{Our Fragrant Magnolia Grandiflora 'Namnetensis Flore Pleno'}

• One of our most prized trees and a very rare variety, is this double flowering Magnolia Grandiflora 'Namnetensis Flore Pleno'. 
• It received its name from the French hybridizer Delaunay from Nantes, who made it commercially available in France from 1865 on.

• It was exactly in 1711 when the Saint Michel, owned by merchant, shipowner René Darquistade, did bring back from Louisiana, USA this rare double and fragrant Grandiflora Magnolia. 
• Following this arduous journey it struggled for twenty years. 
• It should have been destroyed as it was not a happy tree with no flowers. 
• But the wife of the gardener, out of love for plants, and by intuition, did plant it in a more sheltered area to protect it from the cold winds. 
• Now it prospered and rewarded those that saved it, by blooming within a couple of years. 
• This meant also the beginning of fame, as the most famous botanical luminaries from the region came to admire and pay tribute to its immensely delicate double fragrant cream flowers. 
• The rest is history: 
• Nantes is long famous for its huge collection of some 500 magnolia species. 

• This photo shows the birth of a new leaf and a bud forming a fragrant double magnolia.
• The species is native to the South of the United States from the Carolina's to Florida and till Texas.

• Wish I could transmit its fragrance...
• How must the French gardener's wife have enjoyed the fruits of her tender care! 
• Funny that it came from Louisiana to France and we again got it from Louisiana!

• Tell you what... I spray those magnolia leaves golden for Christmas decorations!

• Now stepping back, so you get to see where this 'garden aristocrat' lives...

• From our bedroom we can see it and each time we drive onto our driveway into the garage. The bedroom is on the second floor above. 
• You see how scorched the grass is already from the drought and heat?

• We only sprinkle the trees and shrubs; not the lawn...
• Here you see the golden live oak Quercus virginiana 'Grandview Gold' (left); they came together from Louisiana.

• Come October, you can see these bright red seeds...

• All three trees you see here, are evergreen which makes it kind of tropical looking...
• Golden live oak; magnolia and windmill palm - see: {Our Garden White & Icy Today as Snowstorm Slams South} with icy palm from snowstorm in January).

• This Magnolia Grandiflora 'Namnetensis Flore Pleno' has a perfect conical form and is huge already.

• Now let's walk to the other side of our home where we do also have a Southern Magnolia, a Grandiflora that is not fragrant and not double; but nevertheless pretty.

• Hope you enjoyed our Southern Charm!

Related link:

UPS 2nd Day Air Delivery from Louisiana Nursery + Fight against Tuberous Roots of Greenbrier! | where we ordered all our special and exotic trees and shrubs