Magnolia Sunsation to honour my mam’s memory…
Using plants as memorials to loved ones is an extremely difficult thing to do, and the advice I give is to go with that person’s personality (and make sure it will grow in your garden, of course).
As I was already digging up the long border, I had the opportunity to make a bigger statement. My mam was quite a character, extremely creative and some would say, ‘eccentric’. There were very few barriers she wouldn’t break in her quest for artistic excellence, whether painting, dressmaking (she was a qualified designer), cake baking, carving or jewellery making.
I realised that my love of architectural plants just wouldn’t do, so I started to think, ‘What would she have wanted?’ She loved a big, blousy flower, and I started to look at magnolias, which I’d never grown before. My eyes fell on Sunsation, with masses of upright, golden-yellow flowers up to 20cm across with a rosy-purple blush at the base, borne on leafless branches.
Using plants as memorials – flowers like 70s earrings
They reminded me of her 1970s whopper earrings, so that’s where my money has gone. Sunsation flowers usually in May, later than most magnolias, so there is much less risk of a late frost damaging the flower buds. It is deciduous, with large, glossy green leaves opening after the flowers and has a more upright, pyramid fashion than other magnolias. I’ve sited it in a semi-shaded spot in fertile, well-draining soil. The maximum height seems to be about 4m, which is fine.
Its bedfellow is another new small tree, Acer shirasawanum Jordan, or the full moon maple. The foliage opens orange-yellow, brightening to yellow-green before turning red in late summer and autumn. The summer foliage has contrasting small red seed heads. That’s the back of the top half of the border planted up (I kicked out rose Crown Princess Margareta and the ornamental rhubarb, now both in the tropical bed, where they’ll get more sun). Now to think about the underplanting…
Read more about the Armed Forces Memorial Holm Oaks.
