Magnolia liliiflora Desr.

This distinctive small, rather hardy species flowers later than most in Section Yulania. The combination of shrubby habit, flowers appearing at or after leaf emergence, and small, sepaloid outer tepals is unique in the Section. Despite a long history of cultivation, its biggest contribution to European and North American gardens is as a parent of hybrids.

This is a plant long grown in Chinese, Korean and Japanese temple gardens. It seems to have reached Europe from Japan in 1790, acquired by the British politician William Cavendish-Bentinck (3rd Duke of Portland) who had the unusual distinction of being Prime Minister twice, allied to different parties on each occasion. Its scientific description followed shortly, the specific epithet (‘lily-flowered’) referring to the way the flowers stand erect like lily buds or slender tulips, the purple- or pink-backed tepals spreading only later. Flowering is generally from mid-April into June, sporadic flowers continuing through summer. Clones vary considerably in tepal shape and colour. Fragrance is rarely significant, although George Forrest found a scented plant in Yunnan in 1924/5 and an individual with a delicate tea-rose scent was noted in Toksan Provincial Park, Korea, something perhaps worth noting for future breeding (Gardiner 2000). Introductions of genuinely wild material seem to have been at best vanishingly rare. A 1985 collection under KE 3523, grown at University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and marked as wild origin (University of British Columbia 2022; Quarryhill Botanical Garden 2021), was made in South Korea, outside its natural range. A specimen at RBG Edinburgh (accession number 19702528) is recorded as being wild collected in China, but without further data.

Essentially a rather spreading shrub, it rarely distinguishes itself in habit, attracting descriptions such as ‘straggling’ (Bean 1981) and ‘ratty’ (Dirr 2009). It is slow growing, although established plants in favoured sites may put on as much as 30 cm per year. Old plants can be pruned into low, spreading, multistemmed trees by careful removal of stems and crown raising, as with M. stellata. Like that species, M. liliiflora is suited for small gardens, although now largely superseded by its hybrids. Rarely, specimens become significantly taller, for example a 6.8 m example of ‘Nigra’ at Sissinghurst, E Sussex (The Tree Register 2021) and a Polish record of 7.3 m (Anisko & Czekalski 1991).

M. liliiflora thrives on all but chalky soils; a sheltered, sunny position on acidic soil is probably ideal. Clones vary in hardiness, ‘Nigra’ and ‘O’Neill’ being particularly tough. In Europe it is widely grown from Britain, Ireland and France east to Germany and Poland, mainly as ‘Nigra’ in the east (Anisko & Czekalski 1991). In North America it is widely hardy on both seaboards and in the Great Lakes area.

Its small size and frost-avoiding flowering time have made it a popular choice for hybridists. It is a parent (with M. denudata) of the classic M. × soulangeana, and has been used in North American breeding to produce the small de Vos and Kosar hybrids, the Gresham hybrids, ‘Galaxy’ and ‘Spectrum’ as well as having an input into new cultivars from New Zealand. Introduction of distinctive clones which exist in Korea (Gardiner 2000) may give further breeding potential.