While magnolia flowers are definitely pretty. my vote for the early spring flowers are the maple blossoms. They are the first spring flowers, and appear. while other flowering plants still have not realized it is spring.

After the blossoms disappear, some maples still provide spring color with their bright colored seed pods.

Nice magnolias!

Correctly 'Merrill'. A particular noticeable thing about that one is how broad the tepals are, relative to many other kobus types.

Nice to see flowers so early in the season maackia.

We had the last couple of night down into the low 20's but quite a string of mid 20's the last week or two. You are probably close to the limit for cold with this tree but still, if you get one out of 3 years or better with it, it's well worth to see something flowering so early.

Our lilacs are still pushing flower buds after all that cold so they 'might' make it yet this year.

Krnuttle, it seems each spring I point out to someone what a welcome sight A. rubrum flowers are only to get a bewildered look. I think they're completely overlooked by most, but I agree they are nice. I can't think of which species it is, but I know there's at least one maple -- and probably more -- with fragrant flowers.

Embo, I believe I confused Dr. Merrill with Professor Sprenger. ;) BTW, do you know if 'Ballerina' or 'Spring Snow' has fragrant flowers? These two are seldom if ever seen in the retail trade around here, and I've never seen one in flower, but I've read they're fragrant.

Maackia I'm with you! Love the magnolias, even if they do get shot down by frost every now and then. Somehow we dodged the bullet here this spring, even with some mid 20's and snow they must have hit right before peak or right when the booms were about to fall anyway.

My only complaint is how hard (or expensive) it is to find anything out of the ordinary. If I spend $110 I feel obligated to plant it in the perfect spot and give the tree everything it needs, but at 20 bucks I'm perfectly ok with cramming a half dozen in way too close together and enjoying them all for a few years until the saw comes to call.

No, actually the incorrect 'Dr. Merrill' has often been used by others. Along with 'Arnold's Promise' for the popular witch hazel. And so on.

All magnolia flowers smell in my experience. Some kinds can be a little odd or overbearing, but other than M. liliiflora and certain of its many hybrids I haven't encountered any Yulania that I thought really could smell better.

Timing is critical when it comes to magnolia flowers and frost/freeze damage. In my area Leonard Messel and Merrill were nearly done blooming when the recent freeze hit. Saucer magnolias had varying degrees of browning depending on how exposed the site. My Centennial Blush still had some nice blooms before the freeze (1st pic) that were turned to brown rags (2nd), and a local Elizabeth was basically fried (3rd).

Note that none of the native eastern North American adapted magnolias are precocious flowering. With even though the 'Elizabeth' shown was half Magnolia acuminata the influence of the early blooming M. denudata parent resulting in it coming out early enough to be spoiled.

arbordave, your pics show what I often see more years than not w/early-flowering magnolias.

Is it possible the flowers of M. 'Leonard Messel' are more resistant to freezes than other early flowering magnolias? As I mentioned earlier, the flowers showed minimal impact of successive freezes (four over a five-day period).

Seems unlikely to me, although your photo would indicate otherwise. Is your LM in a somewhat protected location? I don't have good records on it but I'm pretty sure I've seen freeze damage to the flowers of LM around here in previous years. This webpage of the Scott Arboretum has a photo of freeze damage on LM.

Yes, it is in a somewhat protected location, with larger conifers to the east and south of it.

I don't know how relevant this is, and I cannot find any other corroborating information, but if you go down to the sixth paragraph it states, "Its lovely pink flowers are the most frost resistant of all magnolias."

Looks like it may be true - a little more searching turned up these references that indicate LM flowers are relatively frost resistant:

Leonard Messel Mobot PlantFinder " ...flowers are less susceptible than most magnolias to late frosts"

Leonard Messel Horticulture Magazine April 30, 2007 " ... flowers of ‘Leonard Messel' are relatively frost resistant ..."

Certain other Yulania have been singled out as more frost tolerant than usual in flower, 'Forrest's Pink' for instance I think has gotten this accolade.

I suppose it makes sense that a cross of kobus and stellata would produce the most frost resistant flowers.

Embothrium, you’ve referenced Yulania a couple of times. Can you explain how that applies?

As in Sec. Yulania of the genus Magnolia. That's what all these familiar flowering before the leaves magnolias are.

Okay, got it. I thought you might be referring to M. denudata, but should've figured out you were thinking in a broader scope. Thanks for the explanation.

That of course is spelled yulan and is not presented in italics.

Understood. :)