May 11, 2014

Soaking up the mid-Spring Wisconsin ambience.

There were lots of people strolling about in the Arboretum this Sunday, Mother's Day.



The daffodils knew how to behave as if it's really Spring, but most of the trees were bare.



The magnolias had gotten the memo:



Yay, magnolias:


14 comments:

David said...

Best ambiguous headline of the day (so far.):

"Watch Michael Sam learn he's the first openly gay NFL draft pick."

Seems like an unnecessary invasion of privacy to me.

Will Richardson said...

What you have there is Magnolia liliiflora, in the south called a Tulip tree. A magnolia down here is Magnolia grandiflora, up to ninety feet tall with aromatic white blossoms eight inches wide.

n.n said...

Baby, it's cold outside... and wet, and windy, and gray. I'm looking forward to summer.

Drago said...

AA: "There were lots of people strolling about in the Arboretum this Sunday, Mother's Day."

Nice to see that even in "Walkers Fourth Reich" that it's possible to enjoy the day.

lemondog said...

Baby, it's cold outside... and wet, and windy, and gray. I'm looking forward to summer.

Here is summer for you with Happy Dogs and one incredible cat.

rhhardin said...

Arboretum macht frei.

Ann Althouse said...

Actually, it wasn't cold at all. It was absolutely room temperature.

Meade said...

Good stuff, lemondog!

casey said...

Gosh, you're about a month behind us in the Kentucky Bluegrass region.

Limited Blogger said...

@AnnAlthouse, last week you said Eleanor Clift had gone too far during her UFOs-and-Vince-Foster fluff.

Today she said Ambassador Stevens was not "murdered. He died of smoke inhalation." Is she not the best circus barker ever? What say ye?

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/watch-clifts-unreal-comments-about-ambstevens-and-benghazi

Cheryl said...

Here in the South, you can tell where old houses used to be by where daffodils come up. We were out tromping in the woods a few weeks ago and came up on some seemingly random flowers. We found out later that it was a very old homesite. Like plantation-old. Is it like that up there? Not the plantation, just the old home site?

And that is a Tulip tree, sorry. Magnolias are lovely white-blossomed, huge unless you have the delightful variety called "Little Gem," which are only 30 feet tall.

Happy Mother's Day!

Smilin' Jack said...

Ah, yes...spring in Wisconsin. When everything that died over the nine-month winter thaws out and starts to rot.

Ann Althouse said...

Magnolia is a genus, and these are in the genus. It contains a subgenus which is also called magnolia, and within that subgenus is the specis that you are thinking of Magnolia grandiflora.

The trees I'm showing here are in the subgenus Yulania, and the species are from China. I think they might be Magnolia liliiflora "variously known by many names, including Mulan magnolia, Purple magnolia, Red magnolia, Lily magnolia, Tulip magnolia, Jane magnolia and Woody-orchid." People I've known always called these things "magnolias." What you call "magnolia," we might call "southern magnolia."

I see there is a common name "tulip magnolia" for what I have here. I've never heard that. But "tulip tree," in my experience, has always referred to the genus Liriodendron, trees with very distinctive leaves.

I get the feeling when southerners look at our magnolias and say "Those are not magnolias" it's like Texans saying other people's barbecue is "not barbecue." Right?

CStanley said...

I get the feeling when southerners look at our magnolias and say "Those are not magnolias" it's like Texans saying other people's barbecue is "not barbecue." Right?

This is correct. southerners are very proprietary about magnolias. I think all of the species are pretty, but the Southern magnolias can be pretty magnificent. I remember walking through a gorgeous grove of them on the LSU campus.

That tulip tree you referenced is what we call a tulip poplar. They are pretty trees that grow remarkably fast. In my backyard we have three of them which I've seen grow from seedlings to over 30 ft tall in about 12 years.