Spring's blooming magnolia show takes off along Boston streets
A woman walks beneath magnolia buds along Beacon Street on Thursday.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
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Magnolias have started to bloom along Beacon Street this week.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
There is a mix of saucer, star, and yulan magnolias in that area, with hues ranging from pink to purple to white. Over the years, some adventurous gardeners have planted other varieties as well, so don't be surprised if you see one or two that catch your eye.
In my opinion, the best time to view the magnolias is when that sun angle is fairly low in the morning or later in the afternoon.
Over the next couple of weeks, a few factors will determine how long the show lasts. The worst thing we can have is early heat. If we see a day in mid-April when temperatures get into the 80s, the magnolia blossoms quickly begin to fall off. The ideal weather would be temperatures in the 40s and 50s during the day with adequate rainfall, but nothing too heavy and not a lot of wind.
There are lots of other plants in bloom as well. This week, I asked Michael Dosman, the keeper of the living collections at the Arnold Arboretum, what was in bloom at his site. He said the star magnolias are ready to pop, and Zenni magnolias had opened up during the third week of March.
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Some of the early dogwoods and lindera are now coming into full bloom, with other varieties of dogwood later in April. The witch hazels are getting past peak, and the forsythia, that ubiquitous yellow, is also slowly opening up, but I'm not a big fan of those.
If you love the magnolia, there are many varieties you can also add to your own landscape if you have the room. Alba superba is a variety of saucer magnolia that can grow to between 15 and 30 feet but has beautiful, large white flowers.
Magnolias, starting to bloom along Beacon Street, will be opening up more over the next week or so.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
If you like, the 'centennial' star magnolia won the Cary Award back in 1997 and is very reliable. There's also a Kobun Dori magnolia variety called 'butterflies' that reportedly won't do particularly well in an urban environment, but for those of you in the suburbs, this is a bit of a smaller tree and has yellow flowers.
There is a magnolia that blooms very late called virginiana - look for varieties of this, especially if you have a moist area. This plant also keeps most of its leaves through the winter.mid-spring
Magnolias are certainly a showy mid-spring favorite of many and the time is rapidly approaching to upload your best shots to your favorite social media site or perhaps just take a quiet stroll on your own, creating a memory in your mind of the spring of 2025.
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