I'm in St. Louis where Magnolias are fairly popular. I see lots of soulangiana, stellata, and even grandifolia. I should caution you, though, that I am in the city where we are zone 6. In the less bricked and paved suburbs they are zone 5. I see more magnolias in the city. I'm not sure if that is due to the slightly warmer winter or just the preferences of people. I would have a saucer magnolia in my front yard if I had the space.

Im talking about the Grandfloria. I want to grow one liek the ones in Memphis.

Oh, yeah, grandiflora rather than folia, thank you.

Have you just moved to the St. Louis area? Your member info shows Georgia. If so, you might want to also ask about this in the Midwestern Gardening forum. St. Louis isn't really in the Ozarks. We have several feet more soil than the Ozarks!

I'm not sure how cold-limited the grandiflora Magnolias are. Those in St. Louis do come out of winter looking more droopy and brown-tinged than I remember the ones in Memphis after winter. I might just be remembering Memphis' Magnolias wrong. Even though Memphis is warmer, St. Louis is not quite so prone to those ice storms as is Memphis. Seems like having their big leaves encased in ice would be pretty hard on them.

I can think of three Southern Magnolias in my neighborhood. I think the smallest has probably an 8 inch diameter trunk. The largest is probably 10-12, but well over two stories high. I have not seen any huge Magnolias, but that might just mean no one was plnting them prior to, oh, maybe thirty years ago. I do think they grow more slowly here than Memphis.

Yes, i just moved to the St.Louis area. The Magnolia's In atlanta grew to be about nearly 80' ft tall. The leaves were beautiful. Memphis had some large specimens. But St.Louis Recorded 3 degreess this year.

Try Magnolia Grandiflora (Var. Braken and Brown Beauty). I have one in my Massachusetts yard that is thriving and it tolerated a -6 morning last January (coldest in 25 years) with almost no leaf damage.

I know of one grandiflora in Fulton MO. It is planted right beside a brick wall with a southeastern exposure. It's just a bit over 2 stories tall and in an older section of town. All the houses are tall, late 19th or early 20th century and older homes, small yards with tall fences, nearby pavement, etc., for a warmer microclimate. I sometimes drive by the house just to smell the blooms!

Hi-
I am growing a Brackens Brown Beauty southern magnolia near Chicago. I planted it in May 2003 and it endured a rough stretch of weather in February with one morning hitting -8F. On the advice of a landscape architect I built a screen from the winter sun. In cold spells the sun causes the leaves to heat up, then the rapid cooling does the damage when the sun goes down. I lost about 25% of the leaves over the winter, but the tree now has at least 80 leaves and is over 5 ft tall.

I chose a location on the south side of my home and planted the tree about 8 feet from the brick.

I've seen many southern magnolias in St. Louis including a beautiful tree next to the old church by the arch. The St. Louis Zoo is loaded with them and I even saw a tracycarpus palm there. You should have fewer problems than me.
Try www.hardy-southern-magnolias.com

Roger

We moved here in the fall and I just realized that I have a magnolia in my backyard. Just took my first trip to the Botanical Gardens and they had several HUGE magnolias there...Don't know what type, but they look like they've been around for a long time.

I live out in West County and the one that we have looks to be several years old...Can't wait to see what it looks like in the spring, but in the summer, it was hideous. Leaves? Ack!

Brackens Brown Beauty has handled well below -10 here in Cincinnati and I would assume our weather is somewhat similar. Once established some cultivars have take -20 for short periods, a night or 2 in a protected areas so I would plant it in a location that minimizes winter wind and maybe sun when small. In a severe winter you still may get some leaf drop and leaf drop is likely to be more pronounces on young plants. Some place between northern zone 6 and middle zone 5 seems to be the northern most range for Magnolia Grandiflora at this point. David

Plenty of M.grandiflora magnolias on the MU campus in Columbia - I'd hazard a guess that most of them were BBB; all that I can recall were of the 'brownback' race. Most looked pretty good, though on occasion, when we'd have a really tough winter, there'd be a lot of leaf damage - but they'd just shed those and grow new ones. As you'd expect, those in protected sites fared better than those in open, exposed settings.

There's a Southern Magnolia in front of an old church downtown. Its very large, I'd say 25ft tall and healthy looking. You can see it as you drive north on I-55 on the right just before the ramp to the Poplar Street Bridge that crosses over to Illinois. Most people miss it because they're looking at the Arch along that stretch.

I'll try and get a picture of it.