Last week’s news that a mature magnolia tree had been felled in a suburb of Poole, Dorset, because wood decay made it a threat to nearby houses, will have touched the hearts of gardeners everywhere. For, in the words of the plant collector E.H. Wilson, after whom Magnolia wilsonii is named, magnolias are ‘aristocrats of the garden’. This is scarcely hyperbole, since magnolias can trace their lineage back to the Pliocene epoch, and are famous for their noble stature, and beautiful, showy and often highly scented flowers. Although owners of large woodland gardens in Cornwall or Argyll may cavil at the newspaper description of this felled giant as ‘Britain’s tallest magnolia tree’, at 60 feet tall it looks in the photograph (taken last spring) to be a magnificent specimen, with a mass of deep pink flowers on naked stems. No journal of record was prepared to hazard a name, but I think it might have been a Magnolia campbellii, which can grow to that height and has enormous flowers, capable (the newspaper said) of filling five wheelie bins with its fallen petals.

Magnolias are beloved of visitors to large public gardens early in the season, because of their distinctive character and astonishing flower power. Many bloom in late February or March before the large oval leaves appear, which is why the flowers make such an impact. That said, one of the best-known is the evergreen Magnolia grandiflora, which has very large, waxy, leaves and sparse, pale cream flowers that smell strongly of lemon meringue pie. Since it is as sensitive as an elderly aunt to a cold draught, it is usually to be found growing against a tall sunny wall.

The grandeur of most magnolia species is only matched by a fastidiousness that requires them to be grown in a deep, well-drained but moist, neutral or acid soil, with shelter from winds and late frosts. Moreover, the taller varieties, such as M. campbelli or M. veitchii, can take ten years before they will condescend to flower.

Thankfully, there are some species that have less exacting requirements: in particular the shrubby Magnolia stellata, the ‘star magnolia’ with pure white flowers, the wine-red Magnolia liliiflora ‘Nigra’, as well as the white and pink Magnolia x soulangeana, which is to be found in many a suburban front garden, its goblet shape widening with age. The great enemy of all spring-flowering magnolias is a late frost followed by early morning sunshine, which turns those flowers to brown soggy rags, causing the ruination of the hopes of gardeners who have waited all winter for the furry buds to open.

Depending on species or cultivar, the flowers range in colour from white through cream to pale pink, dark pink, pale purple and almost black. In recent years, yellow varieties have been introduced, which are cultivars developed from crosses made between M. denudata and M. acuminata. With the possible exception of Magnolia grandiflora, no magnolia flower is anywhere near the colour of the paint known as ‘magnolia’, a neutral off-white with an undertone of yellow. I am told that this colour is having a moment, after lingering in a taste wilderness for several decades, since its 1970s-1980s heyday. It is mystifying to me why anyone would choose to describe a paint as ‘magnolia’ when it obviously isn’t. True ‘magnolia’ would never have gone out of fashion.