In my Get It NOW posting, I raved about this unusal magnolia. It's not at all like the stellata hybrids. It's more tree-like in habit, it blooms later and the perfume is unbelieveable..

Challenged by the forum to post a few pictures, I decided to track a single bloom on my juvenile tree.

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The flower buds take forever to open. They start out green and lighten to bright yellow over a week as they elongate.

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The flowers are rather large. This one is five inches across, petal tip to petal tip. The color fades to cream. You can smell the perfume from three feet away

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The flowers are elegantly simple

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a la O'Keefe. If you get this close, you will spend considerable time inhaling one of the most beautifully scented flowers you can grow in Minnesota

(taken this evening, 2007-05-09)