Sweet Michelia Tree

Sweet Michelia
Magnolia doltsopa
(mag-NO-lee-uh) (dolt-SOH-puh)
Synonyms: Chinese Magnolia, Michelia doltsopa (my-KEE-lee-uh)

The fragrance of this tree still lingers in my mind. It smelled heavenly. The size, structure and flowers of the tree were impressive, also. It was my first time seeing a Sweet Michelia and it was great on every level except the flowers were very dirty, which I think was a local problem particular to this tree. It didn’t make for a pretty close up that is for sure.

Magnolia doltsopa is a native of the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It grows to about 30 feet tall and can tolerate full sun or part shade. It likes moist soil and a sheltered location. If I lived in Zone 9 there would be one in my garden.

All the pictures in today’s post and the black and white from yesterday are from my visit to The Huntington in San Marino, California in February. It is an amazing place.

This is from the Chinese Garden. Shot with the Sigma 24mm / 1.8 lens. I have to break out that lens this weekend. Lately I have been using the 60mm and 105mm exclusively.

Chinese Garden Bridge

Chinese Garden
Wordless Wednesday

Chinese Scholar Garden

Chinese Scholar Garden
Staten Island, New York

This is really Part Two for pictures of my trip to the Staten Island Botanical Garden. The first post is here with some more black and white photos and some information on the garden.



These pictures were all shoot with my compact (point and shoot camera) Nikon 8400 camera. The black and whites were from a series of doorway and hall photos I tried at the garden. I think I had limited success on the doors but there were a lot of photo opportunities at the garden. The grounds outside of the walled off Chinese Garden are full of interesting plants and it is a well tended garden. The pictures were shot on the monochrome setting and are not conversions.

My visit was in September and that feels so far away from now as it is snowing like heck outside now. They say 10 inches but at these rates we are looking at a foot or more. Significant ice is also expected and then a turn back to snow. I was hoping to get back to work full time next week but I really should have known better. I am not complaining about the snow itself as we have had hardly any this year.

Here are two quotes that kind of sum up how I am feeling.


"Why, what's the matter,
That you have such a February face,
So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?"

William Shakespeare
Much Ado About Nothing

"Every gardener knows that under the cloak of winter lies a miracle,
a seed waiting to sprout, a bulb opening to the light, a bud straining to unfurl.
And the anticipation nurtures our dream."

Barbara Winkler



This a building I took a snapshot of on the way from the Staten Island Ferry Terminal to the Subway in Lower Manhattan.

Chinese Scholar Garden

Chinese Scholar Garden
Staten Island Botanical Garden

The showcase and centerpiece of the Staten Island Botanical Garden is the New York Chinese Scholar Garden. There is a separate admission charge of $5 (US) for this garden. The other gardens are free. I gladly paid and didn’t think to ask if my New York Botanical Garden membership fee would get me break. It didn’t matter as the show was well worth the admission. It is a remarkable garden that has surprises around every corner. I had my trusty Coolpix set to black and white and also had the D70s with the 60mm shooting color. In hindsight I probably should have put the wide-angle lens on the D70 but I like the challenge of trying to get shots with the 60mm prime. I have been wanting to shoot more B&W so I actually used the little camera more. There was a multitude of shots to be had with all the angles and details in the garden.



I looked up just what a Chinese Scholar Garden is supposed to be and found this article on Wikipedia:
Chinese Scholar Garden



I have reprinted a portion of it here:

“The Chinese (Scholar's) Garden is a place for solitary or social contemplation of nature. To be considered authentic, a garden must be built and planned around seventeen essential elements. 17 features of a Scholar's garden: 1) near or at the home; 2) small; 3) walled; 4) small individual sections; 5) asymmetrical; 6) various types of spatial connections; 7) architecture; 8) rocks; 9) water; 10) trees; 11) plants; 12) sculpture; 13) jie jing (borrowed scenery); 14) chimes; 15) incense burners; 16) inscriptions; 17) use of feng shui for choosing site.”
Source: Marylyn McKean, Professor of Garden History at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design



The rest of the article goes on to talk about how the different plants are used and what they symbolize. All of which I found interesting. I think the only other Chinese Garden I have ever been in is the one in the Montreal Botanical Garden Montréal, Québec Canada.
Click Here

And that was really new at the time. The New York Garden seemed more established. Now know more about Chinese Gardens, including the major elements I can see how they were presented in Staten Island. I had the garden to myself a good part of the time which was nice. I only had to wait once when I was taking a picture for someone to move out of the way. It was really quiet and therefore more enjoyable to me.

I have decided to post only the Black and White pictures here today. These are not color conversions but shot with the camera in the monochrome setting. You can see I was fascinated by the Moon Gate. The only other one I have remember seeing was at Naumkeag in Stockbridge, MA.



Well the will be another post on the Garden, probably in color, in the next couple of days. I have to think about what I want to post for ABC Wednesday and Wordless Wednesday. It is back to the grind today. I can’t believe it is Labor Day already. I am going to have to do some watering if it doesn’t rain this week.



My apologies to anyone on a dial up connection for posting so many pictures. I crushed them down as far as I could without losing too much of the quality.