21.07.2023 - 23:06 / awaytogarden.com

designing with magnolias, with andrew bunting

DO YOU RECALL the first plants that caught your eye–the ones that proved your gateway drugs into plantaholic behavior? Andrew Bunting looked out his childhood bedroom window into the canopy of an old saucer magnolia, and apparently thanks to that venerable tree, he was bitten bigtime by the magnolia bug. Who better to ask about which are the best for which garden size or purpose, from espalier and hedges to upright forms that fit tight spots?

Andrew, who is now assistant director of the Chicago Botanic Garden, is past president of Magnolia Society International’s board of directors, and remains a member of the society’s board. In his tenure over 20 years as curator at Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, Andrew built the magnolia collection from about 50 to more than 200 cultivars. That’s a lot of magnolias.

Now Andrew Bunting is author of a book on the queen of flowering trees, called “The Plant Lover’s Guide to Magnolias,” just out from Timber Press as part of an ongoing series on various distinctive genera of plants.

We talked magnolias on my public-radio show and podcast. Read along while you listen in to the April 25, 2016 edition of the podcast using the player below (or at this link)–and even learn how to train a magnolia or any woody plant into an espalier yourself.

my magnolia q&a with andrew bunting

[podcast url=” http://podcasts.am1020whdd.com/~am1020wh/shows/mp3/A_Way_To_Garden_With_Margaret_Roach_-_April_25_Andrew_Bunting_On_Magnolias.mp3″]

Q. You still remember that first magnolia, huh?

A. It was outside my bedroom window in Manhattan, Illinois, not too far from here.

Q. So you’ve moved back home close to home.

A. I was born in Illinois, and lived here till I was about 3, then moved away. I came

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