Majestic flower! How purely beautiful
Thou art, as rising from thy bower of green,
Those dark and glossy leaves so thick and full,
Thou standest like a high-born forest queen
Among thy maidens clustering round so fair,--
I love to watch thy sculptured form unfolding,
And look into thy depths, to image there
A fairy cavern, and while thus beholding,
And while thy breeze floats o'er thee, matchless flower,
I breathe the perfume, delicate and strong,
That comes like incense from thy petal-bower;
My fancy roams those southern woods along,
Beneath that glorious tree, where deep among
The unsunned leaves thy large while flowercups hung!
-
Christopher Pearce Cranch,
Poem to the Magnolia Grandiflora
Our recent rains have prompted a flush of blooms all over our Little Gem, and the scent is just heavenly. I walk out to the middle of the yard and stand there just to take in the aroma.
It stresses a little in the drought, but then many trees do, even our natives sometime show their displeasure with our unrelenting summers.
In anticipation of another La Nina summer, I think I will fertilize or compost mine now to give it a little extra boost going into the heat. After all the enjoyment it has given us, I think it deserves a little extra TLC.