Kem, very light smell on MA, but i only have one flower at a time.. will wait for a few blooms at a time and see... Kandhi, I got from a place called lee's tropicals .. type in google and see...will have to find out the exact blooming time.. huge trees in front of our house in HYD, India.. Musaboru, hopefully the flowers will get bigger... It is off season for Jasmines now anyway.. Jack Fogg has buds.. but don't know if they are dormant or will bloom.. regards all..

WOW. Thanks for posting them Radha. I recently placed an order for Jack Fogg last weekend. If I had know they were that big I would have gotten more. I got the Macclurei at Almost Eden also because of the picture you posted. So I am grateful. :D

In later years 'Caerhays Belle' has become a conspicuous seasonal draw near Azalea Way in the Seattle Arboretum. Before that Gossler used to maintain a waiting list for all the people that wanted this cultivar. The nursery is Whitney Gardens near Brinnon. There are are few to several trees of various kinds there listed by Van Pelt, Champion Trees of Washington State (1996, University of Washington, Seattle) because I went and uncovered them, thinking based on previous visits that the site might have such potential. The stock Harold brokered might not have been present on the Greer Gardens site longer than it took to receive them, box them and send them. Of course, part of the problem is that the S.O.D. organism spreads through the air as well as by the more conventional mode of infested puddles and streams. These days it is widespread, with some years ago an authority on the subject telling me the cat was long since out of the bag. So it may be possible that most operations will have or have already been visited by it, with certain ones being driven out of business as an unfortunate outcome of ultimately futile (and therefore Draconian) containment attempts. The most recent story involving this pest I've heard is one where the runoff from an infested growing operation contaminated a stream, resulting in salal growing along the waterway becoming affected. That is an example of how this pathogen gets around - it came out of the stream and up onto the leaves of the salal. I used to belong to the Magnolia Society, organized their Annual Meeting in Seattle in 1980 - but I have not been involved for many years now. Off the top of my head I am only growing a single kind here at the moment (M. laevifolia 'Inspiration').

This northern/southern and deciduous/evergreen debate is kinda silly. I live in the "North" (Zone 7/NJ) and grow and love all of them; Saucer Magnolias, Star Magnolias, M. virginiana, and M. grandifloras. (In fact, one of the great things about living in Zone 7 is that "northern" and "southern" species converge..., thus, permitting a wider variety of gardening potentials.) The deciduous ones with which I am familiar drop all their leaves in November at one time. M. grandiflora will drop leaves most heavily in May into June, just as new growth is bursting out. There is sporadic leaf drop throughout the year..., especially under arid conditions but virtually none in the Autumn when other trees require A LOT of raking. All are resistant to pests and disease. Not sure which species is known as Cucumber, but do know that some of the large-leaved deciduous ones really seem to prefer some degree of protection from excessive sun (even in the North); I rarely see them growing out in the open.