Magnolia blooms

We have this huge mature Magnolia tree outside our house. It's around 30 feet high and around 15 feet wide and has large green leaves. The tree is beautiful and dense with large dark green leaves.

All year long, it bears no flowers, its just a huge leafy tree. However just for 2 weeks every year, the Magnolia flowers blossom. It's that time of the year now. The whole tree is filled with these beautiful white Magnolia flowers.

These flowers are HUGE in size ...in fact HUGE in everything....size, perfume and  of course pollen. The sad part is once the blossom they don't last very long. They wither and fall off within a day or two, three at max.

The kiddo likes to pluck the flowers from the low hanging branches and bring them home and set them in a cup of water. Within half a day or so, they open up and bloom completely.....exposing the entire anatomy of the flower. May be our science teacher should have used these flowers to explain Calyx, Corolla, etc..etc...instead of the black and white pictures of our science text books.

The second pic has my blackberry resting against the flower...just to give a sense of size. The flower in it's full bloom is more than twice the size of my blackberry. Now, that is huge. Imagine wearing one of them on your head; or a garland of these around your neck!

Unfortunately, it's just a matter of days before all the flowers wither and fall...and in a month after that, they bear fruits (I think they are fruits, or seed pods or something). That's when comes the task of picking the remains - of the flowers, the leaves and the fruit. Until then, it's time to enjoy nature in it's fragrant glory