Botanical Name: Magnolia sieboldii ‘Michiko Renge’
Common Name: Michiko Renge Oyama Magnolia
Notable Feature: An amazing double-flowered form that possesses a stunning combination of pure white, petal-like tepals that surround prominent, rose-pink stamens. Magnolia sieboldii is named after Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796–1866), a German doctor, botanist, and explorer.
Habit: A most handsome shrub to small tree. Plant habit is small and spreading, growing 8 to 12’ tall and about as wide. Unlike most magnolias that thrive in sun, M. sieboldii prefers light shade. Hardy in Zones 5-8.
Foliage: Medium to dark green above and downy beneath. The deciduous leaves are elliptic in shape, 3 to 6” long and 3 to 4” wide.
Flower: The heavily textured and fragrant, cup-shaped flowers are borne along branches in a nodding pose. Semi-double in form and composed of up to 36 petal-like tepals that surround a ring of rosy pink stamens. Blooms in June, well past the danger of frosts and sporadically into mid-summer. Occasionally late season blooms carry extra tepals. Adds a wonderful scent to the garden.
Fruit: Small, pink-fruiting cones, 2 to 3” long, houses scarlet seeds that mature in late September.
Interesting Fact: A stunning double form that was registered in 1961 by magnolia breeder Todd Gresham of Santa Cruz, CA. “Michiko" is the name of a Japanese empress and "Renge" means lotus flower in Japanese. M. sieboldii is native to a wide geographic range, from the forests of Japan and into Korea and China.