When I was a young boy, my favourite spot for reading was in the magnolia tree in our backyard. I had a reading nook up high and a lower branch for swinging on with my sister. Dad made a rope swing which we used for climbing as well as swinging. The local florist had an arrangement with my parents to harvest the leaves, buds and flowers.
With my sister Carolyn on The Magnolia Swing. Photo: Dad
The Magnolia Tree is on the left. I was hiding up the tree with a book while my sister mowed the lawn.
Sisters can do anything. Photo: Dad
Magnolia is featured as a heart note in the Men’s Fragrance Derring-do by Ineke.
To find out more about this note I asked the perfumer, Ineke, for more information.
The Magnolia Note
Ineke Rühland: There are quite a few different varieties of Magnolia with fairly different scents, and some are not scented at all. The one that’s generally referred to in perfumery is Magnolia Grandiflora. These are very tall trees native to the southern USA, and we have quite a few of them in San Francisco lining our streets. They have huge white flowers that drop their petals one at a time, and they smell really great. The scent is quite fresh for a floral. I smell nuances of lemon and sweet melon. Magnolia doesn’t lend itself to extraction or distillation unfortunately, so the scent needs to be replicated with other materials. I used magnolia in Derring-do because I thought it went well with the fresh water and aromatic theme of the fragrance. Magnolia works particularly well in fresh fragrances in general.
James Dennard took a look at Derring-do recently in the post called A Fragrant Friendship.
Last year Jonquil was the new white. This year Magnolia is the new white. Tomorrow we take a peek at an upcoming release featuring this fresh floral scent. The new ‘fume is a collaboration between a famous florist and the perfumer who brought us Manoumalia. You can take a guess as to who they are in the comment section below.
The Fragrant Man 
Beautiful. Simple, emotive, and tantalizing.
The Tantalization of Magnolia. Have a great day ahead GinzaInTheRain. Dewdrops to ya!
You too!
What a lovely post.
Peace Sufi Girl. Shukran.
🙂
Love it when we get a glimpse of someone’s past. I planted a Magnolia grandiflora 2 years ago, lost it in a bushfire, replanted another last year, hoping it survives. They are a magnificent tree.
Sending that tree some love. When I lived in the Blue Mountains there were seasonal bush fires. That is how the Aussie bush regenerates right? Here’s to Magnolia Magnificence.
I’ll drink to that!
And yes it is how our bush regenerates, but that poor Magnolia was caught up in the back-burn to protect my place. Magnolias are not natives and do not regenerate 😦
Strange coincidence, the tree is very common where I live and now it is blooming. It is too tall to allow picking of the flowers but today while walking casually a huge petal, as big as my palm landed in front of me. I picked it up and it smelled like lemon, very much different to the other, bush like variety with the flame shaped flowers. The petal was sturdy and somewhat fleshy. I was on my way to meet a friend for coffee so I brought it with me as a gift for her. A gift of one petal instead of a whole flower, stingy one might say but she seemed thrilled to receive it none the less.
As you would be Amer. Strange coincidences seem to abound in The Fragrant Stratosphere. It’s winter here; making cocoa and burning sandalwood. An unusual and beautiful combination.
Great Children! Dad
Hey Super Dad, you have skewed the readership demographic; thank you for zoomin’ in.
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It’s true – trees provide powerful memories. My childhood tree was not a magnolia, but an oak tree. On some day in the future, both my boys will remember a M. grandiflora as “their” tree, when they look back in time…
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