Yes, you can grow Michelia Alba tree anywhere in the world, but you just have to know how to care it. Get a lot inf. how to grow the michelia alba tree before you purchase it. I have my michelia alba tree grow in my San Francco backyard for more thatn 26 years and it is almost 30 feet tall, and it blooms a lot of very fragrant flowers. Here is the direct link to photobucket on my michelia alba tree album, enjoy! http://s1060.photobucket.com/albums/t459/MickeytheKwok/

It only went to 6 degrees F to kill my 10' Eucalyptus gunnii that was supposed to be hardy to 0 degrees F, because it dropped to 6* 3 days after the first frost. So conditions like those can be very hard on plants. Or very low temps after they have already started growing in spring. I'm just wondering if the hardier Michelia is worth growing for fragrance.

I sent an email to Tesselaar's last night inquiring about the blooming season and also the scent. Here's the reply I got this morning from Dan Davids: Thanks for your email I went to our lead propagator and here is her reply (she's in Florida) Hi Dan, Comments on the fragrance. My opinion is it is not overwhelming as the figo.. it is like bananas but much lighter and a hint of citrus smell. Even thought the flowers are bigger the smell is not, which in my opinion is better! The second question it does have the sporadically blooming through the year with a splash of blooms but it's splendor is in early spring. Right now mine are blooming after I pruned them. Heavy matter of fact. But the color is more white than blush at this time of year. They really require that cold period to enhance the blush color in the sepals. Kay You can't buy from Tesselaar's though, still have to go through your local nursery and special order it through one of Tesselaar's wholesale distributors such as Monrovia. It seems its going to be pricey though. I'm going to try and get one anyways. I read somewhere that it's a cross between dianica, figo and doltsopa, something like that, so it's got three different species in one plant. :)

Yes, I Googled "lechang" also. Maybe it's Magnolia dianica (Michelia yunnanensis) 'Lechang' or even just ex (from) Lechang, as in a collection notation. These latter sometimes get transformed by mistake into cultivar names, where a plant is propagated under the collection notation and this gets unknowingly changed into a cultivar name along the way. For example, Platycladus orientalis 'Variegata' is being sold here as the non-existent cultivar 'Van Hoey Smith', reportedly because cuttings supplied by D. Van Hoey Smith were sent over from Europe labeled ex Van Hoey Smith.