I have been trying to indentify a tree without actually seeing it. A friend of mine takes her husband to a nursing home that has four large trees out front. They bloomed this late March/early April with white petaled flowers with a pink center. She said they smelled like Gardenias. The tree has small green leaves. She brought back a cutting of a branch. I've included the picture. She said they were planted long enough ago that no one at the facility knows what they are. I'm sorry the photo is not much to go on but I am hoping that the description will be enough to point me in the right direction. Any help would be appreciated.
Hi, A more specific location than "United States" in your profile would yield a valuable hint for people trying to discern the plant's identity.
Looks a bit like a Prunus, these are commonly planted and are many in number, consisting of such things as apricots, cherries, plums and so on. Strong, early fragrance is characteristic of P. mume, although I would not guess that one from the picture.
Yes, actually with those spurlike bits on the older part Malus may be it. The problem is the specimen is poor--if you could get another that would help--and not many kinds of either stone fruits or crabapples smell like gardenias. In fact, I still can't think of any that do. The Japanese apricots I suggested earlier don't even smell like gardenias, but are the only reasonably familiar, early-blooming Rose Family trees that often produce a penetrating, sweet floral aroma.
That looks like a big fuzzy bud on the end of the twig. If it is, you've got a magnolia of some kind. They're common landcape trees with big white or pink flowers. WW
Didn't catch the bud--that explains the floral aroma, other features. It's Magnolia kobus or a similar kind. Gardenialike fragrance would be particularly noticeable from common star magnolia (M. stellata, M. kobus var. stellata) but that has multiple narrow tepals (petal-like parts), which your specimen in its current condition does not have.
