I love flowering trees. Over the years we have tried to plant a variety of flowering trees around our house. We have had varying degrees of success in this endeavor.

I do not have the greenest of thumbs. And I probably do not pick the best trees and or plant them in the best part of the yard, or prepare them and care for them the way they should be before and after planting. My wife on the other had has had the biggest success, planting a flowering cherry tree shortly after we moved into our house and that tree has been growing well for over a decade.

One of the types of flowering trees I have always loved are magnolia trees. Magnolia trees have big beautiful showy flowers. Magnolia trees generally bloom in early spring. And unfortunately the flowers on a magnolia tree seem to be relatively sensitive and fragile. This appears to be especially true when it comes to cold weather.

In Upstate New York, where I live spring really arrives relatively late. Especially when it comes to things turning green and flowers beginning to bloom. So the weather is pretty variable. It can be beautiful and warm one day and the next day it can feel like a return to winter. This is even more apparent the higher the elevation where you live.

Where I live we are around 1500 to 2000 feet above sea level. This is enough that the temperature at our house is often a few to several degrees lower than the rest of the surrounding area. So if the warm days start early in the spring and the trees get the signal that it is the right time to start producing flowers then flowers start growing. But then if it gets cold again, even colder at elevation the flowers can often get killed off before they can fully mature and bloom.

So, at one point we stumbled across a magnolia tree at a plant nursery we regularly visit and on a whim decided to get it. It was the end of the season and the tree was a really good price. I couldn’t resist even thought I had not been planning on buy and planting a tree.

Over the course of the several years that we have had this magnolia tree it has been growing pretty solidly. However, we have not ever been able to see our tree bloom. Every year it starts off every spring with new growth and it looks like it will have flowers. Then the weather inevitably shifts and we get a cold snap. The temperatures drop for an extended time. And the flowers die off before they can grow and bloom. But the tree itself survives and leafs out later in spring. Just no flowers.

This year was finally different. Our region had a very mild opening of Spring. The temperatures gradually warmed up. There were no prolonged stretches of cold weather.

I watched. Noticing that the flowers were beginning to grow. Holding my breath as the flower buds developed and grew larger. I was almost afraid to say anything for fear of jinxing it. But it really looked like our magnolia tree was going to flower this year.

And then it finally did. The flowers burst forth from their green capsules. The bright purple flower petals were beautiful. Our tree actually had quite a few flowers on it considering the size of the tree and how little flower growth it has had in past years.

Our tree actually flowered for longer than I thought it would. Magnolia blossoms often tend to fade quickly after they initially bloom. Ours lasted a good amount of time. I was so happy to be able to go out n my own yard and photograph magnolia flowers on our own magnolia trees.

I am really excited and happy for all the trees we have planted in our yard. Hopefully they all continue to grow and thrive so that whoever lives in this home long after we are gone can enjoy them as we have.

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