When I think of magnolias, I automatically think of the south. I picture a spacious veranda in the soporific heat of summer, draped in bougainvillea and shaded by the glossy leaves of these trees. It is a vision of another climate and hardiness zone very different from the one in my everyday reality. I know there are magnolias hardy to zone 5, such as M. acuminata, M. soulangiana and M. stellata, but I assumed the most breathtaking species could never survive in our northern climate.

Today I learned that an exotic, seemingly subtropical magnolia can indeed flourish in northern Illinois. This is a Magnolia tripetala whose leaves can grow to be 2 feet long. One of its common names is "banana tree," and with leaves like this you can see why. The palm-sized flowers reminded me of an oversized iris, or even an orchid. But this is no hothouse flower—this specimen is growing in Woodstock at Rich's Foxwillow Pines Nursery. It reached at least 30 feet high, proving that we can have a touch of the tropics here in our fickle, temperate climate! I was fortunate to find this and many other charming curiousities on a tour of the nursery with the garden bloggers' Spring Fling. 

— Rose Rankin