Ronny's Garden World

You will be hard pressed to find anyone who isn’t familiar with the southern magnolia. Those large glossy green leaves and creamy white flowers are a symbol or southern charm.  The leaves and seed pods also adorn many a mantle during the Christmas season.  The tree is just plain hard to resist.  Caring for a southern Magnolia is easy.  Plant in Full Sun to Partial Shade in a wind protected area.  You can also use Wilt-Pruf (anti-transpirant) to help prevent wind burn in the winter.   They like well drained soil rich in nutrients.  Fertilize twice a year, the week around St. Patrick’s Day and Thanksgiving with Holly-Tone.

Cultivars Worth Noting
‘Little Gem’ - Prized for small lawns. Can grow 15 to 20 ft in zones 6-7. Great specimen plant with smaller, very fragrant flowers and leaves that are rust colored on the underside.
‘D.D. Blanchard’ – 30 to 60 feet tall, large flowers and large dark green leaves with rusty almost orange undersides.
‘Brackens Brown Beauty’ – 30 to 40 feet tall, dense compact growth habit of ovate 8″ long leaves and an almost hairy underside of brown . Large fragrant flowers. The industry standard.
‘Teddy Bear’- 20 to 40ft. New variety with 6-8″ flowers and full sized leaves heavily brown felted on the underside.

Toby Reynolds, Ronny’s Garden World

Tags: Blanchard, Brackens Brown, christmas decorations, easy care, Little Gem, magnolia, Teddy Bear

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 12:50 pm and is filed under Uncategorized, types of plants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.