. Not an easy equation to solve.

In September 2007 I visited Dennis Ledvina and Philip Savage. In September I got an opportunity to spend a few days with Dennis. You might imagine that it was a great time for me together Mr Breeder. And you may guess that we discussed magnolias and breeding. My favourite subject; a summer flowering magnolia hybrid hardy in a cold climate was brought up by me now and then. Perhaps Dennis some time will pick up this challenge.

Dennis seems to have selected the perfect place for magnolia growing though Dennis – like I use to do complained about the persistent drought. Late freezing as Disk describes and I saw visiting Matt Strong in Kansas City did not affect Dennis garden as the plants were still dormant. When flowering starts up the weather is safely warm and the danger for a backlash is neglectable. Summers are hot and offer a reliable maturing of the magnolias. Of course, flowering was finished but that there were plenty of proves that there had been a conspicuous flowering: the prolific fruiting! The trees were like sausage trees by the numerous and heavy seed cones bending the branches down. Dennis said his looked as full of Christmas trees and that might be a better description due to all the red tags all over from Dennis pollinations. In this autumn the seed crop must have been in the magnitude of tonnes! Michael Gottschalk, Frankfurt, had made a pollen hunting trip to Eisenhut’s Baumschule and sent ample lots of pollen to Dennis of the most exciting M. campbelliis and their hybrids. And you might imagine that Dennis had used the pollen onto most everything in his garden. There are good reasons to expect many to the Magnolia world new hybrids. Dennis generously offered me to pick seed for bringing home to test in my harsh conditions. That worked as telling children in a candy shop that they might take whatever they want. Of course, it became too much and Dennis had to sent all the seed by mail a few weeks later. So I and other Magnolia lovers in Scandinavia are most excited what will grow over here.

Dennis and I have a problem in common: the magnolias are too tight planted. Well, it is worse in my garden. So Dennis have some acres not far from his garden a field where one row of Magnolia seedlings after the other are planted out to be evaluated and selected. What a sight when these starts to flower! That is not enough Dennis has another plot a short distance from south east coast of Lake Michigan. This region is by natives called “the Banana land”. However, it is not a place Dennis will manage to visit every day considering the distance from Green Bay.

Dennis has taken up another challenge: He is planting out his and Phil’s and other outstanding selections in the Botanic Garden in Green Bay. I guess that in the future it will for the Magnolia world be a place you must visit. I think that we shall appreciate Dennis initiative to do this planting as many gardens are lost when the enthusiast is gone, alas. Could there be public gardens having such outstanding collections efforts made will be preserved for the future.

Dennis took me also to the late Philip Savage’s garden in Bloomfield Hills. Tim Savage met us. He is full of shrewd humour (we had to be alert that he did not poke fun at two magnolia nuts) and encouraged us – or rather Dennis – to save material of Phil’s breeding. The heirs are going to sell the garden and in next year the bulldozers heard from a neighbouring garden will level the garden for constructing a home for retired people. I just wonder why not care for the great magnolias as that would be o great pleasure to the guests? Anyway, I recall my visit 20 years ago. The garden was planted with young trees and behind the house rows of Magnolia seedlings of Phil’s breeding were planted. Today they were all big trees and, unfortunately, in the last years Phil had not the power struggling with thinning out and selecting as before. So now many of these seedlings are pushing on each other and only those in the outer rows had developed, others had or were succumbing. But still outstanding clones are found and – above all – thanks to Dennis they will be saved for the Magnolia world. The famous M. tripetala ‘Bloomfield’ I remembered as a single tree but today this site had some big trees but the original ‘Bloomfield’ was not to be found. I have always imagined ‘Gold Star’ to be a small tree considering the parent M. stellata. But the original tree is now as big as a M. acuminate. So there were quite a few other clones I found much bigger than I had thought. Some of them are growing in my garden still small but I realize that if they will survive I will have considerable problem.

Not to hold up this Round I will just make a few more comments.

Koen: Many thanks for the generous seed lots of exciting clones. This seed and those from Dennis will give me and my magnolia fellows over here many exciting magnolias never tested before in the Nordic countries.

Philippe: Concerning Augie’s presumed crossing M. sieboldii x macrophylla (var. ashei) I got from Eisenhut’s Baumschule (who had got it from August Kehr). Augie was very disappointed with this crossing (called R-20) and regretted that he did not discard it. But I found it most interesting and appreciated it to be “a big M. sieboldii”. I told Wim about it and sent him some scion woods. So that is the story behind the plant in Wim’s collection. I have asked Pat McCracken about his opinion whether it is a true M. sieboldii x macrophylla crossing. Pat is convinced that it is and he also considers R-20 to be named and registered but Augie was not very excited on the idea. However, there is no guarantees that there might have been a mix up on way from Augie to me!

Mike: In the 1980s I was lucky to get seed of M. macrophylla var. dealbata from Mexico. But I came doubtful whether a Magnolia species native the Mexican mountains would make it in Blekinge. So I sent the seed to my friend Peter Borlase, at that time head gardener of Lanhydrock Gardens. He managed to grow 3 seedlings. Later Peter made some efforts for me to get some pollen for me from Chyverton Gardens. We decided that if Mr Holman would get one of the seedlings it might make it easier to be allowed to collect some pollen. We never got any permission to collect any pollen but in the early 1990s I read an article by Nigel Holman, in which he praised M. dealbata to be better adapted to the Cornish climate than

M. macrophylla. It had then started to flower something that M. macropylla never had in Chyverton garden. I met Mr Holman at the Magnolia meeting in Lugano a year later and said “this M. dealbata came from you I heard”. Anyway, due to this fact I have argued for wider testing of M. dealbata in Europe as it seems to be better adapted to the cooler European summers than M.macrophylla demanding the hot summers of south east USA. I have tried to get some more seed from Mexico but in vain. If any member of the group might have an opportunity to get seed visiting Mexico or knowing going to the region, where it is native, seed should be collected and introduced to magnolia enthusiasts in North West Europe!!

Please, note that I misspelled the (unofficial) name of the magnolia attached to my last contribution. It shall be M. ‘MALIN’ and nothing else. Sorry.

Sincerely Lennarth

56-7 Dennis Ledvina December 12, 2007

Greetings to all,

It was great to hear from all of you again. The summer was quite dry here with most of the rain falling south of here, which caused extensive flooding in Southern Wisconsin and the Chicago area. Because of the lack of moisture the growth was not as extensive as usual but the flower bud set for next spring is abundant.

The seed crop again was abundant and I had a special guest fly in from Sweden to help me with the harvest. After two days of ladder climbing here, Lennarth Jonsson and I drove to Bloomfield Hills to see the Savage collection for one last time. Because of a late frost in the Detroit area there was no seed to be found there, but I managed to collect a large amount of budwood for one last time. The large tree of m. tripetala ‘Bloomfield’ had already been destroyed by the developers and the rest were soon to follow.

Many interesting crosses were again made this year and some exciting HP seed has been sent to the Seed Exchange. The big project last spring was to cross some of the tender magnolias from subsection yulania with many of my m. acuminata hybrids. Michael Gottschalk of Germany was very gracious to send me a large amount of pollen from the Eisenhut collection. I hope somewhere in all the seed is a magnolia that is as hardy as m. acuminata and has the gorgeous blooms of m. campbelleii ‘Werrington’ or campbelli ‘Darjeeling’. I was also successful in making many crosses on m. sieboldii, several of the ‘big leaf’ magnolias, and m virginiana. In the summer of 2006, I was able to collect a fair amount of pollen from my m. sieboldii x m grandiflora ‘Russet’ cross, a magnolia which I unofficially call ‘Exotic Star’. This pollen was used with great care on ‘Colossus’, ‘Rose Marie’, ‘Red Baron’, ‘Angel Mist’, m. acuminata, m. virginiana, and on m. macrophylla X tripetala(?). I managed to get seed on most of the crosses but am highly skeptical of some of them and fear the beetle might have been competing with me. Much to my surprise the crosses with Colossus produced few seeds, every cross with ‘Rose Marie’ produced seed, and the cross with ‘Angel Mist’ produced a huge seed capsule. I am very optimistic about the cross of ‘Exotic Star’ and ‘Angel Mist’, because ‘Angel Mist’, a cross between m. officinalis and m. wieseneri, also contains m. sieboldii.

One of my goals is to produce summer blooming, fragrant magnolias so I have been adding m. virginiana to my collection. I have plants from native seed collected in Massachusetts which are very hardy but produce rather small flowers. ‘Havener’ and ‘Northern Belle’ are outstanding selections that have been hardy, but I am very disappointed with ‘Moonglow’ which lacks hardiness and vigor. Another selection that I am very excited about is m. virginiana ‘Green Bay’ (no connection to the city) that has been selected by Don Shadow. It has excellent foliage, and the largest flowers I have seen on this species. It blooms all summer with very fragrant flowers. I just planted three plants this spring so I have no report on its hardiness.

I am making the following comments on polyploidy only through observation and not with any scientific evidence. The ‘Colossus’ I have certainly does not appear to be hexaploid, even though it does have larger flowers than most m. sieboldii. It is a good breeder and produces excellent hybrids. ‘Patriot’ does not appear to be octoploid, and is also a good parent. Laser appears to be more then tetraploid, but has not bloomed for me. ‘Norman Gould’ certainly appears to be a tetraploid, but lacks flower bud hardiness here. It has produced fertile hybrids with m. liliflora such as ‘Roseanne’ and ‘Simple Pleasures’. ‘Sunray’ certainly appears to have more chromosomes than ‘Sundance’ and I believe this was the only successful doubling Augie made using a mature plant. The one that is a monster is ‘Gold Cup’, certainly not “gold” here, but with the heaviest textured flowers and leaves of any magnolia. The heavy leaf texture has carried over to its progeny and I am hoping that it will also be true with the flowers of its progeny. A cross of ‘Daybreak’ X ‘Gold Cup’ with gorgeous pink, non-floppy flowers would be a real achievement. also crossed ‘Sunray’ with ‘Gold Cup’ pollen this year with the hope of getting some large deep yellow flowers. I also crossed ‘Big Floppy’ (a cross of ‘Daybreak’ X ‘Gorgeous’ pictured below) with ‘Gold Cup’ with the hopes of getting a huge pink, upright flower. Yes, there were some disappointments this spring and this is one of them.

Currently I have over 100 evergreen plants of m. sieboldii crossed with various m. grandiflora clones and m. sieboldii x ‘Maryland’. I have one that is very vigorous, grows several feet a year, and roots like quack grass from softwood cuttings. This past spring I planted two plants of it outside to test its hardiness. I also planted several plants of sieboldii x ‘Maryland’ out with the hope that the added m. virginiana may add to its hardiness. A cross of m. virginiana ‘Green Bay’ and ‘Exotic Star’ produced a few seeds, so a cross involving m. virginiana, m. sieboldii, and m. grandiflora might prove interesting.

The magnolia planting at the Green Bay Botanical Garden continues to expand with nearly 100 magnolias planted to date. We continue to add new hybrids and are now working on a species collection. Eventually the planting should become one of the most extensive in the country. I also plan on helping Michael Gottschalk of Frankfurt, Germany with his efforts in establishing a magnolia collection at the state-run trial-gardens of Bavaria for a long- term magnolia project. (look under www.lwg.bayern.de - sorry, its only in German)

Mark- You got me hooked on trying some m. grandifloras here. I checked the mean temperatures of Boulder and Green Bay and was very surprised to see that you are considerably warmer. The Dec, Jan, Feb mean for Boulder is 33F, 32F, 36F while the mean for Green Bay is 21F, 16F, 21F. The difference may be that your standard deviation is higher and Boulder does encounter more wind.

Dick- Sorry to hear about the big freeze and certainly hope it is a ‘once in a lifetime’ occurrence. We certainly are experiencing climate change with our summers getting hotter and dryer. I look forward to receiving some pollen of m. garrettii this spring! It will be interesting trying it on ‘Exotic Star’, ‘Angel Mist’, and others.

Philippe-My macrophylla x tripetala remains a mystery to me and my conclusion is that quite likely it is not a hybrid. The cross was made by Joe McDaniel and my tree is a seedling of it. It is possible there was an error in his records and it was a reciprocal cross that turned out to be pure

m. tripetala.

Koen-The ‘Yellow Lantern’ X ‘Butterflies’ cross needs further evaluation before I will register it. I want to make sure that it is consistently double and a deep yellow. With all the yellows already registered I want to make sure that this one is exceptional.

Mike-The m. sieboldii x m. grandiflora ‘Russet’ was made with the diploid form of sieboldii. I have Colossus but my belief is that it is not hexploid and I also have Genesis and I am doubtful that it is tetraploid.

Maurice- The plant of ‘Sweet Love’ (sieboldii x ‘Oriental Charm’) has a very fastigiate growth habit, a good sweet fragrance, and easily roots from softwood cuttings taken in June.

Lennarth-The four days we spent together in September were really enjoyable and informative. I have visions of Scandinavia being covered with colourful magnolias as a result of all the seed we collected. The trip to the Savage property was exciting but also sad. On the long trip home I had many pleasant memories of Phil and the property and realized that this was the end. I also experienced the worst traffic congestion ever in downtown Chicago on my return trip. Why don’t you make a return trip in May and enjoy all the bloom. I will have the pollen, brushes, and ladders waiting.

Vance-Welcome! Your pictures of Genie on your website are stunning and the history of its development is very interesting.

Don-Welcome! When are you going to make a return trip to Green Bay?

Regards to all

Dennis Ledvina

William Seidl is also honoring us with a contribution

ANGELICA ---- From seed to introduction, the story of its tenuous connection to life as chronicled by Bill Seidl, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, Dec. 2007.

In the rather distant past Phil Savage made the cross identified then as P. cylindrica x Sawada's Pink. Of the resulting seeds, some were planted and bloomed in his garden. (Some must have been donated to the AMS (TMS, MSI) seed counter because I recall ordering some of this cross; all the resulting seedlings winter-killed. And no wonder: I think now that they were 75% denudata in ancestry. That species does not generally survive my USDA zone 5 winters.)

Of the seedlings in Phil's garden (I don't know the number), one must have been Fireglow. I see it listed in Jim Gardiner's 2nd book on magnolias, publ. 2000, p222, with the parentage as stated above. During one of his seed-gathering trips to Phil's garden, Dennis Ledvina (from nearby Green Bay) spied a well-developed seed-cone on one of these cyl-SP seedlings. It was not labeled, so it's pollen parent is "unknown". It could be open poll'd or hand poll'd with the label lost. DL brought back the seeds and planted them. (He may be the one who donated some to the Seed Counter.) There are no records, so Dennis guesses this was in the late 80's.

He passed on four seedlings to me. Three winter-killed. The remaining plant was designated as "CSP" because I was under the impression they were first-generation plants of the stated cross. DL's plants all died ---winter-kill or root-rot. In earlier days he had a terrible problem finding the right potting medium. Also at that time he may have been watering with city water. Then he noticed that his greenhouse plants at the points where condensed water dripped off the roof panes grew much better than the other plants. City water was much too alkaline. He quickly arranged to collect rainwater and only use that. This past summer the GB suburb in which he lives has switched to using water pipelined from Manitowoc. The water originates in artesian wells beneath L. Michigan and is probably barely alkaline.

My lone plant eventually died ---I don't recall the cause --- but not before I chip-budded it to a newly established kobus-type understock tree. There it quickly grew to about 12 feet. It began to bloom sparsely from a few terminal buds. The flower-form was wonderful, each tepal as wide as it was long and without drooping. But the leaves were chlorotic and poorly formed, high at the midrib vein and droopy at the edges. The understock tree had been planted in the lowest corner of my acre-size garden before I realized that poor drainage might be a problem. So I grafted CSP onto a quite well-established DL seedling from acuminata x stellata Rosea. This had three trunks. One received six grafts of CSP and the other two of a yellow seedling. I was elated to find all six of CSP take, and had to prune some out. They quickly grew to about 25 ft. with great- looking foliage. One trunk bearing the yellow-flowered graft grew just as fast, to about 30 ft. The second was kept pruned very short.

While the first-grafted tree was slowly dying from root-rot, CSP began to flower. The blooms were large but sparse in number as only the larger terminals bore flowers. In 2006 it exploded into bloom, with even the small twigs bearing flowers. It also showed signs of being seed-fertile, but it bloomed in mid-April when there were no other worthwhile plants in bloom. One will have to save pollen for later use on coral or peach colored cultivars which would benefit from CSP's superior flower-form. In 2007 it bore only six flowers. That may be due to 2006 having a dry summer. But now, late fall ' 07, it is again loaded with buds.

Also in 2006, the 30-ft. trunk grafted with the yellow-flowered seedling slowly began to die from top to bottom. By summer's end it was dead below the graft almost to the ground. It seemed frost damage was the culprit. Possibly the 'Rosea' parentage of the understock may've contributed some tenderness, as DL had said 'Rosea' wasn't all that hardy. The grafted seedling is not extinct, both Roy Klehm and Dennis having taken budwood in previous years. Roy admired it and indicated a desire to name it, but added, "...do we really need another yellow introduction?" Had the CSP trunk died, it would not have become extinct either as both Roy and DL had grafted plants. Had that trunk died much earlier, CSP would be extinct. When Roy took budwood, the plant was still labeled "CSP". These letters are used in TV Guide as the abbreviation of a national news channed, C-Span. So I had begun calling this seedling by the name "C-Span". It is possible that Roy distributed a few grafted plants under that name.

Regarding the seedparent of C-Span, the seedling from cylindrica x Sawada's Pink, it was later assumed that "cylindrica" was not the true species, but a cylindrica-denudata hybrid originally grown by Gus Krossa (Gardiner, p130). Still later, according to Dennis, the tree was thought to be 'Pegasus", a cyl-den hybrid grown in the U.K. in the Hillier Gardens (Gardiner, p129 and 130, with photo). 'Sawada's Pink' is a selection of M. denudata var. purpurascens (Gardiner, p139). So the detailed ancestry of C-Span, i.e. Angelica, could be (Pegasus x Sawada's Pink) x Unknown. In purely species terms, that would be [(cylindrica x denudata) x denudata] x Unknown. Sounds rather tender to me, but who knows what genes the "Unknown" parent brings to the cross.

Dennis selected the name Angelica for the flower's pure white color. (I believe it has a touch of purple at the base.) I have a different take on the name. The above story relates the tenuous thread by which it clung to life and eventual survival. But the story begins further back.... back to Phil Savage's pre-magnolia ventures. During WW II he was a bomber pilot and survived 25 bombing runs over Germany, after which he was rewarded with ground duty for the duration of the war. If you believe in guardian angels, Phil certainly had a good one, and I think of that when I read the name Angelica. In the end a lowly mosquito, bearing the West Nile virus, did what German anti-aircraft fire could not do.

56-8 Dick Figlar , 14 January 2008

Dear group -

Hi everybody. Yes, I believe this email vehicle is working out quite nicely. However, in some ways I prefer the “real-time group interaction approach” (like Yahoo, but with a group our size) rather than this “read a whole batch of sequenced letters” approach. The sequenced letter approach unnecessarily withholds information until the whole batch of letters recycles around. By that time, the information could have lost its relevance or simply been too late for its intended purpose. Perhaps there is yet another way to improve this vehicle for exchanging information.

This season's weather was a mixed bag: drought April – May. Then drought again (accompanied by heat in August & September) from August – November. Result was just 44.81 inches of rain for 2008 (probably some kind of record low amount, if someone had been recording this here over the past 100 years). Still, for most magnolias this is still an adequate amount of annual rainfall. In the first 14 days of January 2008, we've averaged about normal in spite of a severe cold snap Jan 2nd to 4^th when temperatures reached between 13F and 16F on the property.

The mostly hot dry growing conditions did not allow for quick recovery from the historic Easter freeze but some magnolias, particularly evergreen species, did recover nicely. The worst group, the deciduous Yulanias, put on only an inch or two of new growth for the most part. I think the plant invests so much in its early spring soft growth, that without it to produce more food (leaves and stems removed by freeze), subsequent growth rate is severely reduced. On the other hand, evergreen magnolias have the advantage of the persistent leaves from the previous year for making food for recovery. Thus, the results.

So our Magnolian Grove Arboretum (MGA) is rapidly evolving into a collection of evergreen species of Magnolia as well as a test garden for additional evergreen species. So far, about 14 of these Asian evergreen magnolias are either fully or nearly established here:

Magnolia maudiae Magnolia platypetala Magnolia cavaleriei Magnolia foveolata Magnolia dianica (Magnolia laevifolia) Magnolia figo Magnolia insignis Magnolia conifera Magnolia moto Magnolia fordiana Magnolia yuyuanensis Magnolia crassipes (formerly Manglietia pachyphylla) Magnolia lotungensis (Magnolia omeiensis) Magnolia delavayi

I wrote a detailed account on the performance of eleven of the above species which will appear this month in the RHS RCM Yearbook. Since most (all?) of you subscribe to the RCM Group, I won't go into any elaboration on those here.

I still have a Magnolia fulva in the ground for the past 2 years but it is struggling. I doubt very much if it will be useful for cultivation here. A more definite failure has been Magnolia megaphylla, which at this very moment is completely brown and lifeless looking. Others that are hardy but not particularly practical here are Magnolia ernestii (very hardy to zone 6 but leaves are not very winter worthy and early spring growth always gets frosted) and Magnolia chapensis (hardy but also subject to winter leaf damage, and even large healthy specimens apparently don't begin to bloom for years).

Other “new” ones on test here include Magnolia lanuginosa (two plants in the ground and looking good). Still trying Magnolia odora in spite of past failures. There was a nice one at J.C. Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh a couple of years ago and Ted Stephens has a good specimen near Aiken SC, so I will keep on giving it the “Tony Avent” treatment (i.e. Kill it at least 3 times before giving up. Actually Peter Smithers may have coined that first). It turns out that the Tony Avent approach did work – finally – with Magnolia delavayi. I have four nice specimens now and one even bloomed (3 years from seed) on October 3:

Earlier in the year (May), Magnolia insignis (Piroche Group) put on quite a show as well:

Our other favorite for the 2007 season was an unusual summer bloom on M. foveolata var. cinerascens. This particular plant was actually a short graft attached to the base of a Magnolia macclurei accession at the beginning of the year. The Easter freeze then killed back nearly all of the Magnolia macclurei part but left the foveolata part unscathed. Now, the graft could serve the stock as a “nurse graft.” As a result, the graft put on explosive growth thus saving the rootstock, the more valuable M. macclurei, while it set many foveolata flower buds. One pushed out prematurely this past August (see below):

Note the long gynoecium. The fragrance was like that of no other magnolia – sort of like the smell of canned pears! Although it is difficult to discern from the photo, the color is a very pale yellow. I have another image with this flower next to that of M. grandiflora which I will share with you next time.

Philippe, I will take up your suggestion that I write up a report on my magnolia expedition in Thailand in the Magnolia Journal so I won't go in to much detail here. However, there are a couple of interesting findings / developments as a result of the trip that I will share with this group. First, the trip facilitated the “discovery” of a new species, Magnolia citrata, and the validation of a new species to Thailand, Magnolia utilis. Up to now, this taxon, M. citrata, had been known in Thailand as Magnolia lacei. A couple of years ago Piya Chalermglin, a Thai botanist, submitted a paper to recognize this as a taxon different from M. lacei on account of slight morphological differences with M. lacei and the presence of citronella smell of the scratched twig. That paper had been rejected by BLUMEA for lack of sufficient distinction from M. lacei. In Thailand we had the opportunity to examine live plants of this taxon and to our surprise, a crushed leaf revealed a very strong licorice smell, unlike the scentless freshly bruised leaves of M. lacei. The foliage too, was far less coriaceous than in M. lacei. So on Dec 18, 2007 the new species, Magnolia citrata, was published (BLUMEA 52: 559-562). I will be happy to send the pdf of the article to those interested – for your own use only.

Also as a direct result of the trip, Thinakorn Komkris along with breeders from Thailand & SE US will embark on a project to put Magnolia garrettii pollen on Magnolia grandiflora. I will coordinate the project on the US end while Thinakorn collects the pollen & coordinates it on the Thailand side. Since Magnolia garrettii produces perhaps the most red-purple pigmented bloom of any subgenus Magnolia species while having large thick/glossy foliage, it would provide the best

possible parent to mate with M. grandiflora to produce a red or pink pigmented blooming hardy evergreen magnolia. As much as I'm not a fan of hybrid magnolias, this would be an interesting achievement to say the least. Below is a close-up of the bloom of Magnolia garrettii taken by me on Mt. Inthanon, Thailand last April:

Probably, only Magnolia liliiflora offers more pigment as a parent than this species. So finally, breeders will have something to use for color in breeding the other, more neglected, subgenus Magnolia. The flower (above) is about 8 inches across when opened flat.

Mark, having observed many M. grandiflora endure so many different types of snow-load situations, I can offer you some thoughts. First, the more densely branched trees generally do better (Brackens Brown Beauty comes to mind). Still, there are exceptions and that probably has genetic reasons (weaker twigs etc.). The key is that as a structure, dense upright trees can better handle snow load – again generally. Second, different kinds of snow situations can reduce or add complexities to the problem. Very wet snow (wet so that there is a layer of water between the snow and the leaf) will generally pose little or no problem regardless of leaf size. The snow slides off. But “regular” wet snow (kind that is good for snowballs) tends to adhere to leaf surfaces regardless of size. All in all, though, M. grandiflora performs quite well in snow or ice – rarely losing even a branch or two in the most severe snow situations. As for wind, many a coastal Southerner will tell you they've never seen a Magnolia grandiflora uprooted by a hurricane! I think they're right.

Philippe you should probably ask Stefan Cover about the spp. of beetle pollinators. I really enjoyed that image of the M. campbellii growing on the Mekong-Salween divide. What an experience that must have been. And witnessing the blooming of M. dianica growing near Kunming certainly was a close second. I'm looking forward to going to the 2009 Magnolia Symposium in China in 2009 (if it is still on that schedule). Sadly, the name M. dianica is going into the trash-heap of ICBN invalid names. It turns out that because Liu Yu-Hu published the name Michelia laevifolia for what turned out to be a synonym for Michelia yunnanensis, that laevifolia rather than an entirely new name, dianica, is the next available (required) epithet. Too bad, the name “Dian” was the 3^rd century BC name for “Yunnan.”

Our M. decidua steadily declined over the years and died about 2-3 years ago. It's a good thing you took that plant back home with you! You might have the only Magnolia decidua in existence outside of China.

Koen, if you would like to apply for a MSI Research grant, you may proceed to the MSI website and fill out the form. Look forward to meeting you in person in a couple of months (probably before you read this).

Maurice, it will certainly been good to see you again and so soon this time (within a year!). The number of yellow cultivars addressed in the Donna Fare study is 39. And Mike, it has been too long since we visited (Ireland I think in 2001?). I can't wait to get together and compare notes on these evergreen spp.

Lennarth, hopefully you took a bunch of photos at Phil's place before the bulldozers arrive. I'm glad that I had the chance to visit there many years ago.

Dennis – we'll be in touch especially if there is any garrettii pollen left over.

Vance, it's good to have you on board in this mix. Look forward to your inputs.

Wish you all a healthy & happy 2008 and well beyond.

Dick Figlar

56-9 : Vance Hooper : 22 January 2008

Hello Group, Greetings from New Zealand. We have been sweltering with days in high 20’s and low 30’s Celsius. 3 weeks ago we had 72 mm rain, and today about 8 or 10 if we are lucky. Last calendar year we were in deficit for the yearly average by 350mm (about ¼ our normal precipitation). We had a good spring flowering, but a late frost has practically wiped out seed set on the trees I normally collect from inland for rootstocks, so we will have to work on the hardwood cutting system for rootstock production in 18 months.

In the seedlings we had some interesting hybrids flower last spring. Perhaps the most promising one is one we are to call ‘Brixton Belle’, after the district in which we live. It is hybrid between a breeder/rootstock seed tree clone and ‘Sir Harold Hillier’ as a pollen parent. Someone said I should compare it to ‘Frank Gladney’ but since no photograph of ‘Frank Gladney’ has come to light, I guess that variety did not last the distance. The flower has a form close to ‘Iolanthe’ but with the warm campbelli pink found in ‘Starwars’.

When we visited Nigel Holman in 2006 he was interested to hear that ‘Sir Harold Hillier’ was being used for hybridizing, and he was very pleased with the results when I emailed a photograph to him. We have a few plants propagated to send out for trials this winter (May – June) so I will arrange for a plant to be sent to Chyverton. In conversation with him he mentioned the original tree of ‘Sir Harold Hillier’ has good bud set this year, right to the lower branches, so the IDS tour in the spring will hopefully be in for a treat if there is no frost. He attributed the good flower set to increased light levels from reduced shading. After this comment, and some similar comments on the Yahoo magnolia Forum, I understand now why some of the seed trees have dropped their yield as they are shaded by oak trees.

Another interesting seedling which is probably more a novelty, or maybe even a seasonal aberration, is one given the nick name “Origami”. It reminded me of those little paper shapes that morph from one shape to another. I photographed the very pointed red star form with my hand as scale (left below), then in 2 days when I returned for another look it had opened with all the tepals reflexed in a convex manner (right below).

Time will tell if it is going to repeat the magic. This is one of the first hybrids using ‘Genie’. There are some interesting reds coming from this cross, as well as some bright purple-plum colours, which are bright, but hard to describe.

Another interesting development was the multitepaled flowers on the seedlings of M. macrophylla subsp. Ashei. The one pictured is what I call “Starfish” and is probably the most appealing as it has an almost continuous band of purple in the centre. Since our trip to the UK and Europe in 2006 I have been more interested in the big leaf and summer flowering species. For some reason they have never been popular in New Zealand, but they nearly all seem to be here. Hopefully I have a true cross of ‘Jersey Belle’ x M macrophylla subsp. dealbata. I have seedlings of M. sieboldii x M x weiseneri, but several look like plain M. sieboldii. The germination in the seedbed for hybrids has been the best ever, with maybe 80% germination, and I estimate 1500 seedlings to plant out this winter. The only disappointment was M. x ‘Galaxy’ x M. x ‘Genie’ with 100% failure.

We were hoping to meet many of you in Belgium this year, but the opportunity to purchase 4 hectares right next door has come up, so we will be staying home. It would have been great to see you again Phillippe and Koen, and meet you Dick, as well as put faces to the email names, but not this year.

I look forward to further discussions via this Robin, and also wish everyone all the best for 2008 and the plans or projects you are working on.

Regards to you all, Vance.

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56-10 Don King, 29 january 2008

Greetings - Let me present myself to you. I already know most of you in one manner or another. Prudence and I live in Issaquah, Washington about 20 miles east of Seattle in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains though at only 600ft elevation. Our property contains 1.75 acres, most of which is on a slope. This provides excellent cold air drainage and 1.5 – 2 times the precipitation of Seattle. Our personal record since 1999 is 74.8 in 2006 and we needed every inch as our soil drains too well. We usually get two to three months in the summer – early fall which can be warm and will be very dry.

Our garden is 10 years old with native alder, Western Redcedar, hemlock, Douglas fir, Acer macrophyllum (which I could happily do without) and one beautiful Philadelphis lewsii – a pleasant surprise. We have over 400 species rhododendrons including a few which are recently introduced into cultivation and a few not in general cultivation. I have about 6 or 7 hybrids including my own – R. ‘Cascade Dawn’.

I have 50 magnolias of which about 15 are Sections Manglietia and Michelia and Magnolia lotungensis (formerly classified as a manglietia). My venture into these was, and still is experimental. We could get one of those 100-year record-breaking summers or winters and get completely wiped out. Several of the plants have been through 12 deg F though not for an extended period. They shed snow well and have had only one branch break because of snow – M. conifera. Our snow, though not much, is heavy, wet snow. Only one so far, M. moto, has suffered at all – leaf burn from late frost on new growth. I moved it into a more protected area alongside M. wilsonii that was also moved into more shelter. Its prior shelter, a Douglas Fir, was blown down on top of the house.

So far, five of these trees have bloomed – two M. dianica (on the cover of the Journal for Spring/Summer 2005), M. ernestii (below - right) - nice creamy-yellow flower, but small and all in the top half of the tree. Others to bloom are M. yuyuanensis (below - left) – a very nice red and white. Its first bud swelled ready to bloom and then with an abrupt change to hot-dry weather, shriveled up and turned brown. Last is a pink M. insignis. My biggest problems so far are controlling my ‘needs’ for more and finding plants properly identified.

Others I am trying: M. chapensis, M. chevalieri, M. macclurei, M. martini (the latter 2 are new acquisitions) and M. skinneriana

Any advice? I have an M. x weiseneri which appears to be suffering from phytophera. I have removed the dead branches and I pick up fallen leaves. I dug up the tree (about 5ft in height), removed the soil from the roots, drenched the root system with Subdue and replanted in a mixture of sterile sawdust and pumice for drainage. I sprayed the branch system with a fungicide. The tree is still alive, but I may be losing the battle. This tree was hard to find in the first place and so far I have not been able to find a potential replacement. Lesson learned: Whenever I plant I always break up the root ball; but with the fleshy roots of the magnolia, In the future I will do this with more care.

I am happy to be a part of such a great group. If any of you are ever in the area, stop by and we can shoot some hoops (basketball).