Fragile tenacity: That sums up the magnolia.
Unlike the flowering crabapple, whose parchment-thin petals come and go in a few days, the victim of any passing breeze, the magnolia blossoms hang on and on and on. That’s if they escape the notice of the neighbourhood squirrels, and aren’t bitten off before they rightly have a chance to be called blossoms. If they get past that first gauntlet, their leathery petals gradually fade and twist as they dry out and as the emerging leaves push them aside.
Opinions vary in my household, but sometimes truth is not determined by a consensus. In my book, they’re lovely throughout.