Magnolia

This is a beloved shrub to small tree species notable for flowering young with nodding white flowers which are best viewed when you can look up into them such as ours on a raised bed. Original introductions likely from Japan have red stamens but this collection of ours differs with yellow stamens. We generally get a good rebloom in September following the main late spring-early summer flowering. Second-generation seed-grown young plants from our trees from our original collection with no chance of hybridity. The species honors German plant collector Philipp Franz von Siebold for his botanical work in the mid 1800's. These are best protected first winter.

This is the rarest US Magnolia species occurring in just 6 counties in the Florida panhandle. Fantastic species with huge leaves up to 2' or more long and nearly a foot across. On plants young as 3-4 years old, white scented flowers to 10" wide appear in May avoiding frost damage . Dramatic large shrub to small tree. Best protected from too much wind and protected in zone 6 winters until well established. Ours are seed-grown from private property in Walton County.

Extraordinary yellow-flowered evergreen species from northern Vietnam on this collection. The trees in the wild were all small second-growth trees with mature examples nowhere in evidence. That night we slept in a nearby farmer's house with our sleeping bags on wide flooring planks of magnolia wood - mystery solved where the big trees went. Best in a sheltered spot from freezing winds. Young plants of this choice species.

Cutting grown from original seed collection in Vietnam's Hoang Lien Son mountains by Floden-Mitchell-Wynn-Jones. The evergreen trees were 50' with showy red seed "cones" with scented pink to sometimes red flowers. We have not flowered our plant so on tenterhooks. This species is best in mild gardens.

We got this little gem as cuttings from the nursery manager at Stephen F. Austin Botanic Garden a few years ago and have been quite taken by its small glossy evergreen foliage and dense shrubby habit. Finally bloomed for us and we missed it but could tell from the fallen petals it was a lovely small white flower flushed gently in pink. This came to us as laevifolia x figo x crassifolia but its small habit suggests it is probably laevifolia x figo var. crassipes.

Seed-grown from a wild collection in Winston County Alabama of this unrivaled North American tree. This has the largest simple leaves of any native plant - up to 30" long - and let's add the flowers as well which are 8"-10" wide and rarely to 12". These fragrant soup bowls are white with rose-purplish bases and followed by showy big cone-like fruits from which red seeds hang by threads. Seriously. Rich moist soil sheltered from wind.

Small plants from wild-collected seed of this dramatic species native to the Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains. Drama comes in with the leaves - up to 24" long and 10" across and the white 6"-10" flowers. The flowers are scented but not pleasantly so and not enough to banish from the garden this impressive tree. Full sun only in cooler climates.