Plant: Evergreen Sweetbay Magnolia
Evergreen Sweetbay Magnolia · Magnolia virginiana
Size: 7 gal
Light
Bloom
Mature size
More about this plant
A native tree or large shrub reaching 10 to 35 feet tall and wide, with laurel like leaves 3 to 5 inches long that are shiny dark green above and silvery beneath. Fragrant creamy white cup shaped flowers 2 to 3 inches across open in spring and continue into summer, followed in fall by cone like aggregates of follicles holding bright red seeds. It grows in full sun or partial shade in moist to occasionally wet acidic soil high in organic matter, tolerates deer, salt, pollution and wet sites, and suits a rain garden, a pond edge or a lawn specimen.
- Full Sun
- Grows to 35 ft tall and 35 ft wide
- Blooms in spring, summer
- Hardy in USDA zones 5a-10b
- Semi-Evergreen foliage
- Native plant
Plant description
A native tree or large shrub reaching 10 to 35 feet tall and wide, with laurel like leaves 3 to 5 inches long that are shiny dark green above and silvery beneath. Fragrant creamy white cup shaped flowers 2 to 3 inches across open in spring and continue into summer, followed in fall by cone like aggregates of follicles holding bright red seeds. It grows in full sun or partial shade in moist to occasionally wet acidic soil high in organic matter, tolerates deer, salt, pollution and wet sites, and suits a rain garden, a pond edge or a lawn specimen.
- Flowers
- Fragrant 2 to 3 inch cup shaped creamy white waxy flowers with 9 to 12 petals, opening in spring and continuing into summer.
- Foliage
- Leaves are alternate, laurel like, elliptic to oblong lanceolate and shiny, 3 to 5 inches long, dark green above and silvery glaucous underneath.
- Fruit
- Cone like aggregates of follicles up to 2 inches long holding bright red seeds that mature in fall.
- Bark & stems
- Stems are pale green and pubescent; bark is thin, smooth and reddish brown to gray.
- Native range
- Eastern United States to Texas and Cuba
