'TREE WATCHER''S TREE FOLLOWING REPORT FOR MAY - MAGNOLIA

Two months have flown by and my Magnolia has gone from budding to flowering to just leaves, leaving a pink carpet on the ground.

Mid March found it in full bloom. This brings the year of following this tree pretty much full circle.

It wasn't the only thing in bloom. The warmer, lengthening days brought out many other things as well. Especially in April, as seen below.

The Rhododendron is the state flower of Washington state. They come in many colors, blooming at different times. 

They are very woody plants, some getting as tall as smaller trees!

During a walk in a local wetland park area, I found this lovely specimen, standing tall into the blue sky.

So many things coming to life in the spring! Who will be my next tree? 

Maybe this beautiful Eucalyptus on the bluff? I don't know.

We had a lovely evening strolling along the bluff, cameras ready, waiting for the perfect sunset.

And it didn't disappoint!

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The warmer days in the PNW have brought out the Magnolia buds big time. Within 2 weeks time there have been big changes.

The picture dated Feb. 28 has many very small buds on it.

The picture dated Mar. 4 shows the buds have grown much larger and show a lot more pink.

In the close ups the comparisons show a lot better. The photos are all dated as to when I took them.

In this close up some of the flowers resemble tulips, thus making the Magnolia tree sometimes called a “tulip tree.”

But is isn’t a real tulip tree.

I put a couple of cuttings of buds in the house and watched them bloom. Picture included here. In the past I have done that with other flowering trees or bushes as well if cuttings are taken when buds are close to opening.  They look very pretty when displayed in a vase

This close up of an opening bud shows more detail. The outer leaf like “skins” fall off as the bud opens fully.

The lawn is covered with them as the flowers on the tree open up in one of the pictures.

A small green leaf has started to appear on this cutting.

The furry, cocoon-like skins here have fallen off the budding flowers on the tree. There must be a technical name for these.

By the time the April report comes around I expect the tree to be fully in bloom and maybe even dropping a lot of the flower petals. By then the leaves should be coming on.

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TREE WATCHER'S POST FOR FEBRUARY

My tree has been most boring the last few months and even now. It does not appear to be waking up anytime soon. But wait, I do believe things are happening inside the trunk and branches that we cannot see.

The buds are still there, waiting for the right moment to begin swelling into life. Perhaps there will be some noticeable changes next month. As you can see, there is no shortage of buds. In a few months the Magnolia will be clothed in a multitude of pink!

On the ground, however, we cannot help but see new activity everywhere! Life is springing out of the dirt!

New leaves are piercing through the dead leaves on the ground.

Succulents are poking their way through old Japanese Maple leaves in the rockery. Life abounds everywhere when you look down.

Even the Camellia bush is beginning to burst out in color. Can the Magnolia blooms be far behind? So we wait and watch while the rest of the world awakens around it!

TREE WATCHER'S POST FOR JANUARY - MAGNOLIA

Well, I missed last month, so this makes it two months since the last pictures of my tree were posted.

I started this in March or April, so it is not yet time to pick a new tree. In the meantime I have written and published another article, this time for the American Nyckelharpa Association. At least I have not been idle! The Magnolia tree has gone completely naked since early December. It is pregnant with new little buds, waiting for birth in the spring as sweet pink babies, to grow into beautiful pink tulip flowers! It is clothed only be an assortment of growing moss and lichens, as are the other trees here.

A closer look reveals the little embryonic buds, snuggly attached to their mother tree. A lucky clear sky happened to be around for this photo. What’s not to like about this, in spite of the freezing weather? New life beginning.

I brought samples of the moss and lichens inside the house for a closer look and a better photograph. Lichens are composite, symbiotic organisms. There are many different kinds. They are made up of mainly fungi and alga. The relationship is rather complex. Lichens are found all over the earth and survive in all climates and altitudes. They become established on almost any undisturbed substrate or surface. They do not harm plants, but can take over on a plant or branch that has already been compromised. Caribou and raindeer enjoy munching on lichens as they have the ability to digest the complex carbohydrates. Lichens and mosses are a way of life in the Northwest.

While plant life in the yard is changing, it is nice to take walks on the beach nearby.

It is amazing to see not just pieces of driftwood on the sand, but also large trees with some roots. I always wonder what kind of trees they were, where they came from and how long it took to get there. 

Perhaps they came from a land far away or maybe they are just from the other side of the sound.  It is impossible to identify them in this deteriorated state, that is for sure!

These are photos I took along the Puget Sound.

TREE WATCHER'S TREE FOLLOWING POST FOR NOVEMBER - MAGNOLIA

Changes in the Magnolia have been happening for sure since the last report. As the nights grow colder, the leaves are turning color in mass now as evidenced in the first two photos.

This is NOT a particularly beautiful tree in the fall, as the leaves go quickly to brown after passing briefly through yellow, then drop to the ground. It takes awhile to go completely naked! The beauty of this tree manifests itself in the spring with a full covering of lovely pink tulip like flowers.

The ground is covered with more and more leaves every day and it is a challenge to keep them raked up.

Nearby, the old stump is falling apart in large chunks. It has taken quite a few years to get to this state.

Small insects make their home here and a network of webs decorate the stump as seen here.

Moss is especially happy when the rainy season comes as seen on this small retaining wall in the front garden. It also grows very readily on the roof where it has to be removed at times. Yeah, the joys of living in a wet climate. It does leave it's beauty stamp, however!

The canopy of the Magnolia will soon disappear completely and gazing up into the branches will reveal fewer to no leaves, seeing only sky. It will be interesting to see what early December brings. A violent windstorm came through last night, taking down even more leaves. These photos were taken a couple of days earlier.

The approaching winter skies seem to be in competition with the colors of the trees, giving radiant glows at sunset. In just a few short weeks it will be time for another report. This is like being back in college again, trying to keep up with my zoology and botany reports! Reminds me of Ernest Haeckel's theory that "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" which has stuck in my brain after all these years after graduation. But that is a topic for biology, my major, and doesn't fit into the plant kingdom, although I love both subjects!

TREE WATCHER'S POST FOR OCTOBER - MAGNOLIA

As the year winds down towards winter, the days seem to go faster and faster, just as the yarn at the end of a ball disappears quickly. Flowers we enjoy in the summer begin to fade away as the sap in trees begins to fall, causing the leaves to turn color and float to the ground. Nature prepares her kingdom for its long hibernation.

We all experience it in some way. Looking up into my Magnolia tree, I still see groups of yellow leaves, as was reported in September. Most of her summer clothing of green is still there, however. Some of the leaves have already fallen to the ground and dried up.

The blueberry bushes have already bid farewell the exodus of summer by showing their brightest red Autumn colors.

Even the Fuschas are beginning to loose the color in their leaves, but so far have refused to let go of their beautiful, trumpeting blooms.

Two unknown "weed trees" are covered with brightly colored berries, which are falling to the ground in great numbers. The first one was in my August post when the berries were still green. The second one, a different kind of "weed tree" is also turning color and displaying red berries, although not as numerous as the first one.

This is the second "weed." As you can see, the leaves are different.

And so, music comes from the trees in many different ways. Beneath the Magnolia tree, my instruments, made from other trees, lean against the trunk.

They sing songs of beauty as well as of sorrow, of a love gone with no goodbye, as the days grow shorter and the nights grow longer in darkness.

'TREE WATCHER''S POST FOR SEPTEMBER - TREE FOLLOWING

I am a bit late for my September report as I was up on Victoria, BC for a few days. Changes are starting to show with the browning of some of the leaves. The grass is beginning to have some scattered leaves on the ground from the tree while other leaves are still a healthy green.

I noticed that some of the leaves that are turning seem to be in groups.

There are a number of green buds present which will become pink flowers in the spring.

Meanwhile, when I was up in Victoria, BC I saw some really interesting trees.

This one was very strange looking and I'm not sure what it was. It had cedar like needles but appeared in a "weeping" pattern. It was really lovely.

Especially cool were the beautiful Madrona trees there. The peeling bark gave such an artistic texture to them!

Some of them were victims to having initials carved into their trunks over time.

I suspect that the "carvers" must have peeled a lot of bark off themselves in order to do this. It is a rather sad sight.

They were still beautiful when looking up at their towering heights, looking very majestic against the blue sky of Victoria!

I know, I am rambling by digressing a bit, but it is nice to acknowledge the beauty of other trees during the wait for the chosen tree to progress to the next stage. I am sure there will be more changes to my Magnolia tree for October. With the days becoming shorter and the nights colder, preparations for winter set in.