Sweet Bay Magnolia Tree | Live Plants | Magnolia Virginiana | Beautiful Ornamental Specimen

All magnolias have unusual, exotic-looking cones, but those on a sweetbay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana) are showier than most. Sweetbay magnolia trees feature creamy white spring and summer flowers with a sweet, lemony fragrance and leaves that flutter in the slightest breeze to flash their silvery undersides. The sweet bay magnolias' fragrance and attractive shape make it an ideal specimen tree. The flowers have a sweet, lemony scent while the leaves and twigs have a spicy fragrance. The tree benefits wildlife by providing cover and nesting sites. It is a larval host for the sweetbay silkmoth. Early American settlers called it “beaver tree” because the fleshy roots made good bait for beaver traps. Plant sweetbay magnolia in narrow corridors or urban areas where you need a compact tree. They need full sun or part shade in medium-moist to wet soil. These trees are often classified as wetland plants, and even with irrigation, you won’t have any luck growing sweetbay magnolias in dry soils. Be aware that even though they are evergreen, sweetbay magnolias drop some old leaves in fall and may drop a few more as they come into bloom. They also drop old petals when they are in bloom and seed cones in late summer and fall. But I would not consider these trees as messy as the popular Southern magnolia.