Touring Chanticleer – Part 2

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Janet

If you’re rested up from the first half of our Chanticleer Garden tour, let’s keep going so we can fit in the rest of the garden before closing time.

We’ve headed out of Bell’s Woodland and up the hill through the long meadows to arrive at the Ruin Garden, which sits on the foundation of Minder House, which was the 1933 wedding gift home of Adolph Rosengarten Jr. and his wife Janet. In 1999, under Chanticleer’s former director Chris Woods, Minder House was razed and its memory evoked by landscape architect Mara Baird in a set of three stone-walled garden rooms that brilliantly capture its spirit. Let’s head through the “front door” into the Library.

A Princeton-educated lawyer, Adolph Jr. would certainly have had a rich collection of books in his library. In fact, later in life he endowed the University of Pennsylvania with a generous bequest in support of its libraries. He did not rest on the family money, but became involved in community. He was still a young man living here in the early years of the Depression when he spearheaded the movement to remove a slum in Wayne and establish a public housing project there. He also served during the Second World War as a decorated intelligence officer for the U.S. army, lending his linguistic expertise to the decoding of German messages in the top-secret Ultra spy unit at Bletchley Park, near London, England. After the war, he returned to Chanticleer, resumed his law practice, and subsequently earned two post-graduate degrees at the University of Pennsylvania – the last, at age 70, a doctorate in French military history. This remarkable man endowed Chanticleer with a foundation that continues to fund the garden to this day, with several family members on the board and the remarkable Bill Thomas serving as Executive Director and Head Gardener. Earlier, I’d persuaded Bill to stop for a moment so I could praise him here to his smiling face!

It’s fitting that that someone like Bill, whose background was in education at nearby Longwood Gardens, should run Chanticleer. For though there are no labels whatsoever to mar the beautiful landscape, education is very much a focus here, as Adolph Rosengarten Jr. stressed in his will. Throughout the gardens, there are artful boxes containing comprehensive plant lists available for a $2 fee; the lists are also offered free of charge online. This is the most painstaking garden inventory, each section the responsibility of a small staff of full-time horticulturists who have worked at Chanticleer since the garden was opened to the public in 1993, three years after Adolph Jr’s death.

But back to the Ruin. This is the cleverly-named Pool Room, with faces by sculptor Marcia Donahue partly submerged in the raised pool.

And this long, black granite banquet “table” in the Great Room is a brilliant water feature that reflects the plants within and outside the Ruin.

Head out of the Ruin and you find yourself at the top of the sprawling Gravel Garden. Walk down the steps and you’ll see hundreds and hundreds of plants that thrive quite happily with little water. I could gladly have spent all day in this garden.

Shown below are a few of the Gravel Garden’s jewels. Clockwise, from upper left: Spanish poppy – Papaver rupifragum; Anthemis tinctoria ‘Susanna Mitchell’ & Orlaya grandiflora, Eremurus x isabellinus ‘Cleopatra’, and Viscaria oculata ‘Blue Angel’.

The reality of gravel, of course, is that weeds love to grow in it as much as the lovely, welcome self-seeders. Here, with her back to me, is the Gravel Garden’s talented gardener Lisa Roper (also Chanticleer’s excellent photographer) and intern Kirsten Liebl, working to keep the gardens weed-free.

This path through the Gravel Garden features, at left, pale penstemon (P. pallidus) and tall yellow Carolina bushpea (Thermopsis villosa). At right is airy white Orlaya grandiflora with chartreuse Sedum rupestre ‘Angelina’ and Crinum bulbispermum. At the rear is Yucca rostrata, a rare (for Pennsylvania) native of the hot southwest desert.

This arbor offers welcome shade and a good view of some of the Gravel Garden and the Rock Ledge beyond.

Look at the profusion of colour on the Rock Ledge leading down to the Pond Garden. Monet would have been delighted to set up his easel here! The dark purple salvia is Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’. Other flowers include red corn poppies (Papaver rhoeas), orange ‘Cleopatra’ foxtail lilies (E. x isabellinus) and bright-pink (Silene armeria)

Now we’re down at the linked ponds, with this delicious crescent of ‘Caradonna’ meadow sage, silvery Artemisia ludoviciana and a row of bobbing ‘Lucy Ball’ alliums. More yellow Thermopsis villosa rises on the other side of the pond. The Pond Garden and nearby Asian Woods are the domain of gardener Joe Henderson, who waves from a cart as he drives by.

There are lots of big koi in the pond and one blows bubbles as it swims past.

‘Pink Sensation’ waterlilies grace the largest pond. Like the other three, it’s surrounded by a diverse roster of marginal aquatic plants.

Variegated sweet flag (Acorus calamus ‘Variegatus’) makes a lovely scrim at the edge of the pond, where its roots can remain nice and wet.

The Pond Garden features many beautiful irises, but none lovelier than Iris spuria ‘Cinnabar Red’.

This pondside path is flanked by deep beds of luscious June perennials.

Candelabra primroses thrive in the damp primrose meadow adjacent to the ponds.

More moisture-loving beauties grace the bog near the ponds including, clockwise from upper left: pitcher plants (Sarracenia leucophylla) and (Sarracenia flava); purple marsh orchid (Dactylorhiza spp.); and pink ladyslipper (Cypripedium reginae).

And where there are ponds, there are always red-winged blackbirds keeping an eye out for visitors that come too close to their nests.

On my way from the ponds into the Asian Woods, I pass a large bed featuring this lovely vignette. So quietly perfect: golden catalpa (C. bignonioides ‘Aurea’) underplanted with golden-striped bamboo (Pleioblastus auricoma) with a swath of ‘Dallas Blues’ switch grass in front (Panicum virgatum).

Now we’re in the cool Asian Woods, heading toward that lovely bridge. Look at all the trilliums – how lovely it must have been in May!

Check out the drifts of ‘Ebony Night’ black mondo grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus) and dwarf goatsbeard (Aruncus aethusifolius). What beautiful textures here — I need another hour, at least. Sadly, there’s just enough time to turn around and head out again.

I pass the fun, leopard-patterned chairs that sit on the great lawn.

Gazing up through the sweeping border beneath the Gravel Garden, the main house looms ahead.

Just one glance back at the brilliant combination of ‘Flamenco Mix’ red-hot pokers (Kniphofia uvaria) with ‘Lucy Ball’ giant alliums. More Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’ here, plus white oxeye daisies. Genius! Thank you, Lisa Roper.

On the way up to the house, I note the sinuous, maze-like Serpentine, intended to celebrate the beauty of agricultural crops. This summer, it’s planted with waving, swishing – and, yes, beautiful – winter rye (Secale cereale).

And now I’m at the back of the main house, once the home of Adolph Rosengarten Sr. and his wife Christine. Earlier in spring, this wildflower lawn would have been filled with daffodils, which are now ripening in the long grass.

Let’s take a walk along the terrace, past the clay urn draped with ‘Buttercup’ golden ivy (Hedera helix), and all the other brilliant, gold-leafed plants that light up this space even on a cloudy day. And don’t they look superb with the mauve alliums?

Each of the many urns and pots on the terrace is exquisitely designed. This one features a simple mix of variegated Japanese sedge (Carex oshimensis ‘Evergold’), Winter Orchid wallflowers (Erysimum) and Side Show Copper Apricot African daisies (Osteospermum). The gold-leafed shrub behind is a ‘Golden Sunshine’ willow (Salix sachalinensis).

The swimming pool looks so cool and welcoming. In fact, I did take a refreshing swim in this pool on a hot summer evening several years ago, when Chanticleer hosted the awards dinner at the annual symposium of the Garden Writers Association. They even provided bathing suits for those of us who’d forgotten ours at home! What fun (there might have been a little wine consumed…..) It was later in the season then, so the wonderful roses like ‘Dr. Huey’ and pink ‘Eglantyne’ here weren’t in bloom.

Big agaves (A. americana) pick up the aqua colour of the water and the copper rooftop of the poolhouse.

Each end of the swimming pool terrace features delphiniums and other classic English-garden-style perennials.

But it’s closing time, finally, and I float back to my car on a lovely cloud of euphoria. Together, Adolph Rosengarten Jr.and the board and staff have succeeded brilliantly in making Chanticleer feel like the most welcoming of private homes – with the best gardens ever. Thank you!

Chanticleer is open 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. The garden is also open on Friday evenings until 8:00 p.m. from May through Labor Day. The 2014 season begins on April 2nd and ends on November 2nd. Check the website for more.

Touring Chanticleer – Part 1

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Janet

Of all the public gardens I’ve visited around the world (and that list is very long), there is one that rises gracefully above all the rest. Not for the property, though this Pennsylvania estate is second to none. Not for the labels and signage, because there aren’t any (more on that later). And not for the gift shop, because this garden doesn’t need one; it is a gift in itself. There is no Victorian carpet bedding, no rows of annuals being trialled, no visitor’s tram, no snack bar. There are simply extraordinarily creative plantings, superbly rendered designs, intellectual interpretations of the landscape’s unique sense of place, and excellence all round. This is Chanticleer Garden, located in the hamlet of Wayne in Radnor Township, a half-hour drive from Philadelphia.

Earlier this June, I spent a charmed day wandering the hills and rills and valleys of Chanticleer. I brought a lunch from my hotel, but hours later had to remind myself to sit down in one of the many colourful chairs to eat it, so worried was I that I might miss a garden or two before I had to leave.

Chanticleer was originally the 1913 country home of Adolph G. Rosengarten Sr. (b.1870), whose grandfather George, the 21-year old scion of a German banking family, had founded a successful chemical business in Philadelphia in 1823 that produced, among other products, the anti-malarial drug quinine. Though not on the vast scale of Longwood, the home and garden another wealthy chemical magnate, Pierre Du Pont, had built 6 years earlier in nearby Wilmington, Delaware, Chanticleer took its place as one of the fabled mansions along the Main Line rail route, where Philadelphia society went to escape the summer heat. Perhaps reflecting his sizable investment, Adolph Sr. named his new home after the fictional Chanteclere from the William Makepeace Thackeray novel The Newcomes, a grand house that was “mortgaged up to the very castle windows”. In French, Chanticleer means rooster, and that literary allusion is seen in the many original rooster statues and motifs around the estate, left, and also in the rooster combs in California sculptor Marcia Donahue’s playfully suggestive ceramic bamboo culms.

In 1927, the year that the Rosengartens merged their company with Merck & Co., Adolph Sr., with his wife Christine, son Adolph Jr. (b.1906) and daughter Emily (b.1910), made Chanticleer their full-time residence. In time he built houses for both children as wedding gifts and it is at Emily’s house near the gate (now the garden’s administrative building) where my tour begins.

In the kitchen courtyard that acts as an entrance to the garden is a collection of beautifully planted containers

Pass through the gate from the kitchen courtyard and you reach the charming Teacup Garden, a courtyard centred by a formal parterre set around the cup-shaped, Italianate fountain that gives the space its name. Gardener Dan Benarcik, who oversees the Teacup and the Tennis Garden below the house, has described the feeling he wants to convey here as “lush formal”, maintaining the geometry of formal design but using lush tropical plants in the beds and containers. Though it’s early in the season for these summer heat-lovers, you can appreciate the brilliant foliage choices, including the gold-toned bromeliad Aechmea blanchetiana and the ‘Black Coral’ taros (Alocasia). Formality is emphasized with the four standard silver willows (Salix alba ‘Sericea’) in the corners.

At the other end of the house, windmill palms (Trachycarpus fortunei) in gorgeous glazed pots stand sentinel in front of French doors. The smaller pots contain golden scheffleras (S. actinophylla ‘Amate Soleil’). At right is a split-leaf philodendron (P. selloum ‘Hope’).

Now let’s head around Emily’s house to the front so we can make our way down to the gardens below. Gaze up as you head for the stairs: those brilliant chartreuse boughs of the ‘Frisia’ black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) will give you a little clue as to the delicious colour sensibilities ahead.

On the sweep of lawn flanking the long borders sit a pair of purple chairs under a huge jack oak tree (Quercus alba x Q. montana). Colourful chairs are a staple at Chanticleer; set in the most picturesque places, they provide a little rest while offering a good photo opportunity.

The long borders feature a purple-blue-yellow-gold colour theme, seen below in combinations using variegated ‘Axminster Gold’ comfrey (Symphytum x uplandicum) with yellow phlomis (P. russeliana) on the left; at right is Allium cristophii with ‘Gigantea’ rusty foxglove (Digitalis ferruginea), blue Italian alkanet (Anchusa azurea) and phlomis in the background. The long borders and parking lot gardens are overseen by gardener Doug Croft, who greets me later and helps with a few plant id’s.

What was once the staircase leading to the tennis court in the Rosengartens’ time is now a dramatic, sedum-topped entrance to the Tennis Court Garden. Perhaps the best description of what lies ahead is “formal but informal”, with five flower beds planted in a profuse mix of perennials, bulbs and shrubs.

The colours in the Tennis Court Garden in June are predominantly pink, purple, yellow and chartreuse, the latter seen in the ‘Ogon’ spirea (Spiraea thunbergii) in the middle and the ‘Hearts of Gold‘ redbud (Cercis canadensis) at left. You also see the luscious Itoh hybrid peony ‘Bartzella’ and a few spikes of the popular salmon-orange ‘Illumination Flame’ foxglove (Digiplexis). In the background, ‘New Dawn’ and ‘Dr. Van Fleet’ climbing roses wreath the attractive pergola.

Coppicing (cutting back each spring) is used at Chanticleer in order to harness certain trees for their attractive foliage while maintaining them at a shrubby border size, such as the large-leafed princess tree (Paulonia tomentosa) seen here. Beyond is the brilliant foliage of Cercis canadensis ‘Hearts of Gold’. Also shown are ‘Caradonna’ meadow sage (Salvia nemorosa) and an allium (likely ‘Ambassador’).

Simple combinations can be very striking, especially using bulbs like the summer alliums, which offer a big hit of spherical purple, against a shrub like the Magic Carpet spirea (Spiraea x bumbalda ‘Walbuma’).

Comfy, foldable chairs sit in front of the rock wall behind the Tennis Court Garden. Here, the yellow-blue scheme continues the colour theme of the long borders nearby. Yellow fumitory (Corydalis lutea) and goldenmoss stonecrop (Sedum acre) predominate here, along with various blue or purple campanulas, centaureas and perennial geraniums.

At the bottom of the hill just before the woods is the enchanting Cut Flower Garden with its rebar-grapevine arches festooned with clematis (red ‘Niobe’ is shown). The arches provide structure throughout the year and draw the eye through the four quadrants overflowing with a riotous mix of annuals, bulbs and perennials meant to evoke an old-fashioned cottage garden. Though the annuals will hit their stride with summer’s heat, here we see some of the June cast of characters: biennial purple sweet rocket (Hesperis matronalis), ‘Filigran’ oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) and peach ‘Spring Valley Hybrids’ foxtail lilies (Eremurus).

Rich-purple ‘Sarastro’ bellflower (Campanula) is joined by the zingy pink orbs of ‘Fireworks’ gomphrena and orange calendula.

Below, Emma Seniuk, the gardener for the cut flower and vegetable gardens, works with David Mattern to build a sturdy structure she calls the “cantaloupe tree”. All the gardeners at Chanticleer are encouraged to create the furnishings, accessories and even bridges for the gardens in their charge. Emma also spent 18 months in a student placement at England’s Great Dixter Garden, benefiting from a special scholarship in the name of Great Dixter’s renowned founder (and superlative flower gardener), the late Christopher Lloyd.

Here is the charming vegetable garden, surrounded by its rustic paling fence.

With its quadrants separated by paths, the garden suggests a French potager but the vegetables are planted within them in very American-style rows. Some of the harvest is used by the garden, but much is donated to those in need.

Now we are heading into Chanticleer’s newest “garden”, Bell’s Woodland. Opened in spring 2012 and planted with wildflowers, rhododendrons, redbuds and other shade-lovers under the mature native forest canopy, it is still being developed but offers a shady, naturalistic contrast to many of the Chanticleer’s other gardens. Don’t you love this fabulous “fallen tree” entrance fabricated by the Bell’s Woodland gardener Przemyslaw Walczak!

Bell’s Woodland celebrates plants of the Eastern North American forest and features mature natives like this American beech (Fagus grandifolia) with its boughs overhanging the path. The path, incidentally, is comprised partly of recycled shredded tires.

Towering tulip poplars (Liriodendron tulipifera) are a feature of the woods.

And, of course, chairs are set around so visitors can enjoy the peaceful surroundings….

….interrupted only by the song of birds.

Though the vast majority of plants here are native, a lovely collection of clematis has been established to add a little color to the pathways. The pink-flowered plants adjacent to the path are Phlox ovata.

The woods are cut through by a creek called Bell’s Run. At one time, this old water wheel pumped water from the creek to the Rosengartens’ swimming pool up the hill. The white-flowered tree is Chinese dogwood (Cornus kousa).

A chair under a black walnut tree (Juglans nigra) overlooks Bell’s Run creek.

Orange globe flower (Trollius spp.) pairs with a pink meadow phlox along the path.

Do you know what this is in the clovers and grasses? I was puzzled by a fern that didn’t seem to be growing yet. That’s because it wasn’t growing. Instead……

….it was an ingenious (and very naturalistic) way to mark the edges of the camassia meadows using the old fertile fronds of ostrich ferns (Matteucia struthiopteris), so the gardeners would know where to mow without cutting down the ripening leaves of the camassia that were in bloom a few weeks earlier.

This massed planting of white astilbe does something quite wonderful when viewed from the other side.

It forms a fluffy white horizontal to catch the eye and backlight the silhouette of the tree.

Here is a small array of ferns from Bell’s Woodland: lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina) with kousa dogwood, left; royal fern (Osmunda regalis) with a trillium leaf, top right; and a rain-splashed maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum) at lower right.

We come out of the woods near the old orchard where the daffodil leaves are ripening in the long grasses, and we’ve finished the first half of our tour. If your legs are still working, why not join me for the second half?

The High Line in June – Part 2

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Janet

Continuing our visit from Part One, on a hot June Saturday in New York, the High Line becomes a mecca for people of all ages. There were families and tons of tourists, judging from the accents I heard all around me. After all, what’s not to love about a linear park filled with singing birds and buzzing bees perched above the hustle-and-bustle and honking cabs of lower Manhattan? If you could catch a bit of shade beside the taller buildings, it was cool enough for a photo shoot.

There was even a wandering June bride, her photographer looking for the best funky opportunities.

Some people have wondered about the bits of lawn designed into this very flowery park. On a hot day, you definitely see the attraction – cartwheeling kids……

…..Or people getting off their feet for a few minutes on a patch of soft green turf.

And the benches come in handy too, if only to check on emails and Facebook while catching some early summer rays.

But the bees loved the sunshine, which warms the flower nectar and allows them to forage continuously. Here a honey bee seeks out food on Tradescantia ohiensis ‘Mrs. Loewer’. (All spiderworts are very attractive to bees.)

Red feather clover (Trifolium rubens) is a Piet Oudolf border staple, and the bumble bees love it. But the florets are too long for honey bees or small native bees.

The Siberian catmint (Nepeta siberica) was attracting the attention of big, lumbering carpenter bees.

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And the butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) was just beginning to come into bloom. A beautiful, long-flowering pollinator magnet from sandy prairies, it will hopefully attract monarch butterflies which use the plant, along with other milkweeds, as larval food.

I’ve been working on a list of design pairings showing superb placement of plants against lime-gold backgrounds, and this one made my list. Don’t you agree that Helenium autumnale ‘Rubinzwerg’ looks lovely against the foliage of Amsonia hubrichtii?

The High Line gets top marks for showing off rare magnolias – for New York City – in bloom long after the spring rush of the more common magnolias is over. Sweetbay (Magnolia virginiana) seemed very happy far from its old Virginia home.

And Ashe’s magnolia (M. macrophylla var. ashei), with its big leaves and massive blossoms, looked like something dropped in from a sultry, Alabama or Louisiana forest. Which is where they come from, but are seemingly thriving here in protected parts of the High Line between big building walls.

At West 30^th Street, the new section of the High Line (called the Spur) stretches before me. There are lots of plans afoot for this newest addition to the park, and the plants are already being placed.

Finally, having walked and photographed my way along 16 elevated High Line blocks on this hot summer afternoon, I took my parched and weary self down the stairs at 30th Street in search of a long, tall drink!

P.S. To see an album of my photos of the High Line in spring 2012, check out my public Facebook album. (The album begins with a few pictures of a ceremony honouring the late Frank Cabot, founder of the Garden Conservancy).

And to get a flavour of what the High Line offers in mid-summer, have a look at this public Facebook album of my July 30, 2011 visit.

Can you tell l’m a big High Line fan?

The High Line in June – Part 1

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Janet

I spent 3+ very hot, sunny hours on the High Line this week, along with several thousand other New Yorkers and visitors. In fact there were so many people walking the city’s unique linear park between 14^th and 30^th Streets, that when I stopped to photograph a fetching plant or a beautiful scene, I felt like a boulder in a rushing river. But despite the terrible light conditions, I did stop every now and again to photograph Piet Oudolf’s beautiful plants. Because who could resist these lovely and unusual partners: copper iris (Iris fulva) and twisted-leafed garlic (A. obliquum). Oh, and that pointy building in the background isn’t too shabby either!

The honey bees just loved the copper iris. Normally an ornithophilous (bird-pollinated) plant in its native habitat in the central-south U.S., moisture-loving Iris fulva was nevertheless a great hit with the honey bees, which climbed right into the style arm to nectar.

And all kinds of bees were visiting the twisted-leafed garlic (Allium obliquum), which made a pretty neighbour to a light-pink form of Knautia macedonica, bottom right.

White wild indigo (Baptisia alba) and creamy-white oxtail lily (Eremurus himalaicus )made charming partners, too.

I love watching bees nectar on foxtail lilies – such a lot of tiny flowers to explore in this beautiful foraging ground!

One of the more statuesque alliums is the white Allium nigrum, here with Bradbury’s eastern beebalm (Monarda bradburiana), a low-growing native of the central-south U.S.

Like all alliums, A. nigrum is a great bee lure.

Amsonia ‘Blue Ice’ nestled its compact, beautiful self into the crevices abutting the High Line’s popular walkways.
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While Lonicera sempervirens ‘Major Wheeler’ flung itself luxuriantly across its high, mesh trellis a stone’s throw from Frank Gehry’s bold building.

Staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) was in full, glorious flower, the female inflorescences held separate from the male ones.

And the honey bees were making sure those flowers would turn into fuzzy red fruits later.

Clusters of ripe Allegheny serviceberries (Amelanchier laevis) dangled like rubies over the street below.

And they were being eaten by hungry birds that knew just which berries would be the sweetest.

Ensuring there would be red berries, a honey bee patiently nectared from the tiny flowers of the ‘Red Sprite’ winterberry (Ilex verticillata), below. In fact, the entire High Line was buzzing with bees and alive with bird song – the sign of a well-designed, holistic garden with intrinsic value not just for humans, but for the small creatures that visit it for food and shelter. Ready to join me for Part 2 of the High Line in June?

Mellow Yellow Magnolias

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Janet

I had a glorious time wandering the paths of the Shrubs Section (Arbustes section en français) at Montreal Botanical Garden (Jardin Botanique de Montréal) last week (May 21-22). What became very evident was that – in the wake of the coldest winter in 10 years – the yellow magnolias in MBG’s outstanding collection were competing with each other to be the most beautiful and floriferous they could be. Among the many was this lovely selection called ‘Sunburst’, one of three magnolias I discuss below that were hybridized by the late N. Carolina geneticist Dr. August Kehr (see below).

Though hybrid yellow magnolias often flower on bare wood before the leaves emerge, these specimens cleaved more to the innate property of one of the parents of all yellow magnolias, the native North American cucumber magnolia (Magnolia acuminata) to flower simultaneously with leaf emergence. Perhaps that is a function of climate and geography, since many of these selections seem to flower on bare branches elsewhere, according to photos on the internet. Still, the leaves were relatively small, so the flowers preened like large yellow birds – which just happens to be the name of the one of the best-known hybrids, Magnolia x brooklynensis ‘Yellow Bird’, below..

That hybrid species name honors the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG), whose magnolia breeding program was launched in 1956 and thrived under Dr. Lola Koerting at the Kitchawan Research Lab. ‘Yellow Bird’ was a second-generation cross between M. acuminata and M. x brooklynensis ‘Evamaria’, a rather muddy. yellow-flushed pink that was itself a 1968 cross between M. acuminata and the shrubby Asian M. liliiflora, below, which I photographed at Vancouver’s Van Dusen Gardens.

Perhaps it’s best to start any discussion of yellow magnolias with the breeding parent. Cucumber magnolia, named for the green cucumber-like fruit before it ripens to red, reaches its maximum size in the Appalachians, where trees can grow more than 100 feet in height and 60 feet in width. The oldest-known specimen, at 432 years (300 years older than the average) is on a condo property in Canton, Ohio, where it towers over the oaks, elms and maples at 96 feet with a 69-foot spread, but most are of a more modest height. The species ranges into the most southerly part of Ontario, on the northern shore of Lake Erie. However, it does survive, if not exactly thrive, in Toronto – USDA Zone5a. In fact, a specimen grows right in my neighbourhood, on the arboretum-like grounds of Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

You can see the problem with M. acuminata, even on the smallish one in the cemetery: underwhelming flowers, and overwhelming leaves.

Still, a yellow-flowered magnolia was desireable so the BBG breeders looked for a way to develop garden-worthy yellow magnolias at a size that would suit residential gardeners. They found that certain southern populations of cucumber magnolia (previously classed as M. acuminata var. subcordata or a subspecies, but not currently recognized as different taxa by North American taxonomists) attained a more modest height and bore flowers of a better yellow, although less hardy. That gave them the material to make their first and arguably most famous, introduction, M. x brooklynensis ‘Elizabeth’ (1977), which was a cross with the smallish Yulan magnolia from China, M. denudata.

But ‘Elizabeth’, diminutive southern/Chinese lady that she was, had the habit of turning a little pale in the heat. “Yellow-gone-to-cream” was not the color the BBG breeders had in mind, so the next generation of crosses aimed for colorfast yellows. Thus was born ‘Yellow Bird’, mentioned at the top. Under Dr. Mark Tebbitt, the BBG next introduced M. x brooklynensis ‘Lois’ in 1998, a rich-yellow named for Lois Carswell, a former Chairperson of the Board of BBG. A cross between M. acuminata and a sibling of ‘Elizabeth’ (M. acuminata x M. denudata), I remember being wowed by ‘Lois’ on BBG’s beautiful Magnolia Plaza just 5 years after her 1998 registration. Not only does ‘Lois’ emerge later than ‘Elizabeth’, saving it from the frost devastation that can kill early flowers, it remains bright-yellow and flowers for several weeks.

Three of the gorgeous yellows at Montreal Botanical Garden represent the breeding work of the renowned Dr. August Kehr (1914-2001) of Hendersonville, North Carolina. A retired USDA geneticist, his property was on Tranquility Place, so it was appropriate that his first introduction was named ‘Tranquility’.

Dr. Kehr hybridized M. ‘Golden Endeavor’ in 1988 and registered it in 1999. Its parentage is M. acuminata var. subcordata ‘Miss Honeybee’ x M. ‘Sundance’ (M. acuminata x M. denudata).
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And then there was ‘Sunburst’, its narrow tepals reminiscent of the star magnolia (M. stellata) in one its parents ‘Gold Star’, which was crossed with M. x brooklynensis ‘Woodsman’ by Dr. Kehr. He selected ‘Sunburst’ in 1997 and registered it in 1999.

Two of the most beautiful magnolias at Montreal are the work of Dr. David G. Leach of the David G. Leach Research Station at the Holden Arboretum in Madison, Ohio, near Cleveland. ‘Golden Sun’ was registered in 1996, a product of “superior forms of both parents” M. acuminata x M. denudata. With its lovely bearing, waxy petals, and good colour, it was my favourite of all the yellow magnolias at MBG.

‘Golden Goblet’ as the name suggests, has a tulip form that does not fully open. Bred by Dr. Leach from M. acuminata var. subcordata ‘Miss Honeybee x (M. acuminata x M. denudata), it is an early bloomer (though the flowers still held their yellow colour when I saw them) and very hardy.

Another famous magnolia breeder has his work on display at Montreal Botanical Garden. The late Phil Savage (hybridizer of the popular ‘Butterflies’) of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, crossed M. acuminata ssp. subcordata x M. ‘Big Pink’ (Japanese Form) to produce ‘Limelight’. I liked this one too. In fact, I’d have a hard time choosing just one of these yellow beauties.

As its name suggests, another Phil Savage hybrid, ‘Maxine Merrill’, is a child of the ubiquitous and hardy, white-flowered Loebner magnolia M. x loebneri ‘Merrill’ crossed with M. acuminata ssp. subcordata ‘Miss Honeybee’.

For sheer novelty, I loved the interesting, pale flowers of ‘Banana Split’. Imagine, if you will, a big, pink-striped, creamy-yellow banana peel, flopped open to the sun. Now imagine hundreds of them open at the same time. The shrub did have an ice cream sundae feel to it and is the progeny of a cross made in 1992 by the late Dr. August Kehr using ‘Elizabeth’ as the pollen parent with the saucer magnolia – M. x brooklynensis ‘Elizabeth’ x (M. x brooklynensis ‘Woodsman’ x M. x soulangeana ‘Lennei’). It was registered in 1999 by Philippe de Spoelberch, the Belgian owner of the Wespeleer Arboretum.

I felt fortunate to have visited Montreal Botanical Garden when these sunny beauties were in bloom, all reflecting the vigor of a most remarkable North American native tree. And I enjoyed digging a little into the history of those who worked to bring them to gardens around the world.

To recap, here are nine of the most spectacular yellow magnolias:

1- M. ‘Golden Sun’; 2- M. ‘Maxine Merrill’; 3- M. ‘Banana Split’; 4- M. ‘Yellow Bird’; 5- M. ‘Golden Goblet’; 6- M. ‘Sunburst’; 7- M. ‘Limelight’; 8- M. ‘Golden Endeavour’;9 M. ‘Tranquility’

Janet Davis Explores Colour

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