Pink Magnolia

Pink Magnolia, Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin

Pink Magnolia © 2011 Bo Mackison

I finally found a sunny time to drive across town and see how the flowers were faring at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens. I had a nice surprise. Even though many of the flowers are several weeks behind their normal blooming time, the entire garden in filled with flowering beauties. The magnolia trees are in bloom. I think the magnolia has one of the more interesting flowers.

Scientists think that the magnolia is one of the older flowers on earth, believed to have evolved before bees, for the magnolia is designed for pollination by beetles. (The magnolia is not the oldest of flowers, that distinction goes to the water-lily.) The magnolia bloom has many primitive features including a large number of both pistils and stamens–the reproductive parts of the flower. In comparison, most flowers have only one pistil and five stamens. The magnolias’ large number occur in spiraled rows and cluster together above the petals.

The magnolia has between six and twelve petals plus an additional three sepals. Typical of primitive flowers, the petals and sepals are nearly identical in shape and color. This magnolia, the Loebner magnolia, has a purplish hue. Other magnolias range in colors from pure white to yellowish-green to pink to lavender.

The trees, when planted in groupings, are quite a marvelous sight–twenty five foot tall trees covered with thousands of almost translucently tinted flowers.

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I am back home after spending the first part of 2011 in Arizona. It has taken some time to adjust to life in Wisconsin, but now that the spring flowers blooming and the sun is finally shining, life is good.

 

Kaufmanniana Tulip

Kaufmanniana Tulip with Mottled Leaves at Allen Centennial Garden, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Kaufmanniana Tulip © 2011 Bo Mackison

One of the earliest tulips to bloom is the Kaufmanniana Tulip. Due to its diminutive size–maybe 6 inches high–it is frequently planted in rock gardens. This tulip, one of the first in bloom in the garden, was photographed at Allen Centennial Park on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

Focus on Leaves, Mottled Leaves of Kaufmanniana Tulip at Allen Centennial Garden, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Focus on Leaves © 2011 Bo Mackison

I found the mottled markings on the leaves almost as interesting as the flowers, but due to a cloud burst, I curtailed my photo session. Just didn’t feel like getting drenched without warm clothes available and the temperatures were dropping to the lower 40s. [Reminder to self: put rain clothes in back of car.]

When the sun makes an appearance, I’m going back to capture some tulip leaf photographs. Or after I buy a sturdy pair of rain boots!

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Bo is back in Wisconsin after spending the first part of 2011 in Arizona. She is watching as Spring tiptoes into Wisconsin.

Bloodroot

Bloodroot in Woodlands, Madison Wisconsin

Bloodroot in Woodlands © 2011 Bo Mackison

Though finding flowers in bloom has been a bit of a challenge in Wisconsin this spring, I found several stands of bloodroot in the woodland area of the Allen Centennial Gardens at the university of Wisconsin in Madison. It’s name has nothing to do with “blood” — the sap of the flower is a bright red color, similar to the color of blood. The sap has been used as a dye by Native Americans.

Though it is typically found in the cooler, eastern regions of the United States and Canada, it can be found as far south and west as Texas. It is a common ephemeral flower in the woods of Wisconsin, blooming before the trees leaf out and block the sunlight from reaching the forest floor.

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I am back in Wisconsin after spending the first part of 2011 in Arizona, and beginning to see hints of a late arriving Spring as she quietly tiptoes into Wisconsin.

 

 

Tiny Yellow Flowers

Rock Garden Flowers

Rock Garden Flowers © 2011 Bo Mackison

The sun peeked out from behind the clouds this morning for about an hour, and so we took advantage of the sunlight and went for a walk at the nearby Allen Centennial Gardens. The gardens, located on the urban campus of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, is home to a huge number of botanicals on a few acre lot.

There aren’t many flowers blooming except for the early spring bulbs — daffodils mostly– but the rock garden is showing the beginning signs of flowering. Several bunches of flowers, mostly in the draba family, had a few flowers in bloom, especially those blossoms that were sheltered from unpredictable weather by larger rocks.

If we have a couple of days of warm weather and sunshine, there are plenty of flowers with buds ready to pop. Should be a lovely sight when spring decides to stay.

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I am back in Wisconsin after spending the first part of 2011 in Arizona. Still waiting, with bated breath, to see Spring tiptoe into Wisconsin.

Last Visit to Tumacacori

Tumacacori Garden

Tumacacori Garden © 2012 Bo Mackison

Can you look past the electric wires, telephone poles,
the matching but separate doors labeled MEN and WOMEN,
the coiled rubber hose, the 19th century stone wall cracked open for a water spigot?

Don’t heed the red stop sign hovering above the mission wall
or listen to the rumbling cars speeding from Nogales to the Border Patrol checkpoint.

Cover your ears with your determination for a sacred silence in this sacred space.
Block the sounds of horns blaring, ignore the heated words of the couple standing near the rose bush.

Shhh.

Can you hear rustling leaves, whistling wind? Can you see the shimmer of the cotttonwoods?

These winds were in this garden. The trees now camouflaging the sparrows’ nests, they were here.
The fountain — the garden’s heart — it was here with its rippling waters.
The dust blowing from the Tumacácori Mountain Range – that dust was here.

Those mountains? They stood in silence and watched.
Arched doorways sheltered the walkway, courtyard sheltered a painted statue of the Virgin with her Babe. They watched.

The yucca were here, the tepary beans trailed along the earth.
The nut tree saplings, freshly planted, they swayed in rhythm with the winds. They witnessed.

The che-che-chee of the sparrows joined the voices raised in song —  of protest and praise, with humiliation and elation, in mourning and in gratitude.

Tumacacori Church Entrance

Tumacacori Church © 2011 Bo Mackison

I hear their voices, I hear the choir lift their voices in song.
Harmonizing
Chanting
The rising alleluias, the longing amens.

Their voices. Do you hear them?
Che-che-cheee-ing alleluias.
Siss-siss-siss, leaves dancing, twirling along the dusty path.

Tumacacori Interior Bricks

Interior © 2011 Bo Mackison

Hearts dancing, hold your gaze on the star hunter, poised, aiming his arrow at the full moon.
Hidden voices in the whistling winds.
Hidden eyes, watching from Tumacacori.

Listen. Watch.

Hush.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She will be returning to Wisconsin later this week after living in Tucson for the last two months. She’s been exploring Arizona and living life “solo.” Occasionally she is moved to write poetry, as happened when she took a last visit to Tumacacori National Historic Site.