PlantFiles: Magnolia
Magnolia 'Vulcan'

i planted one of these in san leandro several years ago and it is now quite big and beautiful. the flower colour is just amazing. mine has the deepest magenta red flowers and as it ages, there are more and more of them. it really did not take it long to grow from about 6' to over 10', maybe 5 years? that's not too bad. it does seem to have a more columnar habit than most magnolias, though...maybe it's just my tree that has it. i've never seen another one anywhere to compare.

i now live in the sierra foothills and got one from the dreaded and sometimes hated wayside gardens recently. luckily, it is healthy with huge roots coming out of the pot. i've had some bad luck with them, going from great experiences beginning in the '90s to horrible experiences (when park seed took them over) and now back to pretty good experiences.

anyway, this tree is just so beautiful and if you can grow one, definitely try to find it. i rarely see them in catalogues or at nurseries, either in the SF bay area or up here in the sierras, but if you do find one, buy it at any cost. you will not be disappointed one bit.

This is my favorite magnolia. The first time I saw it 3 years ago, I stopped dead in the road just staring. It is that big, bold and beautiful. The darkest magnolia I have seen so far. A real delight!

Zone 9b, Coastal Otago, New Zealand.
I believe this is the NZ Jury hybrid 'Vulcan' which is a small-medium tree with intensely wine coloured upright goblet-style sweetly scented blooms. Here it blooms in very early spring, and is in full swing as I write, mid September.
This has got to be one of the outstanding dark hybrids of the last 20 years, serving as parent stock to many new varieties, down here at least, and if you grow it, youll know why. Mine has gone from half a metre to a good three in around 5 years, in indifferent conditions with no special treatment. Has flowered from year one.
It is reliably covered in thick, suede-y wine pink blooms that are highly fragrant, followed by pleasingly tough and shiny leaves. It has a sturdy upright form, a mini-tree rather than a shrub, and I cant recommend it highly enough. If you only have room for one smaller mag, this has got to be a contender- I cant say a bad word about it. Im also growing the variety 'Shirazz', of which Vulcan is a parent; it looks another beauty with slightly more open flowers with a whiter margin to the petals.
Just a note on mag cultivation- I grow my magnolias in rubbishy heavy yellow volcanic clay on a seaside hill, and have found that none of the various cultivars and species have objected to this treatment. They get good drainage and wind shelter from my other plantings but the soil is pretty poor, with only a thin top layer of leaf mold, so dont be discouraged if you dont have the rich loam so often prescribed for mags. Lets face it, who does?? Be brave and plants heaps of them!