Magnolia grandiflora
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bill emory
I visited the Rotunda to see the doomed magnolias that have occupied the gardens flanking that structure for a century. The fate of the trees appears sealed.
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Commentator Bill Emory puts up a new photo nearly every day at billemory.com/blog.
6 comments
Bill, thank you for the terrific photos from time to time. I think I can appreciate the fondness for the Grounds, but not relative to the close-range environs of the Magnolia or Buxus, their appearance and odor so objectionable, the coarse, hoary look they impart, especially near so much brick, the tacky filth of the Magnolias, the hot-weather stifling effect they have. I don't know anything of the history of how those plants got there, but maybe it was just carelessness. Maybe I'm the only one who's turned off by their mutant look.
Robert - you are. Magnolias are a "fine old southern tree" and keep their color and leaves through winter. The fact is these trees are over a centuray old and can not be replaced. I hope the University doesn't destroy them but is able to move them. But they are not very environmentally friendly - as they still have coal burning there which they have been asked for decades to upgrade. It was far too important to build JPJ charge their employees parking and then demand they move at 4 PM for events (no discount on that parking) and charge those attending for parking. It was far more important to not honor long term fans and alumni their season tickets but throw it in a pool. They also do very little to encorage community projects with their students.
We're not talking about trees here, are we?
You two're not thinking about the function or appearance of those trees, ( as replaceable as they are.)
Why don't you say it, Mr. Arthur? Those ugly, out-of-place trees are too attached to the despicable post-war period of "reunion" when a proud, degenerate society encoded the subjugation and segregation of Blacks, while making up that sickly myth linked to that genus, and in this town, like few others, this defiant rejection of freedom continued at least a half century longer, as evidenced by that 1920's disgrace, the downtown equestrian statues.
And Mr. Hurt, You weren't responding to Arthur's objection to the misplacement of those trees,- he was faulting the foliage, it's year-long ugliness especially,....you grabbed the opportunity to protest the U's affronts to employees. Use your name! There are thousands of you!
It's a tragedy to cut down 100 year old trees when there is plenty of room for scaffolding to do the UVA repairs. It's great 2000 students signed the petition to save the trees.
Maybe to bolster the lifespan of these few, ugly trees the Rotunda could be razed.
they make nice firewood