Beloved for its dinner-plate size blossoms with the fragrance of lemons, the Southern Magnolia is considered to be the “Grand Dame” of Southern landscaping. This Southern native does well from Zones 6B to 9 with cultivars like Edith Bogue and Bracken’s Brown Beauty reportedly doing well into 5B thus pushing this perennial favorite into the Northeast and extreme Southern New England.
Home and Garden Landscapes recommends using this tree in your landscape if you have the room. Luckily, newer cultivars like Brackens Brown Beauty and Claudia Wannamaker do not have the wide spread of the original trees you see taking up massive amounts of space in the Deep South. Some cultivars like Lil Gem bloom from May till November and some cultivars like D.B. Blanchard have a beautiful coloration and texture to the underside of the leaves that some people liken to suede.
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Lil' Gem Southern Magnolia
A cultivar discovered in Eastern North Carolina, Lil Gem has skyrocketed to popularity in areas all over the world where it can thrive. Lil Gem’s biggest attribute is it will bloom non-stop from Spring until heavy frosts in the fall whereas other cultivars bloom traditionally in the May and June time frame and then stop.
Moving them can often result in excessive leaf drop but moving them in Summer will mitigate that problem.
