Saucer Magnolia Blooms Emerge - April 2023

Pink flowers are on their way via our front yard Saucer Magnolia tree (multi-trunk) and it appears that 2023 will be another year of pink blooms this Spring.  Many of the buds have broken and are showing curl'd-up pink flowers on their tips.  A couple of photos below show the current state of this tree in mid-April 2023 in Zone 5b - Northern Illinois.  This tree was planted in 2017, so this make it the seventh growing season (six full, one partial) and it was planted as a six-or-so-foot tree in Summer 2017. 

Here are the buds that have opened:

I'm reading these blooms as an affect of what I'll call a 'normal winter'.  Either it didn't get TOO cold, or it didn't get TOO COLD, TOO LATE - to kill the flower buds.

This appears to be on a similar schedule to last year - when it was in 'full bloom' in/around April 22nd.  

The history of this Saucer Magnolia includes one year of no blooms - 2019. 

Summer 2017: Planted as a small, multi-trunk tree.
Early May 2018: Didn't bloom until early/mid May 2018.
2019: The tree did NOT bloom at all.
Early April 2020: Blooms began the first week of April.
Mid-April 2021: In bloom by mid-month (April).
April 2022 - the tree is in full bloom the last week of April.