Magnolia sprengeri 'Diva'

Magnolia sprengeri 'Diva' is the aristocrat of the pink magnolias, a large, rare deciduous tree from the mountains of western China that smothers itself in spring with big, saucer-shaped flowers of deep rose-pink, sweetly fragrant and opening on bare branches before the leaves. Six to eight inches across and carried in abundance, the blooms make one of the most breathtaking sights in the early garden, yet the tree remains surprisingly little known in American gardens.

The story of 'Diva' begins with the plant hunter Ernest Wilson, who collected Sprenger magnolia seed in southwestern China in 1900. Of the seedlings raised at Caerhays Castle in Cornwall, all but one bloomed white; the exception, first flowering in 1919, opened a glorious deep rose-pink and was named 'Diva'. The species honors Carl Ludwig Sprenger, the nineteenth-century German botanist and nurseryman, and the genus Magnolia remembers Pierre Magnol, the French botanist of Montpellier.

This is a magnolia that does not make you wait a lifetime: 'Diva' can begin flowering as young as seven years, and the display only grows with age. The rich color and vigor have made the tree an important parent of modern hybrids, including the celebrated National Arboretum introductions 'Galaxy' and 'Spectrum', both of which owe their red-purple depth to 'Diva' blood.

Give 'Diva' an open lawn or a sheltered garden spot with deep, rich, well-drained soil and ample moisture, and room for the broad, rounded crown to develop. Site the tree where the pink flowers can be seen against a darker backdrop or an open sky, and, as with all early magnolias, choose a spot that escapes the worst of the late frosts, since a hard freeze can brown an open flower. For sheer spring spectacle, few trees of this size can match a well-grown Sprenger magnolia.