In this cold-natured garden where everything flowers a week later than just up the street, ‘Merrill’ magnolia flowers on March 15. More or less. Fifty feet down a gentle slope, ‘Royal Star’ flowers three days later. There is never a time when the Star magnolia flowers earlier than ‘Merrill’, but both might come into bloom ten days earlier or three days later, say if eight inches of snow blankets the garden on March 10.

Often, four days of glorious blossom are interrupted by an eighteen degree freeze (Fahrenheit), the splended blooms turning first to mush, then quickly to brown. Scattered buds not fully opened might survive two nights of cold with a bit of brown along the edges. This freeze is not unusual for March, and if the gardener is deeply disappointed by the damage, he can choose a later flowering magnolia or another tree altogether. Redbud and dogwood flower in April, and both resist damage from even the most severe freezes.

Today, the first glimpse of color is seen in uppermost branches exposed to the sun as buds of ‘Merrill’ swell on this seventy degree afternoon. With several seventies in the forecast, peak flowering should reach the lower branches in three days, March 15. Temperatures slightly below freezing are forecast for early next week, so I’ll savor the flowers through the weekend.

The top third of the tall magnolia snapped years ago in a derecho that wreaked havoc, with several trees a complete loss. In two years, the damage to ‘Merrill’ was no longer evident, and today, the magnolia is easily thirty feet tall, nestled beside the forest where it flowers only on its sunny side.

If temperatures drop as forecast, I expect flowering of ‘Royal Star’ to be delayed by a few days, and possibly it will avoid damage until the next round of cold. The shrubby Star magnolia is slightly more shaded, which could account for its delayed flowering, and it thrives in damp soil. Several times, I’ve harvested lower branches that have rooted, with a few giveaways and another moved to a much drier and shadier position. The small transplanted tree will flower in another week, and I’ll watch with interest to see how it flowers in deeper shade in years to come.

While buds of ‘Yellow Bird’ are swelling noticeably, the pale yellow flowered ‘Elizabeth’ appears on schedule to flower in late March when it will be joined by ‘Jane’ and perhaps by ‘Daybreak’, a narrow branched magnolia shoehorned a year ago into a small piece of damp open ground in the lower rear garden. The flowering schedule of most recent additions can not yet be confirmed, but I look forward to their glorious blooms.