It's raised up, flair visible, good drainage, yet right near a creeklet because I read that poplars, and tulip trees, love water. Have a friend whose big tulip trees invaded the sewer they were so thirsty. Have black cottonwoods growing in creeklets and they thrive on the water. Hoping this tree comes back. Love tulip trees, need the shade. It was perfect at the beginning of last spring. Nothing except the rhodies in the raised beds is mulched in my yard because it's too wet in fall / winter / early spring, and then in summer way too burning scorching sun hot. Planted eco-lawn Fleur De Lawn so everything is cooled and shaded by dwarf perennial rye and clover and weeds that I'm continually pulling. Put in yard from scratch December 2005 so just a matter of it all getting established = no place for weeds to take hold. I've read that roots do better with no "competition" but I figured this yard gets so much water the roots will be fine, and I need the cooling effect like an orchard. The clover is self-fertilizing, fixes nitrogen. I plan to fertilize every Feb 1, May 1, and August 1 for 3 years, then only add very healthy rich worm castings thereafter. Mainly trying to get trees established, see what survives the wetness in winter.

OK, I can help with this one -- As long as you have 2 or more trees that are genetically different, seed-grown or grafted ones of different varieties, as opposed to suckers taken from the same mother plant, you have the right genetic combination to make fruit. However, the issue might be proper cross-pollination. I picked up this tip from a gardening magazine some years back, and it really works. Paw Paw flowers are brown/purple for a reason -- they are carrion mimics that produce the scent of rotting flesh, although it is subtle, and are pollinated by various species of carrion-loving flies. In the magazine, there was a profile of a paw paw breeder from Jackson, Michigan. He went out every spring and gathered roadkill -- racoons, possoms, etc. -- and also enlisted the help of a couple of friends to catch big carp in the local river. He hung a carcass in each tree. He had like 200 trees, so I don't envy his downwind neighbors. Now, I know it sounds nasty, and it is, but it sure does make a dramatic difference in pollination. Now, being sort of weak in the stomach, I couldn't see myself hanging dead animals in my paw paw trees, and I'm sure the neighbors wouldn't approve, and someone would probably call the cops on me. So, my solution -- I use the bait powder from Ortho disposable flytraps -- I mix it with an equal volume of water and pour it into a foam or plastic cup that I tape with duct tape to a vertical trunk of the tree about 4 feet off the ground. Pour the mix in there about 4 or 5 days before the first blossoms open, because it gets progressively more smelly as it ages. By the time the blooms open, it will be rank smelling and attract a lot of flies. Some will actually fall in and drown, but that's ok, because it just makes it smell all the worse and attracts even more flies. When I did this, the blossom set increased dramatically, about quadrupled. A lot more fruit set and ripened. Too late for this year, but try it next and see if that doesn't make the difference. Finally, one other thing -- I have one tree that is a couple of hundred feet away from the other two -- that distance does cut down a lot on the transfer of pollen, and it sets far fewer. So, if your trees are far away, you can use my other method, which is to cut several longer branches of buds and flowers from a pollinator tree and put them under the tree which needs cross pollination in a bucket of water with some cut flower preservative in it -- they'll last about 4 to 6 days this way and will do the job.

Well. You ask a question near to my heart. Those magnolias are like my favorite tree. I have an emotional childhood memory attached to them....a couple of them with white wrought iron seating below them, very private, a gazing globe....my own secret reading garden. I loved it there. So I had to have one in my yard. Does it have value. Some birds can nest in it and it does provide shelter/landing spaces during the spring and summer. It will go to seed...I see NO birds eating the seeds from mine. The serviceberry and the crabapple will provide food sources for the birds...none of that from the magnolia. BUT, for me, there would be no choice. IT would go in the ground. If you really only have room for ONE tree you might want to reconsider. But. If you do, and it's good size, I know where you could send it to a loving home...! Robin

"tulip tree" is a common name.......therefore, it is nothing official and can be applied to anything one cares to :-) It is most often applied to Lirodendron tulipifera but many also call magnolias 'tulip trees'. Magnolia liliiflora is commonly referred to as 'tulip magnolia' due to the shape of the flowers but common usage has expanded that appellation. The tree in the last photo IS a magnolia but difficult to determine exactly what kind. As to the OP's question, a magnolia putting out flowers in the middle of winter in a zone 6 climate regardless of temperatures would be highly unusual. Even in very mild winter climates, this is uncommon. And without any photo, it's impossible to know what sort of tree they may be referring to. Just an aside, I responded to the second post earlier......but then the second post disappeared!! So I deleted my previous comment (essentially what I wrote above) as there was no context for it. Weird!!