Winter Bridal Bouquet

Flowering this week is our selection of Magnolia floribunda ‘Bridal Bouquet’. When we visited Yunnan, China in 1996, we were able to return with three seed of Magnolia floribunda, a species which seemed completely absent from American horticulture. The resulting seedlings were planted into the garden, where two promptly died during the first winter. Thankfully, one survived and is still thriving today 25 years later.

Magnolia floribunda ‘Bridal Bouquet’ forms an upright, somewhat open evergreen that sometimes starts flowering as early as mid-January. This year, thanks to our consistent cold, it waited until early March to start its floral show. The flowers have a distinctive and fascinating fragrance that we find unique among our magnolia collection. We have shared cuttings with several woody plant nurseries and donated plants to a few rare plant auctions in the hopes of getting this more widely cultivated.

Magnolia floribunda ‘Bridal Bouquet’
Magnolia floribunda ‘Bridal Bouquet’

5 thoughts on “Winter Bridal Bouquet”

  1. Would love one of these. Trying to collect as many evergreen magnolias as I can in SE Virginia. Thanks for sharing the post and the plant!

  2. JoyceB in Atlanta

    Would love one of these for a hillside between us and the neighbors. All our magnolias do spectacularly well here in zone 30022 – as do all our other ‘unusual’ plants and trees. This yard is my 20 year and still going love affair – designed by me, mostly planted by me, and truly loved! How can I get one of these magnolias?

  3. Gregory Irving

    Any tips on where to look for this? Absolutely spectaculr. Maybe the symposium’s plant auction next week?

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