Flatbush Gardener: A weekend at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Part 2: Magnolia Plaza

Judith D. Zuk Magnolia Plaza, Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Check out the photo above, and select the largest size your bandwidth and screen size can handle. Place yourself in that picture, take a deep breath, and imagine the fragrance that saturated the air: a mix of citrus and spice, light, not heavy or thick, that clears the sinuses and the mind.

The Magnolia Plaza doesn't get much better than it was when I saw it this past Saturday. A textbook sky, a warm, Spring day, the majority of the species and varieties of Magnolias in the plaza just coming into peak, with barely a dropped petal to be seen anywhere.

From BBG's Web site:

From March-blooming star magnolias (Magnolia stellata) to saucer magnolias (M. x soulangiana) in April, Magnolia Plaza is sweetly scented with 17 varieties.

Magnolia stellata, Star Magnolia

Magnolia kobus

Magnolia, unrecorded variety

Magnolia Plaza is an elegant formal garden of magnificent trees spread in front of the beaux arts Administration Building. The sweet scent and showy blossoms of magnolias are among the early signs of spring at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. In March, the star magnolias (Magnolia stellata) bloom, covering the trees with millions of lacy white flowers. In April the Plaza is splashed with the ivory, yellow, pink, and rich purple of 17 varieties of magnolias. The last of the collection, the sweet-bay magnolia (M. virginiana), reveals its fragrant, creamy white flowers in June.

Magnolia Plaza, with the landmark BBG Lab & Admin Building