Loebner Magnolia Seeds

Kobus and Loebner Magnolia Species Hybrids-Seed selected for the most vigorous crosses on a population level.

Loebner magnolia is a natural hybrid of star and kobus magnolias. It's vigor and adaptibility to the midwest and northeastern conditions makes this one of the most popular landscape plants taking the place of the saucer magnolia.  It flowers later than most and can grow in poor, low organic soils. There are several named varieties of it. I began using seedlings of this hybrid and began the production of plants in my nursery. At the same time, I began growing the Kobus magnolia because it too was very vigorous. Both of these species and their close relative the Star Magnolia began my plantings of magnolia on my wind swept hillsides. Eventually only the most durable plants made it which also proved to be the most productive in terms of fruit. This seed strain is a dense cone shaped plant upwards to 50 feet tall. The hybrids showed great vigor and are worth growing from seed as they exist now. It doesn't need to be another Magnolia cultivar grown from cuttings. 

Today I use about  15 of these crosses to select seed from. They tend to run from 25 to 40 feet tall.  The trees show solid branching and create a dense root mat which was perfect for holding my sandy soil preventing erosion. These seed selections were taken from a population of over a thousand seedlings. Eventually this  led to heavy flowerig, fruiting and seed production in the years ahead. 

From seed, this is a good cross to produce healthy vigorous seedlings into Zone 3.  Expect a 50 percent germination rate. I do both float and cut tests. Cut tests are running around 75 percent good seed. 

To germinate the seeds: Seeds have a hard brittle seed coat and only require a cold dormancy of 90-120 days. The seeds need to be kept moist otherwise they will perish. The seed is then refrigerator to prevent mold. Magnolia seed can be sown as it after the dormancy or you can pot each seedling. Cover lightly with 1/4 inch peat. Seeds will produce a tap root first and then throw a top. Very easy to grow from seed.  You just need to add lightly moist peat moss to the mixture of seeds. Dormancy started on January 1st.