Magnolia ‘Athene’

Magnolia ‘Athene’ is an erect, vase-shaped tree that becomes more rounded as it matures. It starts flowering from an early age and should produce its first blooms within a year of planting. The large, fragrant flowers are cup and saucer-shaped with thick and rounded tepals. The flowers are ivory-white, but they are also flushed with violet-pink at the base, adding to their visual appeal. Magnolia ‘Athene’ typically blooms in the mid-spring. Magnolia ‘Athene’ is deciduous, not native to New Zealand, and a hybrid between Magnolia x soulangeana ‘Lennei Alba’ and Magnolia ‘Mark Jury’. Magnolia ‘Athene’ was bred by Felix Jury in New Zealand in the early 1960s and introduced in 1988.