Magnolia in Coronation Avenue, H'don 25-03-2014 001

if they're scented, it must be overpowering. lovely plant, looks right against the fence so hope the neighbours enjoy it as much!

Great pic,Balcony, thanks

I have never detected any scent though I've never consciously tried to smell it! Unfortunately for you ladies us blokes seldom repair in the "smell" of plants!

It always made me laugh seeing our granddaughter lift practically everything to her nose before doing anything else with it! I haven't noticed her do it so often in the last couple of years. She'll be 7 years old this weekend.

I think most if not all kids go through the "testing" phase - snell it, taste it, and only then find something else to do wtih it - my nephews did the "taste test" but maybe they did the "sniff test" first - holding an object to their tiny faces, it was hard to tell if that was one "test" or two.

But smell is such an eoctive sense, the most instantly reactive - you can detect a scent and immediately you're back to an incident that happened ten or fifty yaers ago. none of the other senses can do that

But magnolias probably don't need scent to attract pollinating insects - read that scent productin is a large part of a flowr's energy (which is why bought roses don't have any, the growers have turned that energy into making the flowr last longer)

The tree is tall enough to shout "look at me" wihtout needing scent - there's nothing close around it to compete.