Magnolia × soulangeana 'Dolly Horn'

Magnolia × soulangeana 'Dolly Horn' is a locally bred magnolia hybrid. Flowers initially goblet-shaped, mauvish pink but paler than the parent, white inside and spreading at maturity. In about 1975 Mrs Dolly Horn of Leongatha North pollinated m. campbellii × m. soulangeana 'Lennei' with pollen from m. × soulangeana 'Lennei'. A plant was grown from seed to flowering in September 1983 by Rodney Emmerson. Blue ribbon prizes were awarded to the flowers on two occasions at the Ferny Creek Horticultural Society and it has since passed into commerce although unregistered (as of early 1995). Summer flowers are produced but are not of the same quality as the spring ones.https://hortflora.rbg.vic.gov....

Dolly Horn died late 2006 aged 96 and in early 2007 a memorial was held to remember her life. Dolly had always lived locally and was remembered as an excellent gardener, a good neighbour, a fine horse woman and a golfer. Rodney Emmerson spoke of her as a skillful gardener and a great judge when it came to the quality of flowers and plants. She was very keen on taking the judges to task if she thought they were wrong. Rodney had known Dolly from the 1960's and they had spent many hours judging flowers together. She was a forthright person who had a magnificent garden with a fine collection of plants. These were well looked after and beautifully mulched. Dolly was a keen collector of plants and bought them from nurseries all over. Magnolias were her specialty and in the early 1970.s she crossed two magnolias to develop a plant which she gave to Rodney to grow. He ignored it for several years then finally planted it out and it turned out to be a magnificent magnolia. The flowers won many prices and it was eventually released as the Dolly Horn magnolia. It was a magnolia that was easy to grow from a cutting and is now sold all over. A Dolly Horn magnolia can sell from around $12 to up to $75. Dolly made the remark that she was famous when she saw a Dolly Horn magnolia for sale for $75 in a plant magazine. There are many Dolly Horn magnolias around the town and a special one is to be found at the recreation reserve in the golf course. There is a picture of this in this catalogue entry and it is captioned 'Dolly Horn and Rodney Emmerson in front of the Dolly Horn magnolia at the golf course'.
Leongatha and District Historical Society Newsletter,Volume 4 Number 1 February 2007

Planted on 1/7/2021

220.00 Location A8 Latitude; -38.401403000000 Longitude; 146.054063000000