Flagnolia. That's Flag sitting by a magnolia of unknown type, and so I've decided to call it Flagnolia until I find out what it really is. The shrub is five years old and is just blooming for the first time. It is covered with buds, but I somehow doubt they will all turn into flowers. The current blooms look very much like those on the big Star magnolia tree pictured yesterday, only these are smaller. No doubt a little searching of the University of Minnesota website would help me turn up the actual name, but so far I haven't looked there. Sometimes I like the mystery of a plant as much as I like knowing all about it.

This magnolia was given to me by a friend, who bought it at a bareroot sale at Farmer's Seed and Nursery in Faribault, MN. It came untagged, and she neglected to write down the pertinent information in her hurry to buy one for each of us and still get back to the car before her husband drove away--every mystery has a motive, right? Anyway, her shrub has been blooming for a couple of years. Mine was no doubt slowed in its progress because I moved it to the current site in its second year. The fact that I hit it with the lawn mower and decapitated one sturdy stem probably did not help it, either. (This is why I don't like to let anyone else mow the lawn: someone else might have decapitated the whole thing.) The mower incident, however, improved the magnolia's shape and left it with one main stem (trunk?) and it has actually seemed happier ever since, unlike Flag, who is not happy about posing for her photo. She has birds to flush, rabbits to chase, squirrels to torment. I feel she is secretly honored, however, knowing she has a beautiful little shrub named after her. I don't plan to tell her the real name even if I ever discover it. Next year, if the shrub is completely covered in white blooms, only Flag's face will show up on the picture--and she will probably still be looking wistfully off into the distance after mysteries only a spaniel can appreciate.