I agree with Mike.

Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant has many tall, old, very stately and very beautiful magnolia trees on their campus. As far as I know, those magnolias were planted in the 1920s. Of course, they are huge.

As a residential homeowner, you want to choose a tree that will not get too large for your yard since you want the tree to enhance your landscape, not dominate it.

I'm going to link Sooner Plant Farm's website below because they have an awesome website with photos/descriptions of various magnolias. I thought that looking at those photos and the descriptions of each cultivar's typical height and width would show you some of the options for magnolias that grow well here in OK. It might be hard to find a magnolia tree at a nursery this late in the summer, but I know that I normally see Magnolia 'Little Gem' and the trees from the Sisters series "Jane", "Ann", etc. at places like Lowe's and Home Depot in the spring. You likely would have a better chance of finding one at this time of the year, if you intend to plant now, at a full-line nursery.

'Little Gem' is a cultivar that matures at a perfect size for a yard, and I like 'Brown's Bracken Beauty', though it is larger and would need more space. In our yard, growing as an understory tree in dappled shade on the south side of a large pecan tree, we have a 'Jane' magnolia. It normally is one of the first trees to bloom in our yard in spring.

On the linked page, if you enter "Magnolia" in the search box, it will bring up all the varieties they carry at Sooner Plant Farm, which specializes in trees that grow here in our state, although you do have to match your tree selection to your climate. For example, some trees that grow in the rich loamy soils and relatively high rainfall of northeastern and eastern OK would not necessarily be as happy or do as well in southwestern and western OK with their more alkaline soils, hotter weather and significantly lower rainfall.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Sooner Plant Farm

Norman used to have some beautiful ones, but with all the ice storms and high wind events the past 10 years have devastated them. There was one growing in a front yard by the high school and during the ice storm in 2006 it was completely devastated. The trunk remains, but all the large branches were lost. Now it's very weak, spindly growth. I would personally look for another tree that is more resistant to our Oklahoma conditions. That's only because of my experience in our city. :-)

Also keep in mind that when it gets big i know of no grass that will grow underneath it. The leaves are very tough and my husband used to hate mowing with them around. But, they are one of my favorite trees and nothing smells better on a summer night than a magnolia blossom, well maybe honeysuckle....

We used to have one in our front yard, and i disliked it. I am sorry that I do not remember why, except the huge leaves were a problem.

However, my love is growing roses, and the tree may have interferred with that.. I just have a feeling that I thought it was nasty and messy. It will be interesting to see what other readers say.

Sammy

I really like the smaller pink blooming ones, I think they are Japanese magnolias and deciduous. When a late freeze doesn't get them, which it often does, they are really pretty especially as understory trees. That site Dawn provided has some nice smaller ones.

However, unless you have a really really big yard that will give you the ability to view it properly, the huge evergreen ones look downright oppressive to me personally because they are often out of scale visually with the home and the branches are so low growing. They look especially bad planted too close to the house and I see that situation all the time. We had one next door when I was growing up and the magnolia pretty much dominated the whole front yard and the house too like a huge out of place giant dark "thing". They couldn't plant anything else by the house. The same is true for weeping willows. You need a big yard to get the visual effect and correct scale to avoid being visually overwhelmed.

There are native magnolias that aren't so big. I have a Red Bay Magnolia growing in my backyard. The leaves aren't so large, but it still has flowers and blooms frequently during the summer. It is also a host plant for the Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly. Marilyn at Wild Things nursery in Seminole grows these. You can find her site by googling Wild Things Nursery. They top out at about 15 feet. I'd rather grow a native than an imported plant.

That sounds like a good magnolia choice to consider.

I was remembering our neighbors wishing they had never planted that tree and my Dad threatening to do something drastic to it because he hated it although I don't remember his specific complaint, maybe it was sharp leaves and seed pods coming over in our yard or something? Their front yard was just awful after it got big. We were all initially enthralled with it because of the flowers and unusualness of it and in the early years it really didn't seem planted too close to the house, but the admiration wore off after some growing years.

I'm with you on growing native, 100%.

I just went out, and took these pictures of my magnolia tree. I don't know, what kind. It was here, when I bought the house. It's way over on the west side of the strip that is between the side walk and the road.

Taken from across the street, a bit east:

This one was taken from across the street:

taken from across the street, and a bit west

taken facing east:

taken from my drive way:

Yes, it looks big compared to my house. But I will leave it for now. It's the biggest tree I own. :)

Moni

Checked it out and my magnolia is actually a Sweet Bay Magnolia instead of a Red Bay. Both are southern trees and hosts for the Tiger Swallowtail. The Sweet Bay is the smaller tree that Marilyn Stewart carries. Get them confused!

It seems like there's magnolias and then there's magnolias. Moni, I think the one you have looks pretty and its planted in a good spot away from the house and foundation, completely different than what I grew up next door to because that one was about 7 ft from the house and you definitely couldn't walk under it. Yours is a street tree. Apples and oranges.

Maybe its just a matter of trimming the branches up to a reasonable height at the bottom early on? Some people don't do that to any tree and it drives me nuts, they think those branches will grow up higher with the trunk as the tree grows.

There's a really pretty perfect columnar shaped one I see on my walk by the park everyday and its very pretty. Its doing very well here in the city and grows fairly slowly, it doesn't look like those big kinds judging by the leaf size.

This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Sat, Jul 6, 13 at 23:49

I grow my two favorites here in OKC.....for the bushier type I grow Ann. And then as a tree specimen I have a Black Tulip magnolia. The Black Tulip is a moderate sized tree with very light colored bark and leaves that are less than half the size of old fashioned magnolias. The spring flowers on both are a very deep maroon / pink color that I love and they are one of the first things that bloom for me each spring. But with all larger leaved trees they are susceptible to hail damage in the spring.

mark