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Sweetbay Magnolia, Zone 5 ideas.

14 years ago

I'm aware these are only fully hardy through zone 6, although I've seen them growing about as far north in Findlay in Ohio -- I think. They look like M. Virginiana, to the best of my knowledge the other similar look magnolias are LESS reliable in Zone 5, and in any case, and they definitely flower in June so they're not from the Yulania group like most of the magnolias you see around here. They're generally in pretty sheltered locations. Anyway, I picked a young one up today because it was *incredibly* cheap for some reason and I figured it's worth a shot.

I'm thinking if I plant it in my front yard it should be fairly well protected. We've got some other things growing there -- some kind of Liquidambar and... Kniphofia uvaria? -- and they do pretty well even though they're not supposed to be reliably hardy to Zone 5.

Anyway, as I said, it was stupidly cheap so if it dies I'm not out anything, but what other things could I do to help winterize it It's still small, so I don't know if I'd want to try overwintering it somewhere really protected for awhile (I don't know if my garage would work. I've overwintered stuff in there before and it's done fine, but the fact that m. virginiana can be evergreen in the south makes me wonder what sort of dormancy needs it has).

On one side of my house we have a heat outlet from the dryer, by the way. Could that work or would that just fry it?

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Comments (4)

amccour
Original Author
14 years ago
Oh, fun update! I just discovered that one of my neighbours has one of these growing in her yard (Assuming it's the same thing. Leave size and texture is identical and the flowers look like the pictures of M. Virginiana flowers I see online, and it's very scented).

It's quite large and well established so it LOOKS like this should be workable in my neighborhood. It just might be a matter of keeping it protected the first couple of winters in the ground.
denninmi
14 years ago
I'm a very borderline 6A/5B in the N.W. suburbs of Detroit. Since the area has become more urbanized in the 1990's, the winter lows rarely go much below -10 to -12, but we have had a few bouts in the -15 to -18 range in the past decade. When I was a child in this area in the 1960's and 1970's, it was quite normal to hit -25 to -35 many winters, but the urban heat island effect has negated all of that.

Now that I've sort of filled you in on my particular climate, I've had a M. virginiana happily growing since 1995 -- bought it for myself as a birthday present that year, and planted it that day. Never had any problem with winter dieback, or any other problems to speak of, other than the fact it is sort of a gangly, open, irregular shaped shrub compared to many other magnolias. But, the flowers smell great, and are very attractive, a smaller version of M. grandiflora. It's also nice that the bloom season extends from May/June all the way into September or even early October. The foliage is semi-evergreen, generally succumbing in the January cold snaps, but I've had it overwinter once or twice during particularly mild winters, albeit with significant tip and edge burn.

I can't image you'd have any problems at all with this plant in Ohio, you can't really be any colder in the winter than we are here, overall, and you actually get more heat in the summer, and that does help southern plants to tolerate the cold in the winter, by allowing greater photosynthesis and sugar reserves.

The dryer vent, I've found, will fry things in the winter -- heat output is too sporadic to do any good, but too intense when it does come out, so it burns things. I'd keep all plants away from there, at least five or six feet.
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amccour
Original Author
14 years ago
It's getting towards July. Should I wait till fall to plant it, or plant it now and just make sure I keep it really well watered?
brandon7 TN_zone7
14 years ago
It would be less stressful on the tree if planted in early fall. A pot grown specimen that's not potbound, and therefore wouldn't require a lot of root manipulation when planted, could be safely planted now with proper aftercare. Be sure to mulch it well/correctly.

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