Chickity Check it!- Our Beautiful Sweet Bay Magnolia From Kim Smith

Dear Gardening Friends,

The air is redolent with June’s dreamy scents–Virginia sweetspire, mock orange and rose, Oyama magnolia and honeysuckle, and none more heady than our luxuriant, native sweet bay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana).

For more information about the history of the mysterious Great Magnolia Swamp and of the sweet bay magnolia in Gloucester see the article posted on my blog.

Warmest wishes,

Kim

Magnolia virginiana ~ Sweet Bay Magnolia

Located in the heart of Ravenswood Park in Gloucester there is a stand of Magnolia virginiana growing in the Great Magnolia Swamp. It is the only population of Magnolia virginiana known to grow this far north. I took one look at the native sweet bay magnolia and breathed in the fresh lemon-honeysuckle scent of the blossoms, fell in love, and immediately set out to learn all I could about this graceful and captivating tree. Recently having returned from a trip to visit my family in northern Florida, I had tucked the bud of a Magnolia grandiflora into my suitcase. I was dreaming of someday having a garden large enough to accommodate the Magnolia grandiflora and was overjoyed to discover the similarities between M. virginiana and

M. grandiflora. For those not familiar with the Southern magnolia, it is a grand, imposing specimen in the landscape, growing up to fifty feet in the cooler zones five and six, and one hundred feet plus in the southern states. M. grandiflora is the only native magnolia that is reliably evergreen in its northern range, flowering initially in the late spring and sporadically throughout the summer. The creamy white flowers, enormous and bowl-shaped (ten to twelve inches across), emit a delicious, heady sweet lemon fragrance.