{"id":2724,"date":"2019-05-06T06:23:15","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T14:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=2724"},"modified":"2019-05-06T06:23:15","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T14:23:15","slug":"yellow-magnolia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/yellow-magnolia\/","title":{"rendered":"Yellow Magnolia"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am very partial to yellow flowers\u2014especially those that don\u2019t normally bloom in that hue. \u00a0I was one of the first gardeners of my acquaintance to buy \u2018Barzella\u2019, a yellow-flowered interspecies hybrid peony that represented a color breakthrough for peonies. A few years ago, I paid a premium for a newly-rediscovered heirloom yellow hyacinth. \u00a0\u00a0My garden is also home to several yellow roses and many bi-colors with yellow in the mix.\u00a0 At the moment, the roses are nowhere near bloom stage, but I don\u2019t have to wait for my daily dose of yellow.\u00a0 All I have to do is turn my eyes towards the golden celandine poppies that are bursting forth every day under the rapidly leafing-out hydrangeas.<\/p>\n

But even the biggest yellow rose or butter-colored peony in my garden is dwarfed by the largest of all\u2014\u2018Elizabeth\u2019, a yellow-flowered magnolia. \u00a0\u2018Elizabeth\u2019 is young–under ten years old–but the tree already reaches the second story of my house.\u00a0 The tulip-shaped blooms are a rich butter yellow that ages to golden cream. \u00a0Each is about four inches across when fully open and lightly fragrant.\u00a0 The tree is a magical site when it flowers every April.<\/p>\n

According to \u00a0an article in The Plantsman<\/em>, a publication of the Royal Horticultural Society, \u2018Elizabeth\u2019 has about 60 yellow-flowered magnolia siblings. \u00a0This yellowing of magnolias is a fairly recent phenomenon in the plant world.\u00a0 Hybridizing work began at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in the 1950\u2019s, when a team of female plant breeders crossed the American native Magnolia acuminata or \u201ccucumber magnolia\u201d, a tree with greenish-yellow blooms, and Magnolia liliaflora, a Chinese native magnolia with upright, pink, tulip-shaped flowers. \u00a0After many crosses and back crosses, the team produced the first yellow-flowered magnolias. The work continued and the Brooklyn breeders brought other magnolia species into the genetic mix.\u00a0 The descenda\"Yellow<\/a>nts of these plants are known collectively as the \u201cBrooklynensis hybrids\u201d.<\/p>\n

Among the varieties of yellow magnolias are trees or multi-stemmed shrubs with tulip-shaped blooms in colors \u00a0ranging from cream to primrose to golden yellow.\u00a0 Some are flushed with a bit of pink at the base of each bloom, perhaps harkening back to pink-flowered liliaflora ancestors. Yellow magnolias bloom any time from late March through mid-April, depending on variety and weather conditions. My magnolia, \u2018Elizabeth\u2019 is one of those Brooklyn hybrids. \u00a0The variety is the result of crosses between Magnolia acuminata and Magnolia denudata, the \u201cYulan magnolia\u201d, a Chinese native that bears fragrant white flowers.\u00a0 Introduced in 1977, \u2018Elizabeth\u2019 will grow into a 20- to 35-foot tree in time.\u00a0 The flowers are generally sterile, so \u2018Elizabeth\u2019 won\u2019t present you with any unwanted seedlings.\u00a0 Like other magnolias, the variety has elongated, oval-shaped leaves that can grow up to nine inches long.<\/p>\n

Though there are many lovely, \u201cgood growing\u201d yellow varieties, \u2018Elizabeth\u2019 was recognized for vigor, beauty and reliability with the Royal Horticultural Society\u2019s Award of Garden Merit. \u00a0If you have the room for it, you can\u2019t really go wrong with \u2018Elizabeth\u2019.<\/p>\n

Though \u2018Elizabeth\u2019s flowers are generally sterile, breeders have been able to endow her with offspring. \u00a0Among them is \u2018Sunsation\u2019, which is somewhat smaller, growing to about 16-feet tall in 10 years, with an upright habit. \u00a0The flowers are yellow tinged with a bit of pink.\u00a0 Because of the variety\u2019s smaller size and upright growth habit, it makes a good small garden or street tree.<\/p>\n

If you relish yellow blooms, but want a slightly different look, try Magnolia \u2018Golden Star\u2019, a hybrid of a cucumber magnolia and a star or Magnolia stellata variety. \u00a0Bred in Michigan by Phil Savage and introduced in the 1990\u2019s, \u2018Golden Star\u2019 is slightly smaller than \u2018Elizabeth\u2019, topping out at about 21 feet.\u00a0 It combines soft yellow color with the star-like flower shape of its stellata parent.<\/p>\n

I have always regretted that I could not grow a towering southern magnolia, or Magnolia grandiflora on my property. \u00a0They don\u2019t always do well in my part of the northeast, and even if they did, I really don\u2019t have the space.\u00a0 Like just about everyone else, I am smitten with their huge white flowers and fabulous fragrance. \u00a0Seeing \u2018Elizabeth\u2019 in full flower, back-lit by end-of-the -day\u00a0 spring light, makes me forget-at least temporarily–my southern magnolia envy.<\/p>\n

Monrovia, the large wholesale and online retail nursery, features \u2018Elizabeth\u2019 among its inventory of flowering trees, but the website also mentions that it is currently out of stock. \u00a0Your best bet for obtaining the plant this spring is to go to www.monrovia.com<\/a> and locate a nearby Monrovia retailer. \u00a0Call one of the listed retailers in your area and ask about \u2018Elizabeth\u2019 or any other yellow-flowered magnolias they have in stock. \u00a0\u2018Elizabeth\u2019 or her yellow-flowered kin may be waiting for you on a nursery backlot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am very partial to yellow flowers\u2014especially those that don\u2019t normally bloom in that hue. \u00a0I was one of the first gardeners of my acquaintance to buy \u2018Barzella\u2019, a yellow-flowered interspecies hybrid peony that represented a color breakthrough for peonies. A few years ago, I paid a premium for a newly-rediscovered heirloom yellow hyacinth. \u00a0\u00a0My … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2,3],"tags":[2095,688,1503,2098,2096,2093,2094,2099,2097],"class_list":["post-2724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","tag-elizabeth-magnolia","tag-flowering-trees","tag-magnolia-acuminata","tag-magnolia-denudata","tag-magnolia-liliaflora","tag-magnolia-x-hybrida","tag-yellow-magnolia","tag-yellow-flowered-trees","tag-yulan-magnolia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2724"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2726,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2724\/revisions\/2726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}