Product Description
Just as its name suggests, this tree is quite a ‘little gem’ with all the wonderful qualities you’d want from a magnolia and more! Also known as the dwarf southern magnolia tree, the Little Gem Magnolia tree can be planted as a privacy screen or hedge.
The Magnolia grandiflora Little Gem tree features smaller dark green foliage and very compact narrow form and grows much slower than its other Magnolia relatives. The evergreen leaves of this southern tree are leathery with a deep glossy green color on top and fuzzy, rusty-brown undersides.
The magnolia gem tree produces large, fragrant, creamy white, saucer shaped flowers that are 4-6 inches wide. It’s beautiful and fragrant white flowers bloom in the early spring to early summer growing season.
The white fragrant flowers on the Little Gem Magnolia Tree will give way to spherical, cone-like fruiting clusters that mature in the late summer to early fall months of the year. They release individual rose-red coated seeds suspended on slender threads at maturity. These seeds are food sources for many types of wildlife including birds, squirrels, and deer.
Little Gem Magnolia Care
This privacy tree prefers full sun to partial shade and is generally tolerant to soil extremes including acidic soils as long as they are well drained soil. It can be moderately drought tolerant after the root system establishes. The Little Gem is useful in small gardens or landscapes and does well with seacoast exposure as it is salt tolerant.
Not the most cold hardy flowering magnolia tree as it does better in the southeastern United States. Grow this little gem southern magnolia in USDA plant hardiness zones 7-9. If you are looking for a more cold hardy evergreen tree – check out the Bracken’s Brown Beauty Magnolia.
The Little Gem Magnolia growth rate is slower than other semi-deciduous magnolias. The slow growth rate is up to 1-1.5 feet per year. Little Gem magnolia size will grow to around 20 to 25 feet tall over the first 20 years and 10-15 feet wide.
If planting Little Gem Magnolia hedge, space the trees at least 10 feet apart. They are the perfect small trees for privacy if you are not looking for height. They are pest and disease resistant.
Shop our Little Gem Magnolia for sale.
For information on planting your new magnolia tree, check out our Magnolia Grow Guide.
Magnolia grandiflora 'Little Gem'
- Fragrant, white flowers
- Evergreen
- Attractive foliage
- Compact size
Growing our own plants and trees helps to ensure we ship you the best quality plants that are free of pests and diseases.
Blaine Greer –
Beautiful tree, taller than advertised. Perfectly packed. Nothing misleading, here.
Kerstin Phillips –
Special request, quick shipping, great corospondence. A+ THANK YOU!
Storm –
Great company, great tree…you helped me out so much!
Jackie Proctor –
Bought 4 last week and they came with flower buds about to open. I bought the special fertilizer too. Hope it helps them grow. Excited for my weekend project to plant them!
Debra Panebianco –
Thanks to a warm Florida winter, it has me in the planting mood. Ordered and it shipped in two days. Packaging was very impressive! Thanks Perfect Plants! Will buy again!
Rhonda Watkins –
Order (2) for the front corners on my home. They were packaged as others have mentioned, very well! I ordered the larger ones, which I was told were 2 years older than the shorter trees. Great purchase and I would recomend to others.
Ivy & Troy Smith –
Long review here because this was a large purchase for us. I called before I ordered and spoke with Elisa on the phone. She was very helpful in sending us photos of the trees before we placed our order. The trees looked very healthy in the photos, and the large nursery in the background assured us that Perfect Plants in the actually grower. The trees are being planted as a ‘green fence’ between me and the neighbors. We order 21 of the 4-5ft size. When they showed up (only took two days shipping) we were impressed with the packaging. They put 2 trees per LARGE box, tieing them into the box using heavy string and bamboo stakes. There was wet paper around the top of the root ball and a large plastic bag around the entire pot, zipped tied to the trunk of the tree. We can honestly say someone took their time in packing these trees up so nicely. We watered them once we un-packed the trees (took about an hour to unpack all 21 of them.) We have our gardner coming to plant them this week. Overall we are very pleased and would reccomend working with Perfect Plants Nursery.
Nancy (verified owner) –
They were kind, fast and efficient when I forgot a discount code. Corrected fast and promptly. One tree came and was beautiful with several flower buds, the second tree had many cut branches, no buds only one side was branched out.
Perfect Plants (store manager) –
Hi Nancy, thank you for your thoughtful words on the little gem magnolia. Hope you enjoy those gorgeous white blooms for years to come!
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Perfect plants customer service is excellent. They are very professional and understanding. In addition the 2 little gem Magnolias that I purchased they were kind and helped with some of the issues that I was having with some of my rose bushes and gardenias.
I bought the 2-3 feet magnolia plants and they cane perfect condition. Few browned leaves but over all the plant was packed perfect.
Have already planted them in the ground and looking forward to seeing the grown trees in a couple years.
My neighbors commented how beautiful my front yard looks now
Thank you CJ and crew for answering all of concerns. Looking forward to doing more business with Perfect plants again.
Regards
Kanthi
Perfect Plants (store manager) –
Hi Kanthi, thank you so much for the kind words on our little gem magnolias. We are so glad you are pleased with your new trees and our customer service. We will be happy to help your garden grow in the future!
Karie (verified owner) –
Perfect Plants is awesome!! All of my plants arrived safe and beautiful! Any time I had to contact the responses w/ quickness! Will definitely purchase again. Loved the Magnolia
Perfect Plants (store manager) –
Hi Karie, thank you so much for your positive feedback on our Little Gem Magnolia. We are so glad you love your new plants! Enjoy
John O. (verified owner) –
I ordered 3 of these trees. When they arrived one of them did not look as nice as the other two. They have been planted for 10 days now and seem to be holding up just fine. The one is still a little thinner than the other two. The two that are healthy and full looking are the reason I ordered these trees. They already have big white flowers blooming and beautiful dark green leaves. I hope the third one catches up. Great customer support so prior to purchasing the trees and also after I made my purchase.
Perfect Plants (store manager) –
Hi John, thank you for your feedback on our Little Gem Magnolia tree. We are glad you love them and they have bloomed already. Wow!!
Mike M. (verified owner) –
Plant arrived in excellent shape, packaged to withstand the worst package handlers could throw at. These guys know how to package plants to get them to arrive to your place undamaged. My knew fav!
Matthew C. (verified owner) –
I had bought 5 of the little gems. They survived a tough trip up to NY with delays but seem to be OK. One is a bit small and less healthy but the others are nice and seem to be healthy, Two have buds on them. For the price it’s a good deal.