Magnolias of Middletown

Not long after the sodden pleasures of Coleman's Carnival have passed, I look forward to one of my favorite Middletown sights: graceful, mature magnolia trees, covered with blossoms. I'm sure there's an interesting story behind this facet of our local landscape — it must have been the fashion sometime early in the last century to plant a magnolia in your downtown front yard.

I'm not at all the kind of person who can identify trees, but I know the location of every old magnolia in our downtown. It's an exceptionally lovely tree — looks like it's covered with pink tulips, and almost always placed at some pleasing angle to a beautiful historic home. I suspect that we are just days from the show, since I saw the first signs of bloom this afternoon on Church Street.

The sight of a magnolia in bloom is always mixed with nostalgia for me, as I remember my first time in Middletown on a college visit at about this time of year in 1984, with my mother exclaiming at the flowering trees as we drove along High Street. The trees, of course, were already old then — they seem to have been borrowed from another time altogether.

So for the next few weeks, look for the magnolias, and offer up thanks to some long-gone — but generous — Middletown gardener.