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Southern Magnolia
The stately evergreen icon of the South - glossy dark leaves year-round and enormous, lemon-scented creamy flowers up to a foot across, on a large, long-lived, beetle-pollinated tree older in lineage than the bees.
Safety notes Southern magnolia is safe to grow and handle - it's an ornamental tree, not a food plant. The red seeds in its cone-like fruit are eaten by wildlife but are not a human food. The main practical considerations are its large eventual size, its dense evergreen shade and year-round leaf drop (little grows beneath it), and shallow roots - site it accordingly rather than for safety reasons.
Overview
Southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) is one of the most beloved and recognizable trees of the American South - a grand evergreen with thick, glossy, dark-green leaves (many with a handsome felted rust-brown underside) held year-round, and, in early summer, some of the largest and most fragrant flowers of any tree: creamy-white, lemon-scented blooms up to a foot across. It's a large tree, commonly 40-80 feet tall, densely pyramidal, and long-lived, often skirted with branches to the ground.
Quick facts
- Sprouts in
- 60 daysRange: 30–150 days
- Soil temperature
- 70 °FRange: 60–80 °F
- Height
- 60 ftRange: 40–80 ft
- Spread
- 35 ftRange: 25–50 ft
- Cold
- Takes hard frostdamaged below -10°F
- Heat
- Struggles above 105°F
- Life cycle
- Perennial, lives about 120 years
- Save seeds
- About 150 days after plantingRange: 120–180 days
- Self-sows
- Yes, expect volunteers
- Soil
- Well-drained
- Water
- Medium
- Plant spacing
- 40 ftRange: 25–60 ft
When to plant
Fall sowing is open for 27 more days. Next: spring, Apr 3 to Jun 9.
- Direct sow Oct 11 – Nov 15 Open now · 27 days leftAbout 2 weeks before to 3 weeks after your first frost (Oct 25 here)Clean the fleshy red coating from fresh seed and sow in fall; it needs cold-moist stratification and can be slow and erratic. Transplants and grafted cultivars are far faster and truer.
- Transplant Apr 3 – Jun 9 Opens in 166 daysAbout 7 days before to 9 weeks after your last frost (Apr 10 here)Plant container or B&B trees in spring into deep, moist, well-drained, slightly acidic soil in sun to part shade; spring settles the fleshy roots before winter. Zone 6 needs a cold-hardy cultivar (Bracken's Brown Beauty, Edith Bogue) in a site sheltered from winter wind.
Frost here: last around Apr 10 (Mar 27 to Apr 24 most years), first around Oct 25. Zone averages, your own yard may run a week or two either way.
Life stages
Establish, grow, repeat
Getting established and returning each season are different parts of the story.
Stage 1 of 4 · Getting established
Years 1-3 - young tree
About the first 3 years after planting
Care at this stage
-
Water deeply while establishing
Water a young southern magnolia deeply and regularly through its first 2-3 years, especially in drought. It has fleshy, shallow, wide roots that resent disturbance, so plant it in its permanent spot and disturb it as little as possible after.
-
Mulch wide and let lower limbs stay
A broad mulch ring conserves moisture and, importantly, catches the constant leaf drop. Consider leaving the lower branches on - a magnolia skirted to the ground hides its own fallen leaves and looks best, and little grows in its dense shade anyway.
-
Site it with room and think about the shade
Southern magnolia becomes a large (40-80 foot) dense evergreen with heavy year-round shade and continual leaf litter, under which lawn and most plants won't thrive. Give it plenty of room away from buildings and plan for a mulched bed, not grass, beneath it.
Months are typical seasonal windows; climate, variety, and plant age can shift them.
Watch out for
3 to know. None are high-risk for Southern Magnolia. None are active in October.
Magnolia Leaf SpotSeverity Low DiseaseSeason: Jun–SepBrown, purplish, or black spots and blotches on the leaves, worse in humid summers and on crowded or shaded trees.
Brown, purplish, or black spots and blotches on the leaves, worse in humid summers and on crowded or shaded trees.
None usually needed - it's cosmetic; sanitation and airflow reduce it. Fungicides are rarely warranted on a landscape tree.
Ensure good air circulation, avoid overhead watering, and rake up and remove fallen infected leaves to reduce spores.
Several fungi cause spots and blotches on magnolia leaves in warm, humid, wet weather - unsightly on individual leaves but essentially harmless to the tree's health.
Magnolia ScaleSeverity Low PestSeason: Jun–SepBumpy, waxy scale on twigs and leaf undersides, sticky honeydew, black sooty mold on leaves, and attending ants.
Bumpy, waxy scale on twigs and leaf undersides, sticky honeydew, black sooty mold on leaves, and attending ants.
Prune out heavily infested twigs; horticultural oil in the dormant season or when crawlers are active smothers scale. Established trees usually tolerate light infestations.
Keep the tree vigorous; encourage the lady beetles and parasitic wasps that control scale; avoid stressing the tree.
Soft scale insects that attach to twigs and leaves and suck sap, excreting sticky honeydew that grows black sooty mold. Usually cosmetic on a healthy southern magnolia, though heavy infestations can weaken young trees.
Sooty MoldSeverity Low DiseaseSeason: Jun–SepA black, dusty or crusty coating on leaves, stems, and fruit (that can be rubbed or washed off), always accompanying a honeydew-producing pest above it.
A black, dusty or crusty coating on leaves, stems, and fruit (that can be rubbed or washed off), always accompanying a honeydew-producing pest above it.
Treat the underlying scale/mealybugs first; then wipe or wash the sooty film off leaves with mild soapy water. It doesn't infect the plant, but heavy coating blocks light and weakens it.
Control the underlying sap-sucking pest (aphids, scale, mealybugs, whiteflies) - no honeydew, no sooty mold. Encourage beneficial insects and treat the pest, not the mold.
A black, soot-like fungal coating that grows on the sticky honeydew excreted by aphids, scale, mealybugs, and whiteflies - it doesn't infect the plant directly but coats leaves and fruit in a black film that blocks light and disfigures them (a particular nuisance on makrut lime, grown for clean leaves).
Good & bad neighbors
Plant nearby
-
A native understory tree that blooms at the edge of a magnolia's canopy, layering the planting with spring flowers and wildlife value in a woodland-edge composition.
-
A classic Deep South pairing of two evergreen native giants - glossy magnolia and moss-draped live oak together define the coastal Southern landscape; give each ample room.
- Traditional pairings, thin evidence
-
A tough shade perennial for the dry, root-filled, shaded ground under a magnolia, adding foliage interest to a mulched bed where grass fails.
-
A shade-loving native fern for the moist, mulched bed beneath a magnolia's dense canopy, where lawn won't grow - part of a naturalistic shaded underplanting.
Varieties · 4
You pick one when you add Southern Magnolia to your garden. Its days to maturity set your harvest window.
Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora)
The wild species: a large (40-80 foot) dense evergreen with glossy dark leaves (often rust-backed) and enormous creamy, lemon-scented flowers up to a foot across in early summer, followed by red-seeded cone-like fruit.
Variety details for Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora)
Broadly pyramidal evergreen with glossy leathery leaves and huge white summer flowers.
speciesnativeevergreenfragrantThe stately magnolia of the Southern landscape.
Little Gem
A compact, slow-growing magnolia reaching only 20-30 feet, with smaller leaves and flowers borne young and over a long season - the most popular choice for smaller yards, screens, and spaces where the full-size species is too big.
Variety details for Little Gem
Narrow, dense small tree flowering heavily from a young age, richly rust-backed leaves.
cultivarcompactsmall-spaceearly-floweringBracken's Brown Beauty
A dense, cold-hardy selection with especially deep rust-brown leaf undersides and better tolerance of winter cold and wind - one of the best magnolias for zone 6 and the Upper South, and a handsome, tidy tree.
Variety details for Bracken's Brown Beauty
Dense pyramidal tree with strikingly bronze-backed glossy leaves and creamy flowers.
cultivarcold-hardyrust-backeddenseEdith Bogue
A vigorous, exceptionally cold- and snow-load-tolerant cultivar with a sturdy narrow form - long a favorite for pushing southern magnolia into colder zones, holding up to winter weather that damages other selections.
Variety details for Edith Bogue
Upright, sturdy tree with narrow habit and good cold resilience.
cultivarcold-hardysnow-tolerantnarrow
Grower tips
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