Ode to our magnolia…

When we moved into this house more than ten years ago, it was in the middle of December.  Consequently, we really didn’t have any idea as to what was planted in our yard.  Over the next year, it was fun to see what popped open in the spring and hung around in the summer.  The person who lived here before must have been a pretty good gardener…something I am not.  There are bulbs that come up every year, daylilies galore and there are gorgeous white azaleas and rhododendrons that, when they bloom, look like clouds that have fallen in front of our house. 

And in our back yard on the edge of the woods there is a magnolia tree.  I fell in love with this tree the first year I saw it in bloom.  So I was horrified this past October after the freak snowfall when we realized that the tree had snapped in two under the weight of the heavy snow.  But apparently, the loss of a limb, even a major one, is not enough to have this tree give up the ghost and it bloomed again this year.  The blooms are not as profuse as in the past years.  But the magnolia did set its buds and brought forth some flowers that are beautiful even if they are a little brown around the edges because of our dry spring.

 

I suppose that the tree never had a moment’s thought that it wouldn’t bloom as I had feared would happen because of such major damage.  Such is the tenacity of wild life and my personal tendency toward despair sometimes.  It has been an uplifting sight looking out at the blooms that are now beginning to fade and drop to the ground because that is what they are supposed to do while the waxy green leaves are beginning to emerge.

 

Nature’s perseverance and persistence always puts hope in my heart and I stand here in awe of it.