A magnolia hidden among the magnolias of Magnolia

BY BOBBY GREEN

 

Cemeteries are intriguing places for the curious minded. The stones and sculpture tell tales of times past.

Oftentimes the stories are incomplete, shrouded in mystery but all the more compelling for it.

To the adventuresome garden historian an old cemetery can hold garden artifacts of museum quality.

Whether they persist from benign neglect or tender care we are indebted to the memory of the inhabitants for their preservation.

Such is the case of the Magnolia figo hidden away in plain sight at Magnolia Cemetery.

Magnolia figo has a southern pedigree, albeit from southern China, where it grows in moist woods.

First brought to America in 1811 as a greenhouse plant, it soon found its way to more hospitable outdoor climes such as in Charleston, Mobile, and New Orleans.

Botanists kept bouncing the name around the plant kingdom between Magnolia figo and Michelia fuscata and finally (hopefully) settling on Magnolia figo (figo is Portuguese for banana.)

We all know it by its common names of Banana Shrub or Banana fuscata. Springtime flowers smell much like ripe bananas and the pleasant fragrance can be carried on the wind upwards of one hundred feet.

So powerful is the perfume that our pre-plumbing era ancestors often would wrap the waxy flowers in their handkerchiefs.

Growing into a large shrub or small evergreen tree, it was quite common in the gardens of Greenville, lending fragrance to all the camellia-dominated gardens as well as being a proud first choice in simpler gardens where ornamental shrubs had to compete for space with fruits and vegetables.

Why the specimen in Magnolia Cemetery reached such massive dimensions is also a mystery.

Unlike most of its kind north of the coastal counties, it shrugged off the sub-zero freezes of the 1960s and 1980s, laughed at the yearly yellow hammer visitors mining its bark, and seems immune to a 21st century fungal disease that has gotten the best of many others.

Perhaps it has a spiritual protection from Willie W. Wilkinson, born May 30, 1870 and went home Sept. 25, 1886. It is quite likely this banana shrub (a favorite of young ladies of the time) was planted shortly after her untimely death. Her grave rests at the base of the magnolia.

There are many horticultural gems in Greenville but this venerable old Asian magnolia, thriving alongside its American relatives ranks among the best.

If you would like to introduce a Banana Shrub to your garden look for the improved form named Magnolia skinneriana.

It has all the great characteristics of Magnolia figo but is disease resistant, more cold-tolerant, and blooms in both spring and fall.