magnolia for the win

how is it that this temperate tree, which was fairly recently bred to be hardy in the north (zone 4-5), produces some of the very first flowers of spring? i don’t get it. you’d think it would be too tender, waiting until there was absolutely no risk of frost of freezing rain. perhaps it’s their perfectly adapted fur-coated seed casings, or their inherited internal clocks that tells them all their relatives to the south have already bloomed. whatever the explanation, i am grateful for these recent immigrants.

magnolia buds