Specialty Gardening: What is the most fragrant flower in your plantings?, 1 by DreamOfSpring

DreamOfSpring wrote:
It depends on which magnolia you have - and probably where you live in the south. Here it is almost certainly much warmer (and less cold in winter) than in NC, even though both may be considered the south. Here fall is just spring with fewer flowers. (I have flowers blooming in my yard all year round.) Winter here is the last 2wks of Jan and the 1st 2wks of Feb. During that time we may make it down to 28F maybe 3 to 5 times in the overnight hours. Most of the time we still get back up to the 60s or 70s the following day. Daffodils start blooming here no later than the 1st week of Feb, and other flowers are quick to follow. We typically only get a light dusting of snow once every 10yrs or so. Winters here are so mild that I have a split-leaf philodendron, usually considered a houseplant except in Florida, growing in a large tub in front of my garage where it has lived year round now for 12yrs.

As to magnolias. I have a SweetBay magnolia (M. virginiana) on one side of my front yard and a Southern Magnolia (M. grandiflora) on the other. The Southern Magnolia is the one with the large, white flowers and leaves which are so dark green as to be almost black. The leaves are glossy, dark green on top and cinnamon colored on the bottom. The Southern Magnolia grows very large, and is often seen with large sprawling limbs that dip down close to the ground. The Southern Magnolia IS evergreen here. Its glossy dark green leaves remain intact year round. Thus it does not make a mess on the lawn, and there are no leaves to rake. On rare occasion a single leaf may be found on the lawn, but it does not shed its leaves in fall like most other trees do. Since I hate raking, this is one of my favorite trees in my yard as it requires virtually no care.

The SweetBay Magnolia (M. virginiana) in my yard is relatively small and slow growing. I have seen many SweetBay Magnolias growing wild in the forests around here, and they have always been relatively small trees. Mine is about 20yrs old and is maybe 15ft tall. My SweetBay Magnolia does shed its leaves, all of them, in fall. In that respect, it is a messy tree, and what's worse most of its leaves end up in my neighbor's yard, so some years I end up raking his yard, too. Despite our very mild winters, despite the fact that I usually still have the AC running on New Years Day, my SweetBay Magnolia spends winter as a statuesque but leafless structure of barren twigs, even as the stately Southern Magnolia wears a full cloak of healthy, green, and glossy leaves just a mere house-width away.

So, yes, to M. grandiflora being evergreen here. No, to M. virginiana which looses its leaves in fall even here - or, at least mine does. (I've never actually paid attention to the wild ones and thus cannot say for sure whether they loose their leaves.) I've scratched my head over this, and read a number of rather confusing comments from others regarding whether or not M. virginiana looses its leaves in fall. Some who live in colder areas say, no, while others say, yes. Some say the leaves turn brown but stay on the tree - mine very definitely fall off, and I think I prefer it that way. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to where the respondents live vs whether or not their M. virginiana looses its leaves. I've decided this probably depends on the cultivar as well as where it is located. There are now quite a number of named cultivars of this species, and my guess is that some of these vary in terms of whether they retain or drop their leaves in fall in warmer climates.

Below, I've attached a few pics from my SweetBay Magnolia (M. virginiana).

In my next post, I will attache pics of my Southern Magnolia (M. grandiflora) for comparison. These are not the best pics, just some that happen to be on my laptop right now - and easily located. I could not locate a pic of the whole tree to show shape.