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Star Magnolia - Magnolia stellata Star Magnolia is an early season to mid season spring flowering
tree. The star Magnolia is the one of the smaller magnolias it's a great plant for the
home garden. In a small garden it only gets maybe fifteen to twenty feet tall with a spread
of about ten or fifteen feet and grows very slowly. This is about a six year old specimen
just topping out at about five feet tall.
The main season of interest of course is the Spring. These puff balls of many petals, from
mostly white but there's a pink to light purple stripe on the petals. On the inside they're
all white but on the outside of the new flowers you see this lovely little pink or purple
stripe on the outside of the petal. This adds a bit of color to the plant. Many of the Star
Magnolias have a pure white flower. The variety Water Lily has many petals and it is a very
fragrant variety. There is a wonderful fragrance to most all of the Star Magnolias but some
of the named varieties have a bit more olfactory presence if you will.
They're really easy to grow, they're pest free, they prefer a nice rich peaty humus
type of soil and again in full sun. They don't require much pruning because they grow so
slow and they're small to begin with and there aren't many pests or disease problems to worry
about with this plant.
One of the other nice aspects of the star Magnolia and many other Magnolias for that
matter are the flower buds. These flower buds, during the wintertime retain their fuzzy up
almost bunny-like texture and it's a subtle winter aspect but speaks of coming spring.
Star Magnolia will bloom for ten days, sometimes two weeks, it really depends on the weather.
It is important to site the Star Magnolia where it's protected from an early spring
warm up. Plant this not on the south side of your house but maybe on the east side so
it doesn't get that unseasonably warm up and break bud early and then be blasted by frost.
These flowers do get blasted once in awhile, every three or four years here in New Haven.
It's unfortunate the flowers turn brown and kind of mushy but say it doesn't harm the
plant, just lowers the the aesthetic value for that particular season. Again Star Magnolia
bloom from about seven to ten days, maybe two weeks and they are wonderfully fragrant,
and a great plant for the home landscape.
Star Magnolia or Magnolia stellata - Water Lilly variety