Gardens: Magnificent magnolias

August 13, 2011 Categories: Gardening

Wake up and smell the perfume: how one of the oldest flowering trees in existence brings new joy apiece spring

You don’t anticipate your nostrils to be assailed by scent at this time of?year, but for the past few weeks as I?have walked out of the kitchen door, the air has been pervaded by the most glorious perfume. On hot days, the scent has been even headier.

It comes from my Magnolia stellata, still, after 30 years, only a small tree but the most spectacular sight in the garden at this time of year.

Magnolias are among the oldest flowering trees in existence, their ancestry dating back 20m years, while plants classifiable as belonging to Magnoliaceae, their larger family, might be 100m years old. They developed before the advent of bees and produce no nectar, but attract their pollinators – beetles – with sweetly scented, sugary secretions. Their coloured “petals” are not petals at all, but carpels thick enough to dissuade the?beetles from tucking in.

Long before we came here I had cherished the intent of one day being healthy to grow M. stellata. I purchased one for my mum; she, too, loved the thought of it.

Unfortunately her M. stellata turned out to be an impostor. It grew and grew, and when its bare branches became clothed in leaves, it was obvious from their enormous size that this was no M.?stellata. Years later, having been severely lopped due to its forest tree proportions, it managed to flower and though the blooms were spectacular, they were produced singly or at ideal in twos and threes, and at the same time as the leaves. No one ever discovered what species it was. It looked incongruous in the midst of a Manchester back garden.

One of the reasons M. stellata is such a favourite tree is that it can be accommodated in small gardens. Another reason is that it is ravishingly beautiful. Introduced from Nihon in the mid-19th century, it has become a familiar sight. It is slow growing, flowers at an primeval age and is simple to cultivate. If it could select where to live, it would go for heavy, reasonably moist, fertile soil, where its thick, fleshy roots would be at home. Magnolias dislike thin, alkaline soils but will survive, flourish even, in a variety of?situations.

The other magnolia in my garden is M. x loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’. This is a glorious tree, in bud deep lilac pink weakening to paler pink as it opens. It is taller than M.?stellata but not as wide-spreading. On chalky soil this and the other x?loebneri hybrids ‘Merrill’ and ‘Snowdrift’ should succeed.

M. stellata and M. x loebneri have additional charms. Both have steely bark and intricate twiggy growth, making them a winter attraction. And no sooner have the golden leaves fallen from M. stellata in late autumn than next spring’s flower buds come into view, clothed in fluffy grey overcoats. As winter changes to spring, the buds swell and burst, shedding their velvet jackets. Kids love to pick them up and keep them in their pockets.

• What are you up to in the garden this week? Share your pictures and ask for expert advice at guardian.co.uk/gardening-blog