Magnolia virginiana

A couple of months ago, we planted three sweetbay magnolia trees in our backyard.  I'm glad we heard them referred to as sweetbay magnolias, because the other common names for the trees don't make them sound quite as appealing:

• swampbay
• swamp magnolia
• whitebay
• beaver tree (?!?)

These trees are just lovely.  The leaves are green on the top side and silver on the bottom side, and they have the most amazing lemon-vanilla scent.  Not to mention how beautiful the blossoms are:

In other plant news, our beloved Yoshino Cherry tree ("Yoshi") has gone to a better place.  Well, not really since his remains were hauled away in a garbage truck full of yard debris, but you get the idea. 

R.I.P. Yoshi.

After we spent some time remembering all the good times we had with Yoshi, we decided it was time for a new tree.  Meet "Blazer," our Autumn Blaze Maple tree:

I drove home from the nursery (8 miles in crazy DC Metro traffic) with this tree sticking out the back of the car.  And let me tell you, it was not a fun time.  But I made it home with minimal damage (just a few scratches on branches from the trunk lid bouncing around).

Welcome home, Blazer!