Monticello Gardens

Common name: Saucer Magnolia

Family: Magnoliaceae (Magnolia)

Distribution: Parent species native to Asia

Hardiness: USDA Zone 4

Life form: Deciduous tree

Usage: Ornamental

Comments: This popular hybrid Magnolia was first raised in France from two Asian species by Chevalier Etienne Soulange-Bodin, Director of the French Royal Institute, in the 1820s, and has been cultivated in America since 1844. Andrew Jackson Downing, widely considered America’s first landscape gardener, praised the Saucer Magnolia in A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening (1859): “These succeed well in sheltered situations in our pleasure grounds, and add greatly to their beauty early in the season.”