Coming into bloom early in March, this hybrid combines extraordinary intensity of colour with free-flowering habit in a 40 foot tree (some twenty years old) that appears to be still growing.
Premier Cru is one of the most noticeable magnolia seedlings raised by Maurice Foster at White House Farm. It is a sister seedling of another WHF seedling, Grand Cru, both the result of a putative cross between M. sargentiana robusta ‘Blood Moon’ and M. sprengeri ‘Claret Cup’, which grow together and overlap in flowering time.
This magnolia is remarkable for the intensity of its hot pink lipstick colour, what its breeder Maurice Foster calls ‘hot magenta’. It blooms so early that its bright intensity makes an eye-catching splash against the still-leafless trees and evergreens of late winter. This makes the plant an event in itself, especially against clear winter skies, its shocking colour well-suited to solo performance. It is also remarkably frost-resistant, and has excellent continuity of flower.
- blooms early, when little else offers intense colour
- resists frost and wind when fully open
- holds its bloom for 3-4 weeks, with fair-to-good bud follow on
Warmth intensifies colour is many early spring flowering trees and shrubs – certainly Magnolias. As Maurice Foster says, “‘Pickard’s Ruby’ in the South of Switzerland (in Sir Peter Smithers’ garden) is richer, darker and well-named versus a rather unexceptional nondescript typical M. soulangeana style flower in colder England. This is why some magnolia cultivars like Vulcan are magnificent grown in New Zealand but inferior in the UK.” After slight frost or a longer cold spell the same impact can be seen in Rhododendron augustiniae – the blue is fugitive to cold.
“‘Pickard’s Ruby’ in the South of Switzerland (in Sir Peter Smithers’ garden) is richer, darker and well-named versus a rather unexceptional nondescript typical M. soulangeana style flower in colder England. This is why some magnolia cultivars like ‘Vulcan’ are magnificent grown in New Zealand but inferior in the UK.”
Maurice Foster, WHF
Premiere Cru ignores this tendency by offering an intense pink in mid-March, throughout spring frosts in the South-East of England – another reason why its colour is remarkable.
By Clare Foster, WHFAF trustee
White House Farm Garden and Arboretum 