I don't think it's gonna make it this year...

...my mom's magnolia tree, I don't think it's gonna bloom properly this year.

(well I really f*cked up picking that picture size!)

Mom's magnolia is about the only thing left out on the farm that mom planted. (oh hell, my font changed , what the f*ck is up with that?)

Okay I'm back on the right font...if nothing else, this blog might be interesting watching my screw-ups! (note to self, checking preview can change the font!)

Anyhoo, mom was a major gardener/flower lover. She had all kinds of stuff all over this yard back when I was growing up. It was a major battle for her to have the flowers she loved, between dad and my brothers mowing over everything, not much had a chance. Even the trees she planted didn't have much of a chance. Dad ad no idea on how to properly prune a tree and kept hacking at them til most of them died. The fruit trees, the flowering plum, the lilac bushes, the mimosa and the spirea bushes (except for one determined old bush) all eventually gave up the ghost.

There were a few old soldiers along side the road that kept coming back this year in spite of being mowed down for several years, some purple and gold iris, a clump of peonies, some paperwhites...well those disappeared late last fall when the county came along and widened the ditches and obliberated them!

I did manage to start a mimosa from a seed from mom's before it croaked and it is now happily growing in my yard, and have been nurturing one spirea out there and it seems to be coming back well!

Back to the magnolia, this poor thing! The magnolia was mom's favorite flowering tree, and this one had (sorta) survived dad's "pruning", now it is a frail triple-trunked thing but it tries it's hardest to flower each year! And not only did it survive dad's attentions it has had to battle a scrub fir tree that dad "planted" about ten feet from it about 30 years ago. We never expected the fir to live, but it has soared to be a huge,ugly tree that totally blocks the magnolia from getting much sun.

The poor magnolia doesn't have much of a chance. But it tries. This year it was LOADED with buds but a late freeze last night might have doomed it, the buds, about ready to burst into flower, look rather brown and lifeless today.

I just hate that because when I see that tree in full bloom, I feel close to mom when it blooms.