Magnolias—beloved for their iconic spring blossoms—are among the most popular flowering trees. In The Plant Lover’s Guide to Magnolias expert Andrew Bunting shares a plant directory including 146 of the best magnolias for the garden. Featuring information on growth, care, and design, along with hundreds of gorgeous color photographs, it covers everything a home gardener needs to introduce these delightful trees into their garden.   Magnolias are the most magnificent flowering woody plants for temperate gardens and landscapes. Presented here are an expert's 146 top choices, from large shrubs to towering trees, along with essential information about how to care for and use them most effectively. Andrew Bunting is assistant director of the Chicago Botanic Garden, and is on the board of directors for the Magnolia Society International. The Plant Lover's Guide books offer a rich source of information on both new and classic garden plants. Written by enthusiastic experts, they recommend the best varieties for different situations, inspire ideas for new plant combinations, and are packed with resources for the home gardener. These gorgeous guides celebrate the beauty of each plant and form a comprehensive library that every plant lover will want to own. Introduction: Why I Love Magnolias I spent my high school years in a split-level house in the south suburbs of Chicago, in a little town called Manhattan. Surrounded by mostly uninspring plantings'a few ubiquitous elm trees, a blue spruce in the front yard, and a few bur oaks'it was there, almost by necessity, that I began to take a keen interest in gardening. My mother gave me full reign in the yard; she even let me install a fairly large vegetable garden out front, the only part of the yard that had sun'a first in this somewhat conservative midwestern community! I also started an annual garden both from seed and from plants I had grown under lights in the basement. Ageratums, cosmos, impatiens, and marigolds were all easy to grow from seed. In the vegetable garden, I grew tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, radishes, and a bumper crop of cucumbers. Furthering my plant obsession, my bedroom window sat literally in the canopy of an old majestic saucer magnolia, Magnolia ×soulangeana, that bloomed reliably and in profusion every spring. The tree was most likely planted when the house was built, so the branches engulfed the top and sides of the house. The windows in that bedroom provided a great vantage point for studying the magnolia. This tree in particular opened my eyes to the beauty of flowering trees. My appreciation for magnolias certainly started there, but it only expanded as I learned more. In my college ornamental horticulture program I was required to complete two internships, one of which landed me at Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, and the other at Chicago Botanic Garden. Along with my coursework, these experiences opened my eyes to the wide variety of magnolias. Ray Schulenberg, then curator at Morton Arboretum, would take us on regular walks to show us the breadth of the collection, and Chicago housed a wide variety of trees. It was at Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College, however, where I would work for 26 years, that my passion for the genus really exploded. Their collection of predominantly M.×soulangeana, M. kobus, and M. stellata cultivars dates all the way back to the 1930s. And around the borough of Swarthmore, equally majestic specimens are easy to come by. I remember local plantsman Charles Cresson telling me about these specimens in the late 1980s, and they are only more impressive today. As curator at the arboretum, we built our collection from about 50 to 200 cultivars over a 20 year period. When I joined the board of directors for the Magnolia Society International around 2008, I was surrounded with people who ate, drank, and slept magnolias. Spending time with experts like Richard Figlar, Larry Langford, Raymond Sutton, Kevin Parris, Phelan Bright, and others made my passion grow even stronger. Before this experience, I was not fully aware of the incredible diversity of magnolia cultivars, hybrids, and species, nor was I aware that magnolias are cultivated around the world as important ornamental plants. For years, I knew there were some magnolias found in the United States and many others found throughout parts of Asia, but from my time with the Magnolia Society International, I have seen the global diversity of the species. Magnolias are found throughout the Caribbean, in Central America (with over 30 species in Mexico, alone), throughout all of southeastern Asia (with over 100 species in China), and in Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, and others. Magnolias thrive outside of our gardens, too. Over the last several years, I have had many exciting opportunities to see native magnolias growing in situ. On a trip to Sichuan, China, in 2010, my colleagues and I saw beautiful specimens of Magnolia sargentiana and M. dawsonian