I can't believe I have overlooked this post for 6 days. I must be illiterrate and unable to read. I have been looking into growing these myself. I saw them on Gardening By The Yard a few monthes back and became interested in them. Ione, if you do research on these and find a lot of interesting info, let me know. I did notice that Dirr (if you're a Dirr fan) states that M. figo is best in zone 8 or warmer. I will have to look for the one at the UT gardens.

Hey there --

They're in the front section. Walk to the oak leaf hydrangeas, then turn left in front of the hydrangeas. The next set of shrubs in line with the hydrangeas is the Michelias. Nice big plants, they've obviously been there for a few years.

This post never got any more response. I thought I'd bring it back up to see if anyone reading now has had any experience with Michelias here in TN.

Amazindirt, I've still never been over there to look at them. How'd you figure out that they were M figo? I saw a Michelia species ID chart (I can't remember the technical name for such a chart right now) online. Did you happen to see/use that?

I would really like to know what other Michelias might survive here without special treatment. Hardiness information about many Michelias is hard to come by, and much of the hardiness information available on the internet is contradictory.

Here is a link that might be useful: Michelia Species ID Chart

First, I smelled them. Then I remembered that Michelia was supposed to have banana scented flowers. I forget whether I looked em up again before or after I asked Andy (Andy Pulte, grad student and woody guy) for confirmation.

Does figo have a unique smell compared to other Michelia?

There's been talk of adding some type of Michelia to the UT Arboretum's collection. I am wondering if there is a species that is reliably hardy enough to be added with no protection or special treatment. My guess is that that location would have slightly lower average winter low temps than the UT Gardens.