What kind of tree is this?

[WatchMeShove]

Please let me know what kind of tree this is... [img]https://i882.photobucket.com/albums/ac21/watchmeshove/photo12.jpg[/img]> [img]https://i882.photobucket.com/albums/ac21/watchmeshove/photo11.jpg[/img]

[rainbowgardener]

It is a gorgeous magnolia tree! Not sure what variety.

I assume that is a picture taken last spring or some spring, not now!

I know it's warmer where you are, but surely the magnolias don't look like that in February?

[WatchMeShove]

No, I took that picture this morning. Most of all the trees around here are in bloom already, including flowering cherrys. I didn't think it was a magnolia tree because I have one which looks nothing like the one in the picture. Also, my magnolia hasn't started to bloom, I was under the impression they were late bloomers.

[rainbowgardener]

well, there are lots of different varieties of magnolias. Here's one that looks fairly similar to yours

https://magnolia-pictures.bluegrassgardens.com/magnolia-images/saucer-magnolia-tree.jpg

and here's one that looks pretty different:

https://magnolia-pictures.bluegrassgardens.com/magnolia-images/spring-snow-magnolia-tree.jpg

Here's sort of the classic that people think of for magnolia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Magnolia_Watsoni.JPG


and different varieties bloom at different times also. Where I am I tend to think of magnolias as mostly being an early spring thing, but the Southern Magnolia is a fall bloomer.

[mclauss]

We have a small pink magnolia with same blooms, as does my Father in law. Your tree looks exactly like his. Ours grows much like a shrub.

MarkC

[cynthia_h]

It started flowering in mid-January, yes? And is peaking now. The flowers will begin to give way to leaves in another week or two.

It will provide wonderful shade and foliage until October or so.

There are tons of these "tulip trees" in the Bay Area. When we moved from Berkeley to El Cerrito in 1997, the first property we tried to get into had a tulip tree (and was a double lot...garden....). But we didn't get it. The tree that got away....

There are two trees commonly called "tulip trees." This one, according to Sunset's Western Garden Book, is "Magnolia x soulangeana," or Saucer Magnolia, a hybrid of M. denudata and M. liliiflora.

Very nice photos of a wonderful tree.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9