Featured Plant

Magnolia x soulangeana is a cultivar, a cross between Magnolia liliflora and Magnolia denudata, and was developed by Etienne Soulange – Bodin, a retired cavalry officer in Napoleon's army, and botanist. The fragrant tulip-shaped flowers (sometimes cup and saucer shaped) vary depending on the cultivar, in colors of deep rose, maroon, or white, and appear before the leaves unfold, a trait of Asiatic magnolias. Its breathtaking flowers appear in mid-winter on bare branches.

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Magnolias are primitive plants, blooming in the company of dinosaurs before the ice age. Their petals and sepals, called "tepals", are indistinguishable, and indications of the ancient lineage, as are their stamens and pistils, which are spirally arranged along a central seed-bearing cone. Beetles were among the earliest pollinators in the Mesozoic era. The perfume of the magnolia flower attracted them to seek the protein – rich pollen inside, establishing an ancient and mutually beneficial relationship.