Sweetbay Magnolia
Magnolia virginiana
A graceful native magnolia with lemon-scented, creamy white flowers from late spring into summer and glossy leaves with silvery undersides, a fine specimen near a patio or woodland edge. Unlike most magnolias it thrives in wet, boggy soil and by ponds. Give it acid soil, and shelter at the cold end of its range.
- Mature size
- 17 × 12 ft
- 5.5 × 4 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 5a–10b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part sun
- Water
- Medium to wet
- Blooms
- May–Jun
Sweetbay Magnolia at its mature size
A mature Sweetbay Magnolia grows 15 to 20 feet tall and 10 to 15 feet wide, taller than most people.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: Missouri Botanical Garden.
Through the year
What Sweetbay Magnolia looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Winter · Dec–Apr
Semi-evergreen: crown thinner, some leaves dropped, the rest still green with a slight silvery cast where undersides show; not gray.
In flower · May–Jun
Scattered creamy-white cup-shaped flowers among the leaves.
In leaf · Jul–Nov
Glossy dark green elliptic leaves flashing silver undersides.
Photos
Growing Sweetbay Magnolia
- Grows well in
- The Northeast and the Southeast.
- Growth rate
- Fast
- Good for
- Small space, specimen, rain garden, deer resistant, pollinators, fragrant, and fast growing
- Leaves
- Drops its leaves in winter
- Native to
- Eastern United States
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Sweetbay Magnolia, that’s about 12 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Sweetbay Magnolia in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other magnolias
Jane Magnolia
Sweetbay Magnolia
Little Gem Magnolia
Saucer MagnoliaAll drawn to the same scale.