The prior owners of our new home loved planting. You can tell by the rich array of plant species surrounding our home. These plants are not so common or well I’m not used to seeing so many different species of plants. So I did the next best thing and got an app to begin to learn. And I’m in awe. The next series of posts will take us on a planting spree. The prior owners were not playing. It’s is all truly beyond gardening as a hobby. So let me begin with the one that brings joy to my heart every time I look at it. If there is one tree that represents Spring, it’s a magnolia. It began to bloom sometime late last week and is supposed to keep blooming from now until mid summer. The back of our home is surrounded by their deep lustrous green leaves. The tree is not too tall, and their flowers very delicate. But it’s their light purple exterior with a light pink interior and yellow petals that makes me smile.

Lily magnolias I can tell will be my favorite for there is much to learn about them. For starters, it’s a small tree native to China but planted not just in China, but Japan, some countries in Europe and in the USA. Though they maybe battered in the fall and winter from strong winds and very cold temperatures, they emerge in Spring as beautiful as can be with colors just as bright as the dazzling sun. Because I didn’t know their value, we didn’t water them through the fall or winter, as they need to be watered regularly. We only pruned the hedges that had grown all around them when the prior owners moved out of the home over a year before they sold the house. We pruned them due to advice we got from others and let them be. Judging from how they are thriving now, that maybe all they need, though we will now incorporate water for the future. Still, they are just as glorious as can be with a truly mesmerizing elegant appearance. They are visited primarily not only by beetles but also by bees, something that drives my kids crazy as they hate to see them. I on the other hand love to see nature at its best. To see such a sun-loving flower at the back of our home keeps my joyful and hopeful for all the possibilities nature has to offer, if only we do our part to tend to it. It’s for this reason that I liken lily magnolias to motherhood.

We can bloom as mother’s if only we tend to ourselves. Our exteriors can be just as vibrant, elegant too as our interiors like those of lily magnolias if only we do our part to love ourselves, to prune the hedges that surround our hearts and minds, water our soul thoroughly and bathe ourselves in the dazzling warmth and brilliance of the sun. These are the lessons I am keeping from lily magnolias. I expect now that there will always be strong winds and freezing temperatures in the form of people that may come to batter me in the fall or cold days. But like lily magnolias, I intend to still emerge beautifully, mesmerizing too in Spring and beyond.