I'm on vacation, so only a short written accompaniment today. Yesterday's long entry was due to my giving a presentation about BPotD at the Museums and the Web conference in Albuquerque. – Daniel
At UBC Botanical Garden, this magnolia cultivar has the deepest colour of all of the large-flowered magnolias. An impressive specimen, it is named for the gardens of Borde Hill in the United Kingdom.
As a photographic aside, it also shows the difficulties of photographing complete trees in the forested Asian garden without a wide angle lens. Fortunately, I now have one, so expect improved photographs using this tool after I return to work in a few week's time.
Botany resource link: Dias com árvores – mostly in Portuguese, but that shouldn't prevent you from exploring this wonderful weblog about plants. Daily postings with an emphasis on trees, nearly always accompanied by photographs.
I think this is one of the best I have seen so far! It is truly lovely.
Eric has this view from his window. My favourite.
Preeminent cultivar from this introduction, also present in Lam garden is 'Lanarth'. Forrest thought it was nothing special when he collected the seed and sent it back, so perhaps he might have easily passed the wild parent(s) by. And only a small number of seedlings were grown so we barely have these sensational and unique trees in Western cultivation. Each was named after the garden where it was raised:
"When George Forrest introduced seed of this plant, three seedlings were germinated and were grown by eminent British gardeners M.P. Williams and A.M. Williams of Lanarth and Werrington in Cornwall and Colonel Stephenson Clarke at Borde Hill in Sussex. The original tree at Borde Hill died before it flowered; however, G.H. Johnstone successfully propagated this plant and in turn distributed propagation material to Hillier Nurseries." - Gardiner, MAGNOLIAS - A GARDENER'S GUIDE
wow ... gorgeous. and a great photo