Magnolias Plant Directory

Magnolia virginiana var. australis
Syn: Southern Sweet Bay
A native of the Southeastern U.S.
USDA Zone 5.
Flowers: cup-shaped, sweetly fragrant (lemony),9-12 petaled, creamy white flowers (5-10 cm diameter) which appear in mid-spring and continue sporadically throughout the summer. Cone-like fruits with bright red seeds mature in autumn and can be showy.
Leaves: oblong-lanceolate, shiny green foliage is silvery beneath. Foliage is evergreen in the South and semi-evergreen to deciduous in the St. Louis area.
Easily grown in acidic, medium to wet soils in full sun to part shade. Prefers moist, rich, organic soils, but, unlike most other magnolias, tolerates wet, boggy soils. Also tolerates shade.
In the northern part of its cultivated range (including the St. Louis area),this variety typically grows either as a 5-7m tree with a spreading, rounded crown or as a shorter, dense, suckering, multi-stemmed shrub. In the deep South, this variety is typically more tree-like and grows much taller, sometimes to 20m. In comparison to the species, the variety is usually taller, has more fragrant flowers and is more likely to be evergreen.