Our star magnolia buds are bursting hourly into beautiful, free-form flowers like this:
The wind sometimes tosses the sun-radiating petals in a way that creates a pom-pom effect, with the whole bush wildly waving cheers.
The buds look like large pussy willow catkins at first, and then they burst and the flowwers unfurl out:
The plants (Magnolia stellata) are among the first large plants to flower in the spring. As with many of our more outrageous flowering plants, star magnolias are natives to Japan. They reportedly were introduced in the United States during the difficult 1860s. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on April 29, 2024.)