Leonard Messel

Leonard Messel was a Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army, but when WW2 broke out, he was barred from fighting because his father was German. He did what he could for the war effort anyway - training troops in East Kent. During the war, he wrote hundreds of letters to young men he had trained, and he wrote heartfelt letters when they didn't go home. This lovely Magnolia, which originated in Messel's garden, is usually grown as a shrub. Leonard Messel took over the famous garden at Nymans in Sussex, England in 1916. Nymans is famous for its collection of Magnolias that were under generations of care from the Messel family. Leonard Messel Magnolia is an award winning small tree (more a squat shrub for me) with fragrant pink and white star shaped flowers. It look for all the world like the best of a Star magnolia and a Saucer magnolia. Short lived blooms and early - February for us. It seems to find that pocket and misses our frosts.