My granddaughter, Ava, and I sing the chorus of a song A Hundred Million Miracles from the Broadway musical Flower Drum Song. Click here to listen to the words: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRWOtwweKUg&feature=endscreen&NR=1. It's similar in meaning to "stop and smell the roses." And so we do. We examine the patterns on calico material or we'll study the differences in the sharks' teeth we find on the beach or--you get the idea.
So when a friend brought me a magnolia blossom, I started to examine it. Although I've seen hundreds of these flowers on the trees down here in Florida and Georgia over the years, and I know they are the most prominent flower of the South, plus the very word, magnolia, is in the opening paragraph of Gone With The Wind: ...her thick black brows slanted upward, cutting a startling oblique line in her magnolia-white skin — that skin so prized by Southern women and so carefully guarded with bonnets, veils and mittens against hot Georgia suns..., I never appreciated them until now. I wanted to share because they are so beautiful, inside and out. And I didn't realize the flowers open in the day, close at night and then reopen! Enjoy!
I measured this blossom with a ruler. It is 8 inches across!
As I looked closely at the center, I saw a real work of art. I don't know what the parts are called, stamens?, but notice the curls on the top half and what appear to be closed petals below them.
The blossom closed during the night and would reopen the next day.
Day 2, the center turned brown and what I thought were petals on the lower half opened wide!
(As always, thank you to YouTube.com and its contributors for the video in this article.)
