The closest I can say is that mine was essentially fine and undamaged after the polar winters: weeks at a time below freezing, many nights in single digits F, etc. etc. The first winter's low was 3F and the 2nd winter's 1F. In a place like Austria, make sure you give it a warm sunny spot where the new growth can harden completely each year - which will probably be necessary for it to flower, anyhow. (probably easier for you though, than say, Norway!)

"Would temperatures about -7°F be a problem?"

I don't think so as long as it is fully established.

Interesting that this plant is already available in the EU, I thought it was a pretty recent hybrid from about 15 years ago.

The OP may be of Austrian descent, but is the tree being grown in Austria?--Not clear from the posting.

Thank you, davidrt28,
it seems to be quite winter hardy. I live in Austria and Kay Parris is now available in Europe;
I got mine from a seller in Germany.

Congrats on the purchase. It's hard to say exactly why but it's a nice looking form. Maybe compared to seedlings, the branching is a little more compact, internodes shorter, therefore it has a more uniform appearance. It's also perhaps more snow resistant. I remember the seedling we had when I was a kid would get completely squashed by heavy snows - like all the branches leaning over on the ground or on top of other branches. Granted, this usually had no long term consequences, but it didn't look very dignified! Nothing like that has happened to Kay Parris and we've had some incredibly snowy seasons since I planted it. All the branches stay upright.

I really don't have the answer for your specific magnolia cultivar question. I'll say there are a good number of magnolias in my zone 6 with similar yearly low temperatures. They typically make small trees and sometimes have dieback the first year after planting.

"Hello! I am in zone 6 (lowest temperature in my
area: -7°F 14 years ago) and I bought me a southern magnolia Kay Parris because
I had heard it's considered winter hardy to zone 6. Does anybody have 'Kay
Parris' planted in a cooler climate? Has it withstood cold winters without
damage? Would temperatures about -7°F be a problem? I'm sorry for making
mistakes in my text; I'm from Europe (Austria) so English isn't my mother
tongue:)."

You are very polite though and I must say your English is better than my German! (Or even Spanish which I have tried to learn forever)

davidrt28, that sounds great!
So I can enjoy snow and my magnolia! Yeah,
Kay Parris really is beautiful; it also has these extremely glossy,
wavy leaves.
It looks very similar to Brackens Brown Beauty.
It seems to be very difficult to distinguish these two varieties.
That's nice, Toronado3800 -
so I hope you all understand my English :).

Embo agree with your overall assessment of how hardiness zones are sometimes misconstrued. OP doesn't indicate actual USDA zone has been calculated for his area: a 14 year low of -7F could well be zone 7a. I think most of inhabited Austria is.

Not sure 'less handsome' is anything other than purely subjective, as I've seen 'Little Gems' in southeastern VA, Zone 8, that didn't blow me away as being in any sense more attractive than any other magnolia. It's merely better if you consider compact with a smaller leaf, to be better looking.

Clearly, 'Little Gem' was simply and grossly misrated/"miszoned", presumably to boost it's commercial potential.* As I mentioned in a prior thread on 'Kay Parris', a 'Little Gem' at the Udel arboretum near me was injured so badly by the first polar winter it had to be removed. 'Kay Parris' is surmised by some to be a deliberate hybrid of the known hardy cultivar 'Bracken's Brown Beauty' and 'Little Gem'. (not merely a "seedling") So it makes sense that it is quite a bit hardier than 'Little Gem'.

* edit: actually never bothered to read about its origins, but part of the problem could be that it was selected in the 50s, thus might have gotten a "zone 7" reputation during the generally mild winters of the 1960s and early-mid 1970s. It was supposedly grown at the National Arboretum; where I can guarantee you it would have been severely injured in the winters of the late 1970s-mid 80s-1994 period along with all of the camellias there. (well, except C. oleifera which is how Akerman got the idea to breed his hardy hybrids) Therefore as you say a plant that was really zn 8 got a zn 7 rating it didn't deserve.

also, cf: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/2963450/southern-magnolia-not-looking-good-after-two-tough-winters

Subtropix is apparently growing 'Little Gem' in NNJ...so perhaps he would argue that it is zn 7 hardy. I would argue that if a plant is extensively injured in a "severe winter" that nontheless doesn't go below the zone threshold for that area, it cannot be considered commercially hardy to that zone. So it would be one thing if the Udel arboretum had gone to -7F, but it didn't, it was above 0F and the "zone 7" plant was still defoliated. Therefore better to call it a zone 8 plant IMHO.

OTOH back to the subject of the thread, my 'Kay Parris' almost completely without injury...I think a couple leaves were scalloped with a bit of sunburn. Clearly very different. (hadn't mentioned it yet but obviously my garden is less sheltered, the Udel plant was surrounded by buildings)

And, final observation about this whole thing...I think European nurseries are going to be a little more cautious marketing something like this anyhow. I suspect someone there has tested 'Kay Parris' in their cold 2010 winters and is confident calling it hardy in their conditions to temperature x. It's a plant affiliated with a more serious gardening culture there than the southeast's "produce green blobs for people to put in front of their Atlanta McMansions" wholesalers.

I have a small little gem that is about 4 ft tall. They are also planted around areas where i live and they do not seem damaged at all. And i live in zone 7.

Some specimens seem to have been around for a few years.

I hope i dont ever have to amend this statement! lol

My zone is 6,
we often had minimums down to -4°F,
because I live in a mountainous region- but of
course in the valley. But since 2013
also in my area the winter minimums never fell below 11,3 °F. But this winter isn't over yet:) And I'm not sure
if not a cold winter with -4°F reaches my zone again…

Of course-
like davidrt28 mentioned above- my magnolia gets a sunny place and I'm going to
plant a hedgerow to protect my magnolia from northerly winds. Fortunately,
there's a high hill which protects my garden from easterly winds (which are
very cold in Europe).

I have read
about a Kay Parris in a botanical garden in Northeastern Germany and I asked
the owner via e-mail about it. He answered that the winter hardiness hadn't
been enough! But I have found out that in this area the minimum in cold
February 2012 was about -18,4!! That´s of course to hard to a southern
magnolia, perhaps this was the winter which killed the magnolia in the
botanical garden. In February 2012 my minimum was about -3,28 °F. And I know
the summers in Austria are hotter than in that botanical garden in Northeastern
Germany which lies near the coast
and near the borders to Poland. And a warm summer is
important to the winter hardiness of a southern magnolia.

Visually 'Kay Parris' amounts to a less dense and hairy 'Little Gem'. It also seems to have a tendency to be less green. So, yes, in fact, visually inferior - when the type it represents is the same as 'Little Gem'.

Unlike 'Little Gem', which Dorothy Callaway described as pretty much the most tender cultivar in her Timber Press magnolias book 'Kay Parris' is one of the small number of Magnolia grandiflora cultivars currently designated Award of Garden Merit forms by the R.H.S. So it has by now been present in U.K. to sufficient extent to have been evaluated by their system and given this accolade.

'Kay Parris' is one of the plant introductions that got a full page profile in the back of an issue of American Nurseryman one time. But I don't remember which issue it was. During a quick look at their web site it appeared that all they has was a digital file of back issues going back apparently only to 2009 that is accessed by clicking on images of the covers and pages to browse them. So to find a specific article that may date back farther than 2009 anyway it seems one might really have to go to a college library that had paper copies.

Unlike 'Little Gem', which Dorothy Callaway described as pretty much the
most tender cultivar in her Timber Press magnolias book

Amazing, I said the same thing myself right here on gardenweb, without even having read this book! Maybe people need to stop buying stuff from Timber Press and start reading my posts har har har har. In all seriousness, the DC plant collectors I used to "hang out" with were talking about the tenderness all the way back in the early 2000s. They might have read about it in that 1994 book, but more likely knew from personal experience.

'Kay Parris' is
one of the small number of Magnolia grandiflora cultivars currently designated Award of Garden Merit forms by the R.H.S

In spite of its visual inferiority?

I don't see how a cross between one of the most dense, dwarf magnolias and another one that is less dense, and dwarf as in the type species...in fact being less dense (!!!) is a defect. But whatever. As for the color...it's always been green for me! Maybe it's more of an olive green rather than an apple green color. It at least has the leather colored undersides which not all cultivars show. I can say of the magnolias I see driving around at the northern fringes of their range of commonplace cultivation, I'm quite happy with mine. It's better looking than most of them. It has stayed "dense enough" in a location that was not at all optimal. (could not give something so non-rare a prime spot. mainly planted a magnolia because it is in my opinion the de rigueur tree for southern gardens, much more so than crape myrtle.)

Here is a 'Little Gem' in almost full sun, and looking hardly more dense than my 'Kay Parris'. Took 2 seconds to find this in google images.

http://www.vickishome.com/0albums/gardening/gardening09.html

Here are some pics of dense "little gems" in my town. (Actually the one in the first pic that is closest to the right is a different cultivar but the first two are little gems. I think they ran out and substituted the 3rd one. It has bigger leaves. Not sure what cultivar it is.)

These pics were taken a couple of years ago. The trees have since been limbed up which i dont really like.....

What state are you in tlbean?

Arkansas

You have so beautiful southern

magnolias in the
USA!!
I would be even happy with a much smaller magnolia withstanding our winters and temperatures like today on this chilling morning of about 5ºF.
And of course lower temperatures.

In addition to photos of both on the web Monrovia has been sending large tubbed 'Kay Parris' to sales yards here where these can be viewed near 'Little Gem' of similar stature. One retailer I frequent had rows of the two selections presented side-by-side last year, enabling easy comparison of foliages and growth habits.

'Little Gem' has been very common here for some time, making its appearance and performance under our conditions - generally similar to those of Britain and Northern Europe - quite familiar. In addition to its small parts it consistently stands out for often being a deeper green than many other southern magnolias are on local soils.

My experience with this highly popular item includes viewing one in a southern California garden center compound that appeared to be about 42 ft. tall. Personnel on hand reported that a mucky muck from Monrovia - who markets it as "dwarf" - had told them such height was most unusual for this plant. Yet my recollection of the illustrated Magnolia Society account of the original variant showed and described a tall narrow column. (College libraries housing complete sets of this journal will have the relevant issue, published some years ago now).

Of those that are currently in general commerce my preference is for 'Bracken's Brown Beauty', due to its comparatively normal looking - as in less magnolia-like - foliage and habit.

Embothrium

What differences did you see when looking at them side by side?

Is there a pic somewhere of the 42ft little gem?

Comparison was made earlier in thread. Have seen no pictures of the one 'Little Gem'. Traveling companion took some with a digital camera at the time, do not know the fate of these. As I consider eventual development of a narrower, taller shape the normal genetically dictated behavior for this selection - with the shrubbier habits many propagations have for some years being due to where on stock plants the cuttings or scions used were located, as also happens with garden conifers - I expect there is probably a number of similar height examples scattered about elsewhere.

For instance one in Seattle was measured over 27 ft. tall around 2004-5. Assuming it is still there, had a generally constant rate of growth, was not deformed or checked by any of the mishaps typical of this cultivar here such as breakage in snow, partial defoliation by mildew or cold damage then 12 years x 10 in. per year would make it 37 ft. tall now. If instead it averaged 8 in. per year it would be 35 ft. tall, and so on.

I bet if you gave the less dense "kay paris" a bit of fertilizer every growing season it might not be less dense that the little gem.

cf: https://books.google.com/books?id=_5rICwAAQBAJ&pg=PA480&lpg=PA480#v=onepage&q&f=false

(that link might only work for people logged into google, and in the US)

btw fertilization usually impacts plant growth in the opposite way; it would make it lanky, not dense.

Correct and effective fertilization combined with suitable light exposure should result in a full and lush appearance. A nutrient deficit on the other hand can result in premature defoliation, resulting gauntness. Hollies dropping lower leaves before their time due to an N deficiency, for instance.

Yes, well "correct and effective fertilization" is the issue. tlbean wasn't saying to fertilize magnolias that were suffering a "nutrient deficit". He was suggesting it would make the habit of one cultivar more like another. There's actually little to no evidence that Magnolia grandifloras suffer nutrient deficiencies in the places they are normally planted. Therefore no reason to think fertilizing them would result in fuller growth. I am absolutely correct. In most circumstances, it would result in leggier growth. Especially for plants that are not in the optimal situation of full sun, which is more and more common with today's smaller building lots.

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/time-fertilize-magnolia-bush-31246.html

"Magnolias are not heavy feeders"

I fertilized my little gem this past season and it is not leggy. I also fertilized my holly bush and it is very lush and full.

Plants can benefit from a moderate fertilizing. It can also promote foliage growth.

Obviously nutrient deficient broad-leaved evergreens of all types, including Southern Magnolia are highly prevalent in the cultivated landscape of my area. Since considerable expanses of the eastern U.S. have quite poor soils this seems likely there also.

Deciduous magnolias frequently display poor leaf color and stunted growth here as well. In the wild magnolias are generally characteristic of prime sites where moisture and fertility are optimal - and there is a tradition of recommending the same in horticultural settings.

On the whole their cultural conditions are not difficult to provide: they need a reasonable depth of good soil, and respond to rich living, good drainage and plenty of moisture

--The Hillier Manual of Trees & Shrubs, 2014, Hillier Nurseries and The Royal Horticultural Society

“The trees have since been limbed up which i dont really like.....“

tlbean2004: I may be odd, but I like them limbed up at least 8-10 feet. I keep reading in gardening books that they are really only properly grown with limbs all the way to the ground, but their native habitat is mature forest, often with beech, maple, holly, etc., and the lowest branch may be 40 or more feet high. They are majestic in that setting, with the beautiful, smooth trunks and the fragrant flowers high above. Visit Martin Dies, Jr. State Park in Texas or Torreya State Park in Florida, and you’ll see what I mean.