I have a bit of an obsession with Magnolia grandifloras. BOTH those cultivars are EXCELLENT. Edith Bogues were derived from a Florida tree that was found to offer superior cold resistance in North Jersey, at a time when these trees were MUCH less commonly found up north. They offer both cold tolerance AND, importantly, are very good with wet snow loads. Flowers are reasonably large, growth is moderate, and they are low branching and dense. Undersides of the leaves are medium brown. Victoria (which I believe came out of the Pacific NW), is also, very cold hardy, good with heavy, WET snow loads, has somewhat smaller flowers, and is also medium brown on the underside. It's also dense and low-branching as E.B.. It has reddish leaf buds (somewhat like Ficus elastica that add to its attraction). BTW, Alta and other vertical growers are terrible with snow loads in my experience, MUCH worse than those broad-spreading trees, which would seem to be counterintuitive. Good luck!

These are Edith Bogues with a Majestic Beauty on the extreme right. Will see if I have a pic of the Victorias.

I suspect in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, you could grow just about ANY Southern Magnolia, save the most tender. 'Bracken's Brown Beauty' has long been the standard (overplanted) clone for the eastern/southeastern US, with good form, dark green foliage, abundant coppery indumentum. There are probably a dozen more popular forms.

Snow USUALLY is not a limiting factor, but ice/freezing rain sure plays havoc. Worst is bitter cold and continuous wind which dessicates and kills. If you garden in zone 7 or warmer, you should have no trouble.

Here is Lexington Kentucky's 'Hamilton Park', now at least 50 years young...

I have 'Edith Bogue' here at the Valley, hanging in there since 1995. It hates it when we get to the -20Fs, but is happier now that Thuja plicata 'Spring Grove' screens some of the winter winds. Not much brown on the undersides, but flowers competently.

Here is Victoria.

"Snow USUALLY is not a limiting factor."

It definitely IS on the East Coast where snows are frequently VERY HEAVY (in weight).

P.S., --20's F?! What the...?!

P.S. 2: LOL, I thought the Willamette Valley was somewhere in Delaware! Then maybe do go with Victoria and not the E.B. with its Florida genealogy.

Hiya Klark!!

I have one or the other of these in my inherited garden.....not sure I can make an accurate distinction between the two, although I am leaning towards Edith as the flowers are quite large and the leaves rather narrow and without heavy indumentum. I estimate the tree at 30-40 years old, maybe 25-30 tall and with a broad canopy.

You know how the PNW can get those late, wet and very heavy snows that only last a day or two but can wreak havoc on evergreens. I have only seen minor damage as a result....just a single lower limb broken off about midway in.

Since these two are the only cultivars of Magnolia grandiflora promoted by Great Plant Picks, I doubt you could go wrong with either. It is my personal opinion (and backed up by my nursery experience) that Edith Bogue tends to be more prevalent than Victoria in this area. Edith, D.D. Blanchard and Little Gem are the ones most often found in retail outlets.

"I estimate the tree at 30-40 years old, maybe 25-30 tall and with a broad canopy."

My Ediths are at least 30 feet tall and were planted as two feet trees, 15 years ago.

Location matters.

Yeah, it does :-) Mature sizes quoted here are 25-40' for Edith and 30-50' for Victoria and most specimens tend toward the lower end.

Hey Pam and all! Yeah I was wondering about the whole "narrow cultivars = snow resistant" meme that seems to be persistent among sellers. We had a horrendous ice storm last winter that shredded Betula and Acer x freemanii with narrow branch attachments all over town. Been wondering if 'Majestic Beauty' with its wider branch attachments would perhaps be more snow breakage resistant rather than less, which would counter a comment I think by Embothrium on a different thread a while ago. When back in the Seattle area I had a "Teddy Bear" that was utterly destroyed by snow, and that tree had narrow branch angles. If I could find one I probably would try 'Majestic Beauty'. I'm assuming it would be plenty hardy for this area, warmer (and warmer) Z8? The late season frosts here may pose a problem though, dunno.

Art in Nature, What I found with the strong vertical growers, where the branches attach to the trunk with very small angles, was that the snow would just accumulate in the the crotch (ha ha, not a botanical term, I'm sure), until the whole branch would fall down. Broad-branching ones would just lower their branches until the melting would begin, and they would magically rise up, with NO DAMAGE. I do have a Majestic Beauty, and this one is not only broad-spreading, it is also wide-leaved. But still was good with snow. I gotta say, I think I prefer the form of both E.B. and the Victoria, Majestic Beauty leaves, I find M.B. a bit coarse, but flowers are definitely HUGE.

D.D. Blanchard is such a nice, cold-hardy one, but I rarely have seen it sold around me (NJ/Zone 7a/b) , not that there is any more room anyway. Little Gems are nice but more inclined to cold damage, and growth is much more restrained. I once had a cultivar known as Green Giant, that one was fast-growing, had 0 indumentum. That one was eventually removed, it had very poor tolerance to any snow loads, and its lime green leaves burned in winter sun and cold.

A small 'Edith Bogue' I had going on Camano Island was stripped of all side branches by a wet snow, leaving it looking like the Statue of Venus. The large paddle like leaves of MAJESTIC BEAUTY are prefect for trapping frozen water. The two bushy growing ones with a history of being on the general market, persisting in local plantings without much breakage are 'Saint Mary' (as supplied by Monrovia) and 'Victoria' (of contemporary commerce). Bushy as in comparatively free-branching. And not bushy as in small-growing.

I really like Teddy Bear. Don't be fooled, it will eventually get large over time.

OK, well I went with an 'Edith Bogue' planted in early April and added 'Kay Parris' in August, because the price was so good. Both grew like gangbusters and look great. We will see how they fare over the winter. Also added Magnolia foveolata x laevifolia 'Coppertallica', another one that loves to collect that sticky NW snow on its foliage.

Condensed histories, descriptions and preferred naming of magnolia cultivars can be found here:

HORTSCI16054_proof.pdf (magnoliasociety.org)

Update on snow resistance: We've had a series of snowfalls lately and the latest one of about 5 inches did not damage 'Edith Bogue' or 'Kay Parris' in the least. It did however break both of our Cryptomeria japonicas - 'Elegans Compacta' and 'Elegans Aurea', as well as Daphne odora 'Aureomarginata'. Magnolias (aka Michelias) 'Inspiration' and 'Coppetallica' were both bent way over, but did not break.

In Portland,

Some one-time branches-breakage of Magnolia 'Little Gem' (18 feet tall) a few years ago during ice and snow, but have never had any weather damage to Cryptomeria japonica (standard variety, 25 feet tall). Recent snowfall here was 8 inches.