Magnolia Stellata ( Star Magnolia ). This popular magnolia makes a slow growing bushy ornamental garden shrub or small tree, and blooms as a young plant, it’s grey silky buds forming into a mass of star shaped, slightly fragrant, whitish flowers in early Spring on bare branches before the leaves emerge, and cover the shrub for several weeks.
The leaves open a bronze-green colour turning to deep green during the Summer, before turning yellow and dropping during the Autumn. It also has interesting, reddish-green knobbly fruit which split open to reveal the orange seeds inside.
Magnolia Stellata’s compact size makes this an ideal shrub for smaller gardens, preferring a sheltered spot out of any strong, cold Winter winds.
The Star Magnolia was introduced from Japan to the US in 1862 by Dr George Robert Hall and later to the UK in 1877/1878, propably by Charles Maries, while he was collecting for Veitch Nurseries based at Chelsea and Exeter, Devon.
