Too new on the market for anyone to have photos of older trees. Even the original seedling probably isn't finished developing (the final size of a tree occurs when it goes into a decline or blows over). 'Butterflies' seems to have been a hit in the northeast, where it apparently tends to flower well ahead of the leaves. Trees offered at Home Depot could be anything, similarly loose-with-labeling Lowe's had two different variety cards on the same block of a single yellow magnolia cultivar near here this spring. Last year a nearby Home Depot had some sweetbay magnolia labeled 'Elizabeth'. I've been growing 'Yellow Bird' for awhile (it was acquired as 'Butterflies' from a local garden center). It took me a bit of time to figure out it was the one instead of the other. It does have a tendency to flower after the leaves have come out far enough to obscure the blooms. Much (most?) of the point of this introduction was the large size of the flowers, however only one comparatively prime specimen I have seen in this area had big flowers in enough abundance at one time to be impressive.

Hi allymarie, I think it blooms when it can. I mean it will keep generating new growth. Until November or December. Depending on the weather. And as that matures it produces flowers.

ugogran, close guess on the tanager. The bill of a tanager is more conical and a bit shorter whereas the warbler has a thinner all-purpose. You can also see the start of the chestnut colored streaking on the breast that the tanager doesn't have. The eye-ring is still present so it's either young, or female. Females don't have the breast streaking so it's a first year male. Another easy way to tell the difference in a lot of birds, and something often overlooked, is the color of the legs. My father is an ornithologist and he taught me as a little kid to always look at the legs! Tanagers have grey legs whereas the yellow warbler has pink to light olive legs. Either one is quite welcome in our little corner of the planet :) Grackles...ugh. Right now we have a boatload of immatures hanging around all the water features. They love to pull on any nearby plant and it drive me bonkers. But hey, at least they aren't starlings.

Hi Jane. Look at the first picture you can barely see a few parts to a wooden basket. It is a pot in a basket that overwhelms the basket. I let them keep going as they are as long as it continues to be vibrant. Usually I will repot when the wooden basket starts to rot or the wires rust through. Otherwise I like the plants to get big. Sometimes after a while there is no growth in the center and growth only coming over the sides. At that point the overall health is in decline, then I repot. But the no growth in the center has seemingly stopped as I use lava rock in the pots. Before it was bark. Bark eventually becomes a no grow area. If you click the picture it makes it larger...