Now there come the days of the magnolias, breaking out in all their splendour. This blog will have at least three sections for there are so many species and hybrids of magnolias, many of them flowering today in Mother's Garden. It is a feast for the soul to be in the presence of these trees, a gift for the eyes to see and the mind to dwell on the abundance of Nature, and the wealth of beauty she so generously shares.
Mother once wrote the following: "The movement of love is not limited to human beings and it is perhaps less distorted in other worlds than in the human. Look at the flowers and trees. When the sun sets and all becomes silent, sit down for a moment and put yourself into communion with Nature: you will feel rising from the earth, from below the roots of the trees and mounting upward and coursing through their fibres up to the highest outstretching branches, the aspiration of an intense love and longing,—a longing for something that brings light and gives happiness, for the light that is gone and they wish to have back again. There is a yearning so pure and intense that if you can feel the movement in the trees, your own being too will go up in an ardent prayer for the peace and light and love that are unmanifested here."
Let us begin with some of the stunning magnolias now in bloom. These are the 'star' magnolias and the many forms of Magnolia soulangeana. The blossoms of these early bloomers are rarely killed by a freeze although a sudden frost can damage them. The trees are resistant to cold here in Mother's Garden and flower every year in mid March along with the daffodils (Pride of Beauty) and the early flowering cherries (Smile of Beauty).
A most reliable bloomer with blossoms covering the tree each Spring.
"Flowers are the moment's representation of things
that
are in themselves, eternal"
Sri Aurobindo