The time to see Gordonia trees at the peak of their effectiveness is late August and September.
During this season, it’s rather loose but upright figure is casually starred with white, cuplike blossoms nearly 3” inches across in a set of long, shining leaves, colors ranging from deep green to scarlet.
Whether its height is 10’ or 25’ feet, it presents a picture unmatched by any other species. particularly at a time of year when flowers on woody plants are rare indeed.
Some gordonians have multiple trunks and grow like tail shrubs, while others have a well-defined tree form.
Their best landscaping use is in spots where they can be seen at close range, for much of their unique beauty is lost at a distance.
Rare Gordonia
A situation near the house or beside a much-used garden path is often ideal. Few American trees have a history as strange and puzzling as the gordonians.
It was discovered somewhere in the valley of the Altamaha River, in northern Georgia, in the year 1765, by John Bartram, the famous plant hunter.
It is believed that all the trees currently in cultivation trace their ancestry back to a single specimen now dead, that Bartram planted in his Philadelphia garden about 1778.
He named it franklinia, for Benjamin Franklin, but gordonia is the most-used name.
Through the years that intervened between 1800 and the present time, many individuals and expeditions have combed the Altamaha River country without finding a single wild gordonia.
So far as we know, the last time one was seen in its native haunts was in 1790.
It is sometimes called the Lost Tree.
44659 by Robert S. Lemmon