There are actually a fair number of yellow flowered Magnolia cultivars. You might want to research them further before choosing as tree size, flower shape, color intensity and hardiness can vary quite widely. A couple are even fragrant.

In a colder zone, I'd focus on those cultivars that have a later blooming season, as they tend to be better able to tolerate late spring freezes without flower damage.

Favorite Yellow-Flowering Magnolias for Your Garden (gardenia.net)

At my former place, I had a very narrow (fastigiate) one that was lovely, but I no longer remember the name.

refresh our memory.. where are you.. big city name.. and what zone.. and does your ground freeze?

in my MI ... there are very few yellow mags.. and those that do make it.. are in contained micro climates ..

i spent a lot of money trying to grow them 3 different times.. and all failed ...

im surprised by maackia's success.... but maybe that house blocks the prevailing winter winds ... orrrrr... he has a newer cultivar for such cold ...

ken

In a maritime climate leaves sometimes appear before the flowers, making them less visible. Light levels and temperature can play a role in the intensity of the 'yellowness' of the flowers (sometimes more cream than yellow).

Information on yellow flowered magnolias can be found HERE

Mine was purchased as ‘Yellow Bird’, and I have no reason to believe it’s anything but that. It is protected from N/NW winds by the garage and a couple of large conifers, but I’m not sure it would qualify as a micro-climate. I do have a M. sieboldii in this area that is much more protected.

Ken, did you try M. ’Butterflies’? It was developed by Phil Savage in lower MI and should be fully hardy for you. It’s often sold in the Twin Cities nursery trade, but it’s not fully hardy in z4.

One of the older yellow flowering clones is M. ’Elizabeth’, which has an upright habit. I’d wager my favorite trowel that’s what Laceyvail had.

I'm in SE Michigan and have a couple Magnolia 'Butterflies' - love them!

Various commercially circulated yellow magnolia varieties are shown and discussed at the page I linked to previously. With the addition of those kinds that have not been in garden centers or otherwise generated in large enough numbers for this level of presence producing a list that must be something like 50 distinct named cultivars by now.

A lot of the container grown magnolias stocked by garden centers in my area come from Monrovia. At the moment the yellow ones they are offering are 'Yellow Bird' and 'Sunsation'.

Magnolia - Trees - By Type - SHOP PLANTS (monrovia.com)

maackia, In Hardy Magnolias for the North (2005) Dennis Ledvina rated Butterflies to zone 4. However, he also noted that in colder zones very low temps in late fall or early winter can cause trunk cracks, and the type of rootstock makes a difference in areas subject to deeply frozen soil (M acuminata or M kobus should be used for rootstock in colder regions). I had a Butterflies (years ago) that cracked twice in 3 years (due to one or both of the above issues), and I ended up removing it. But I see quite a few Butterflies in this area that seem to be doing fine (as ruth_mi chimed in).

We've also planted Elizabeth (Z4 per Ledvina) and Yellow Lantern (Z5 per Ledvina), and they have both grown well here, although their flowers are a more pale yellow. And their flowers can be damaged by late freezes (which in this area seems to be true for just about all spring flowering magnolias). Elizabeth hasn't been all that upright, but Yellow Lantern is quite vigorous and tree-like. I don't have any experience with Yellow Bird (Z4 per Ledvina), but the color in maackia's photos is a nice yellow. We planted one Lois a couple years ago that had nice color, but it was destroyed by deer. We also planted a couple Sunspire (or is it Sun Spire?) 2 years ago, still too early to say how well they will perform here but this one is quite upright/columnar.

is it Sun Spire?

Yes:

HORTSCI16054_proof.pdf (magnoliasociety.org)

Thanks Embo. I wasn't sure because a number of websites list it as "Sunspire", including the Missouri Botanical Garden's Plant Finder.

The one I had might have been Sun Spire, name sounds familiar. It definitely was not Elizabeth. Maackia, you've lost your favorite trowel. I may have gotten it from Rare Find Nursery, in the early 2000s.

Dang, I'm down another trowel.

I have seen one or more at Highland Park in Rochester, NY. ItI