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, it can be planted as a privacy screen or hedge.
The Little Gem Magnolia features smaller dark green foliage and very compact narrow form and grows much slower than its other Magnolia relatives. The leaves of this evergreen shrub are a waxy dark green on top and rusty-brown on the undersides. It’s beautiful and fragrant white flowers bloom in early spring to early summer. The flowers on The Little Gem Magnolia Tree will give way to spherical, cone-like fruiting clusters that mature in late summer to early fall, releasing individual rose-red coated seeds suspended on slender threads at maturity.
The growth rate is slower than other semi-deciduous magnolias. Little Gem will grow to around 20 foot tall over the first 20 years and 10-15 feet wide. This shrub prefers full sun and is generally intolerant to soil extremes, but it can be slightly drought tolerant after the roots establish. It is useful in small gardens or landscapes and does well with seacoast exposure.
Not the most cold hardy flowering magnolia tree. Does better in southern states, zones 7-9. If you are looking for a cold hardy magnolia – check out the Bracken’s Brown Beauty.
For information on planting your 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.