Does anyone grow yellow flowering magnolia?

last year

So I recently discovered that there is actually a yellow flowering magnolia (the variety is called 'yellow bird' I believe). I used to think that there were only pink and white flowering ones, but I must say the yellow ones are absolutely stunning.

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maackia

last year

last modified: last year

Your options for a yellow-flowering magnolia will be determined by where you live. I’m in zone 4a, and Yellow Bird has done exceptionally well. Flower buds are hardy to at least -30F, and possibly -35. It flowers in mid May, so it generally misses the hard spring frosts that zap some earlier flowering mags. It’s a hardy, vigorous, and floriferous medium sized tree.

The first two pics are from 2019 and the last from 2022.

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Comments (15)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
last year
There are actually a fair number of yellow flowered Magnolia cultivars. You might want to research them further before choosing as tree size, flower shape, color intensity and hardiness can vary quite widely. A couple are even fragrant.

In a colder zone, I'd focus on those cultivars that have a later blooming season, as they tend to be better able to tolerate late spring freezes without flower damage.
Embothrium
last year
Favorite Yellow-Flowering Magnolias for Your Garden (gardenia.net)
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'Elizabeth' seems to have a chronic pathogenic problem when in flower, also many of the yellow hybrids may be prone to dying back in the nursery environment, such as when overwintered in a humid poly tunnel. Again, liable to be pathogenic. I wonder if you are attributing the chronic browning of 'Elizabeth' to rain, but it is actually something else more or less peculiar to that cultivar - at least among the more familiar ones. If it's the rain that's browning that one out, I haven't made the connection. Other spring-blooming magnolias seem to be damaged by the opposite problem - bright sunshine during flowering - and of course the long well known issue with hard frost during flowering. But these are types that flower much earlier than 'Elizabeth'. They're all getting the yellow from Magnolia acuminata subcordata, or in some cases yellow form (var. aurea) of otherwise typical M. acuminata). These yellow versions are characteristic of the southernmost parts of cucumber tree's natural distribution. If neither grows in original poster's area adequately then perhaps none of the hybrids will either. It depends on if the genes from one of the other parents managed to introduce greater tolerance in a particular instance.
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Wiley, I have plenty of little sprouts coming up from my lavender-flowered passiflora incarnata and would be happy to share a few bare-root shoots if I can find any more this late in the season (I just finished pulling & discarding a bunch, as I already have 4 potted and rooted for an upcoming local plant swap.) My plant was a gift sent bare-root from a fellow gardener in the southeastern U.S., where these plants are native, up to Virginia and southeastern Pennsylvania. It is perfectly winter-hardy without protection other than the usual winter mulch of shredded leaves in my USDA Zone 7 garden on the mid-NJ coast. Don't despair if you don't see anything in spring - these didn't earn their name "Maypop" for nothing! Due to our cooler spring this year, mine was up quite late, but has made up for it. I don't know how well it would fare through a zone 6 winter, but it wouldn't hurt to try. I would recommend planting it in a large, deep nursery pot sunk into the ground, as once established they do send up shoots quite a distance from the mother plant. Let me know if you are still interested - there should still be time for it to establish some roots before the soil cools.
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laceyvail 6A, WV
last year
At my former place, I had a very narrow (fastigiate) one that was lovely, but I no longer remember the name.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
last year
refresh our memory.. where are you.. big city name.. and what zone.. and does your ground freeze?

in my MI ... there are very few yellow mags.. and those that do make it.. are in contained micro climates ..

i spent a lot of money trying to grow them 3 different times.. and all failed ...

im surprised by maackia's success.... but maybe that house blocks the prevailing winter winds ... orrrrr... he has a newer cultivar for such cold ...

ken
Dutch
last year
last modified: last year
In a maritime climate leaves sometimes appear before the flowers, making them less visible. Light levels and temperature can play a role in the intensity of the 'yellowness' of the flowers (sometimes more cream than yellow).

Information on yellow flowered magnolias can be found HERE
maackia
last year
Mine was purchased as ‘Yellow Bird’, and I have no reason to believe it’s anything but that. It is protected from N/NW winds by the garage and a couple of large conifers, but I’m not sure it would qualify as a micro-climate. I do have a M. sieboldii in this area that is much more protected.

Ken, did you try M. ’Butterflies’? It was developed by Phil Savage in lower MI and should be fully hardy for you. It’s often sold in the Twin Cities nursery trade, but it’s not fully hardy in z4.

One of the older yellow flowering clones is M. ’Elizabeth’, which has an upright habit. I’d wager my favorite trowel that’s what Laceyvail had.
ruth_mi
last year
I'm in SE Michigan and have a couple Magnolia 'Butterflies' - love them!
Embothrium
last year
last modified: last year
Various commercially circulated yellow magnolia varieties are shown and discussed at the page I linked to previously. With the addition of those kinds that have not been in garden centers or otherwise generated in large enough numbers for this level of presence producing a list that must be something like 50 distinct named cultivars by now.

A lot of the container grown magnolias stocked by garden centers in my area come from Monrovia. At the moment the yellow ones they are offering are 'Yellow Bird' and 'Sunsation'.

Magnolia - Trees - By Type - SHOP PLANTS (monrovia.com)
arbordave (SE MI)
last year
last modified: last year
maackia, In Hardy Magnolias for the North (2005) Dennis Ledvina rated Butterflies to zone 4. However, he also noted that in colder zones very low temps in late fall or early winter can cause trunk cracks, and the type of rootstock makes a difference in areas subject to deeply frozen soil (M acuminata or M kobus should be used for rootstock in colder regions). I had a Butterflies (years ago) that cracked twice in 3 years (due to one or both of the above issues), and I ended up removing it. But I see quite a few Butterflies in this area that seem to be doing fine (as ruth_mi chimed in).

We've also planted Elizabeth (Z4 per Ledvina) and Yellow Lantern (Z5 per Ledvina), and they have both grown well here, although their flowers are a more pale yellow. And their flowers can be damaged by late freezes (which in this area seems to be true for just about all spring flowering magnolias). Elizabeth hasn't been all that upright, but Yellow Lantern is quite vigorous and tree-like. I don't have any experience with Yellow Bird (Z4 per Ledvina), but the color in maackia's photos is a nice yellow. We planted one Lois a couple years ago that had nice color, but it was destroyed by deer. We also planted a couple Sunspire (or is it Sun Spire?) 2 years ago, still too early to say how well they will perform here but this one is quite upright/columnar.
Embothrium
last year
last modified: last year
is it Sun Spire?

Yes:

HORTSCI16054_proof.pdf (magnoliasociety.org)
arbordave (SE MI)
last year
Thanks Embo. I wasn't sure because a number of websites list it as "Sunspire", including the Missouri Botanical Garden's Plant Finder.
laceyvail 6A, WV
last year
last modified: last year
The one I had might have been Sun Spire, name sounds familiar. It definitely was not Elizabeth. Maackia, you've lost your favorite trowel. I may have gotten it from Rare Find Nursery, in the early 2000s.
maackia
last year
Dang, I'm down another trowel.
Patricia Farneth
last year
last modified: last year
I have seen one or more at Highland Park in Rochester, NY. ItI

Does anyone grow yellow flowering magnolia?

maackia

Comments (15)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

Embothrium

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laceyvail 6A, WV

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

Dutch

maackia

ruth_mi

Embothrium

arbordave (SE MI)

Embothrium

arbordave (SE MI)

laceyvail 6A, WV

maackia

Patricia Farneth

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