Certainly the right shape, although again more highly colored than usual for this cultivar. We have been getting strong coloring on some ('Galaxy', to name one) this year up here, maybe you are seeing the same thing.
The first year we had these we had this same color on them. The second year as the flowers developed we saw a large amount of white on the backside of the tepal with a wide pink stripe. From then on the flowers have been this color or darker as referenced below.. Bear in mind that there is a "sister seedling" to Picture and it is Ruby, not to be confused with Pickard's Ruby. Here are two online images of Picture. http://www.hort.net/gallery/view/mag/magsopi/ Here is where the fun begins with this image below. http://www.banana-tree.com/Product_Detail~category~13~Product_ID~554.cfm Notice how dark the backside of the tepals are. Don't look at the interior coloring. That is close to being the same color I saw in Japan on Wada's Ruby. Ruby starts out more of a strong purple red, almost the same color as Royal Crown and then will fade to the color you basically see in that photo. In the last 4 years my Picture has been closer to being this color depicted but with more pronounced purple than the rose-red this photo is suggesting. Don and I went round and round over is ours Picture or is ours Ruby? Even though we felt that in some years we did get coloring closer to Ruby than Picture, we felt we had to defer back to feeling ours was Picture because ours will fade to a lighter color in the backside of the tepals than Ruby will in Japan. Two more images. The one on the right was taken on 02/26/05.
A 'Spectrum' in the Seattle arboretum bloomed medium pink every year I saw it. Had the right flower and leaf shape, just the wrong level of pigmentation. It was removed eventually. I wish they had kept it, as its nonconformity was instructive in its on right.
Spectrum Spectrum is beautiful when in bloom when we ever see a bloom. Sister seedling Galaxy is far better at setting buds than Spectrum. The National Arboretum gave up on Spectrum years ago as it is rather fussy and is too unpredictable about setting buds. Here, it is an event to see mine in bloom but when it does the flowers are much more reminiscent of its Sprengeri parentage than Galaxy is. I almost posted two pics of my Spectrum in bloom two years ago last evening.
Drove by a 'Picture' I know about in Seattle today, it also has more purple than usual. J. Gardiner (Magnolias - A Gardener's Guide) says more than one clone has been named. Actually Jim, it is the 'Galaxy' that is more like Sprenger's magnolia and the 'Spectrum' that is closer to purple lily magnolia. Previous edition of Gardiner's book, I think it was, had a stunning photo of the original 'Spectrum' seedling in bloom, packed with flowers. Did it peter out later?
