While many of nature’s star-power flowers take a rest during the winter, magnolias in the San Francisco Botanical Garden put on a hit show worthy of Broadway. Velvetlike buds burst open on bare branches into voluminous and fragrant blooms in shades of pink and pure white. The clear blue skies of a California winter provide the perfect backdrop to highlight the elegant flowers when they make their welcome yearly debut.
“Magnolias have long been the signature flower of the garden,” says Sue Ann Schiff, executive director of the San Francisco Botanical Garden Society. “The city has an ideal climate to support them, so we have been able to cultivate and steward one of the world’s most important magnolia collections—critical for their conservation and survival.”
The garden’s collection features 51 species and 33 cultivars, including many prized and rare examples from Asia, which are distinct from what is seen in Southern states. Some of the trees reach 80 feet, making them a challenge to photograph, but that fact does not dissuade Saxon Holt. “These are large mature trees, and I have to be constantly looking up into the sky to find angles that show off the flowers as they naturally grow. But they are thrilling to photograph,” he says.
See the magnolias in bloom at the San Francisco Botanical Garden annually from mid-January through the end of March. The progress of the blooms can be tracked on the garden’s social media, so visits can be planned at the peak of the season.
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Photography by Saxon Holt | Images courtesy of the San Francisco Botanical Garden