Urban Landscape, Native Landscape: Magnolia ashei

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Magnolia ashei

Magnolia ashei leaf underside November 2009

Magnolia ashei fall color November 2009

Magnolia ashei flower June 2009

Magnolia ashei is a small tree with big flowers & bigger leaves. The flowers are the size of dinner plates. The leaves are roughly the same size & shape as violins. The large white flowers stand out boldly, fade quickly. The period of bloom can last 2 weeks. In Fall the leaves turn golden-brown on top, white underneath. The pale leaves lie luminous on the ground. The tree grows to a height of 20 feet, naturally rounded, easily pruned to a more sculptural form. The large leaves give it a tropical look. Magnolia ashei is native to the Florida panhandle, yet tolerates the winter cold in USDA zone 8. I got mine from Gossler Farms in Oregon by mail. Gossler Farms offers many Magnolia.

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About This Blog

This blog began in 2008 as Metropolitan Gardens to provide information on gardening in Seattle & places like it. Click on Gardening in Cascadia. The blog expanded to include Parks P-Patches Public Gardens in the US, Canada & Europe. Then Nature was added. (The difference between nature & gardens is intent. Nature happens. Gardens are planned.) Many recent posts are not about Seattle, or even Cascadia. They are Urban Landscape: streetscape & architecture. Cascadia is the region including the Cascade Mountains of Washington & Oregon. If you want to contact the blogger, leave a message in comments. Comments are moderated & private messages will not be posted.

Our Land & Climate

The city of Seattle rests between 2 bodies of water: Puget Sound & Lake Washington. Puget Sound is a substantial part of the Salish Sea & a very small part of the Pacific Ocean. The Salish Sea is set apart from the Pacific by the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington & Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia. The dense, wet clouds of the Pacific Ocean travel as far as the Cascade Mountains, near the Salish Sea & not very far from the ocean. East of the Cascades lies the desert of the Columbia Basin. The moist, temperate climate of Seattle extends south to northern California & north to southeastern Alaska. The Pacific Northwest Coast from San Francisco Bay to Cook Inlet shares a flora dominated by evergreen coniferous forest. The central portion, west of the Cascade Mountains, is called Cascadia. The climate is cool & wet from fall to spring, warm & dry in summer. The Olympic Mountains block Seattle from much of the Pacific rainfall. Seattle is drier than the Atlantic coast of North America & northern Europe, cooler in summer & warmer in winter. It lies near the latitude of Paris & Quebec City.