D.D. Blanchard Magnolia

D.D. Blanchard Magnolia is a named selection of southern magnolia, Magnolia grandiflora 'D.D. Blanchard', an evergreen tree native to the southeastern coastal plain from North Carolina to Florida and Texas. Thick, glossy dark green leaves are backed with rusty orange felt, and the big white flowers carry a lemony fragrance. Give it full sun to part shade and moist, acidic, well drained soil; it takes heat and humidity but not prolonged flooding. Hardy in USDA zones 7 to 9, it reaches about 50 feet tall and 25 to 30 feet wide in a pyramidal form. Fragrant flowers 6 to 8 inches across open in late spring, with scattered bloom into summer and cone-like fruit in fall. Unlike variable seedlings, this cultivar holds a consistent pyramidal shape and rusty orange leaf undersides. Old leaves shed as new growth comes on, so site it in a bed rather than a lawn.