When Jack and I had just moved into this home last year, Jan and Bill Borron came one day bringing a Little Gem Magnolia plant. Both Jack and Jan were gone in December without ever seeing the plant take hold well.
The terrible hail storm this May left it stripped of every single leaf and much of the bark! The broken branches drooped and I felt it would make more sense to take it out than to try to prune it and keep it going. But because it was Jan's I could not do that. I shaped it as best I could. A bit at a time a few small leaves started to return and the life force in it grew and gained and then it gave me this one exquisite bloom. What a lesson in hope! e