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 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 TREE FOLLOWING POST FOR AUGUST

Here are a few pictures growing in the vicinity of my Magnolia.

The tree hasn't changed at all but it looks pretty majestic with the vegetable garden in the foreground.

I am presenting here many of the other growing neighbors to this tree.

Not shown are the many large Rhododendron bushes.

Growing underneath the tree in the shade is a Hydrangea bush with blue flowers.

Below is a close up of one of the flowers. It is a Lace Leaf Hydrangea.

There is a large cherry tree to the right of the Hydranga bush. It has an interesting, tangled trunk system.

If you look closely just up from the ground you will see a large, mushroom looking growth in the center.

This growth is very hard, not like a typical mushroom. Underneath it, a small growth of leaves from another plant or tree is growing!

Then a little higher and to the right is a hole with sticky sap in it.

This is the hole with the sap. There must have been an injury or broken limb a long time ago here.

The last three pictures are of trees or bushes with berries.

I don't know what any of them are called except the first one which is an Oregon Grape bush, a native plant of the Northwest.

 

Maybe someone will know what the others are.

This tree with the bright orange berries is as tall as the house. I can't remember it's name but it is fairly common here.

One evening the sky seemed to be on fire. The sunsets around here can be pretty incredible.

This is the tree with the orange berries silhouetted against the sunset.

Lastly is a tree or bush that seems to be spread by birds when they eat the berries. It is hard to keep them under control.

Guess this makes it a very large weed! It gets much taller than a human! I would like to get rid of all of them!

'TREE WATCHER''S MAGNOLIA POST FOR JULY 2014

My tree has had virtually no change since last month except for loosing all the catkins. The ground is covered with them in different stages of maturity. Here are some that I took inside to get some photos of.

Breaking a larger one open revealed a cross section of several compartments, filled with tiny black seeds. The smaller ones were dried up and seemed to be empty.

The picture, unfortunately didn't stay sharp for the close up but you can see some tiny seeds spilling out.

Since there was nothing else new with the Magnolia, I decided to concentrate a bit on the moss growing on the cherry tree next to it. Both trees had moss and lichens, but the moss was more predominant on the cherry tree and much more interesting.

This photo shows newer moss growth.

There about 12,000 species of mosses. They are flowerless plants belonging to the Bryophyta group. They grow mostly in shady, moist areas in clumps and have no seeds, roots, or vascular tissue.  The leaves are simple, usually in a single layer of cells. They produce spore capsules on thin stalks. Notably, the Pacific Northwest rainforest is loaded with mosses, many of which hang off of the evergreen trees like long hair. They are an amazing sight to see!

Below is a drawing showing just a few of the many varieties of mosses.

From Ernest Haeckel, 1904

MAGNOLIA TREE FOLLOWING REPORT FROM TREE-WATCHER

This is the complete summer wardrobe Maggie will wear till fall when the leaves drop.

Looking closely, there are pistols throughout the branches.

At one time some years ago a branch was cut off. You can see how the wound has healed

from the cut.

There are lots of lichens and moss all over the trunk and branches which is there year round.

TREE FOLLOWING BY MAIL

Not everyone has a blog so I offered to make space for those who are following trees and would like to share their findings with other Loose and Leafy Tree Followers but who don't have practical means for doing so.

'Tree Watcher', who lives in the Pacific Northwest of the USA, which shares a border with British Columbia (Canada) has sent pictures of the tree she is following. At first she didn't know what kind of tree it is but, after some research has decided it is a magnolia.

It's taken me a little while to work out how to present them to you. Initially, I had intended to put one picture and a paragraph within a Loose and Leafy post. But, on reflection, I realised there were a couple of problems with this. One, that one picture might not be enough when getting to know a tree in detail. The other that if I uploaded them onto the blog in the usual way they would appear in my own picture album - as if I had taken them myself - which would be confusing.

So . . . I've set up a parallel blog called 'Other People's People's Pictures'. This is it.

And here are Tree Watcher's pictures and text. Unfortunately, there wasn't time to catch the March Link Box but they are important to post so the context is set for Tree Watcher's next Tree Following here.

The Tree - March 2014

I did a little online research and I believe the tree might be a Magnolia, not sure which one. The leaves don't look like a true tulip tree. The tree has been here a long time and it blooms before the leaves come on, I think. Lots of pink, tulip-like flowers. It has lichen and moss on it. Right now it has large buds as you will see in the pictures. This is in just north of Seattle, WA, close to the Puget Sound. We have long, rainy seasons with gray skies, a little snow at times. It is beautiful when the sun does come out, though.

Buds - March 2014

Lichen and Moss on Branches

Older Moss - March 2014

Leaves from last year (2013) on the ground - March 2014