I had my Magnolia shoes on today...

Hi.
Does anyone have pictures of or opinions about Magnolia Virginiana?
I have a very wet area in the backyard and am thinking of putting one in there, but the only example I've seen in person was a huge old one at the Arnold Arboretum that wasn't very attractive in form. Can this be beautiful? Is it ok with wet feet from time to time?

limnaia:

Yes to opinions; yes to beautiful; and yes to occasional to regular wetness tolerance. Swamp bay is its (middle) name, after all.

There are some dwarf selections these days. 'Tensaw' is one, though I don't know how widely distributed it is. Degree of evergreen-ness is a variable as well. Plants known by Magnolia virginiana var. australis are likely to exhibit more persistent green foliage through winters than Magnolia virginiana.

All have the wonderfully fragrant (lemony scented to me) flowers in June in KY, though this year they might be blooming tomorrow. Many plants today are being produced as multiple stemmed broader shrubby small trees, though sweetbay/swamp bay is very well grown as a single stemmed small/medium tree for northern climates.

You will have to see what is being sold; where you want it in your landscape; and how much work you want to invest to prune/train it in the form you'd like. Established, it can be a vigorous plant and quite tolerant of pruning to the form you are after. It will want to keep throwing new stems from the base, especially if it started with multiple stems and if you are making many "restraining" cuts to reduce size.

Planting into wet sites can be tricky. If you use a B&B plant, expect slower establishment since the plant needs to regenerate cut roots into this wetter less oxygenated environment. A container plant (which has not had any root reduction to get to your place) might be a better choice. Consult with your local experts (Extension Service professionals, university staff, high quality garden centers/nurseries) for techniques for increased success.

And remember that there's a host of avid folks here at DG (Northeast Gardening, and even some manic Massachusettians here on T&S) that may have done just this task once or twice.

Don't have many pics of sweetbay handy. I have one of a tree form individual of Magnolia virginiana var. australis 'Green Shadow' in Louisville KY March 2, 2007, but DG isn't letting me load this morning. Maybe later.

My experience with planting in very wet places is that it's best to plant very high. Nursery growing conditions are so different from wet situations that plants will develope deeper roots in a nursery, roots that might rot in a wet enviroment. Plants seem to recover after several years but they lose a lot of root mass just because of the changes in oxygen levels from wet to dry.

This message was edited May 2, 2007 12:46 PM

Here's that 'Green Shadow' sweetbay.

VV and watersedge:
Thanks very much! That Green Shadow is enormous! I'm looking for ca. 15 ' max, I think, and probably multi-stemmed.
The observations on slowness of transition/establishing new roots were very valuable. I hadn't thought of the BB vs. container issue at all. I think I will try to plant high in any case because it's for my neighbor's backyard (behind and open to mine) and they might bring in some fill in the lowest parts at some time in the future.
Thanks again,
limnaia

It may not be deciduous, but here's my first bloom of the season on Little Gem.

Now that IS stunning.

I Love that Little Gem!