Of Sculptors, Dukes and Magnolias

I was going to do a post about Roses this week, but I have Magnolias on my mind because I had a dream about them last night. I have been thinking about Magnolia Trees recently, actually two Magnolia Trees in particular, because we are going on our trip to Spain which we take every Summer, and we will see them there.

In my hometown of Noia, there are two Magnolia Trees at the end of the promenade of the Ayuntamiento (the town hall), just around the corner from our house. These two Magnolias were brought back from Argentina by a certain Almirante (Admiral) Alejandro Cadarzo during his travels, who convinced the local government at the time to plant them where they have been for many hundreds of years. In between the two trees is a huge obelisk with a sculpture of the head of Felipe de Castro on top of it. Felipe de Castro is a famous carpenter and sculptor and basic all around Renaissance man from our hometown Noia who ended up serving as the private sculptor to King Fernando IV.

People say that he made his mark at an art competition early on in his career where he presented to the art commission what appeared to be a simple wooden mallet as his final work. Everyone laughed at him for presenting what seemed to them like a joke, and they tossed the mallet away. When it fell nearby, it came open, and inside the two pieces was revealed a tiny, intricately carved scene of Jesus and the disciples at the last Supper (incidentally, he had to manufacture his own special tiny little tools just to carve out this design). Everybody flipped out. He won first prize at the competition, and it was all up from there.

During the festival of San Cristobal, for an entire week everyday at Vermouth Time - which is at noon (hey you guys have lunch, we have Vermouth Time), everybody gets together under the Magnolias and listens to the Verbenas (not that kind of Verbena – its basically traditional Spanish classical music played by a troupe of local musicians of all different ages from kids to old timers).

These wise old trees don't grow tall, they grow out. The trunks aren't perfectly round, they grow all knotted like enormous old Sequoia trees, and the branches are 60 feet wide.

Why this is all important is because these Magnolias are part of our heritage are approaching 500 years old, and no one is taking care of them. I remember an incident involving another Magnolia tree just beyond the end of the property of a local Duke (who's walls we used to climb over as kids to steal pomegranates and other fruits...sometimes we would get pomegranates that were not even ripe yet, but we would eat them anyway and make ourselves like them, just because we were so exited about not getting caught). During the construction of a new road, some geniuses on the local town commission for planning and I don't know what decided to move this tree that had been there for so many years to another location, even though they didn't have any experience with trees in general or Magnolias in particular. Well, they moved the tree, and as some people who knew about trees had warned the board, it didn't make it at the new location.

So we are trying to put together some kind of committee to do something special to commemorate the history of these majestic trees and their relationship with our town, and also to make the town get serious about finally taking care of them.

Anyway, needless to say, we have a great connection to Magnolias. We have one at our house in Bedford, so the kids can see the amazing blooms in the Springtime. Right next to the Magnolia tree, we also have a few Weeping White Cherry trees (we try to plant things on the property in such a way that there is always something in bloom). We highly recommend Magnolias to anyone who wants to create a special environment on their property (incidentally, if you like birds, Magnolias are a double blessing because they attract birds...birds love Magnolia sees because they are high in fat, and usually go after the Magnolia seeds just before they migrate).

Having a Magnolia tree is a long term deal...they really shouldn't be replanted anywhere once they are over 6” in diameter, and should be preferably put in place by someone who really knows what they are doing. Magnolias are best planted when the weather starts getting cool because they are in a dormant state and this traumatizes them less. 

See you next time...

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