Bold two-tone foliage all year long! The Bracken’s Brown Beauty Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora ‘Brackens’ Brown Beauty’) is a real stunner! Course textured foliage and felted brown accents on the leaves and stems, this cold-hardy evergreen accent brings a charming southern icon a little more north!
Plus you get those classic, large creamy white blooms and their incredible lemony fragrance all spring and summer! Featuring glossy, leathery foliage that is a rich, dark olive-green on the topside, and accented with a delightful cinnamon-brown underside! The broad-leaved evergreen Bracken’s Brown Beauty Magnolia exhibits better hardiness and has less leaf-drop than other evergreen varieties.
Starting out as a nearly columnar tree, Brown Beauty grows to a full, dense, oval to pyramidal canopy up to 30-50 feet in height and just 15-20 feet in width. Hardy throughout USDA growing zones 5 to 9, these trees may act slightly semi-evergreen to deciduous in extreme winters. Putting on nearly 2 feet of growth a year when young, these are gorgeous
Planting and Application:
Bracken’s Brown Beauty is a fantastic shade tree and larger specimen tree, sure to add high-impact and coarse bold texture to your landscape! When placed at least 15 feet from your foundation or street, Bracken’s Magnolia adds curb appeal and helps reduce cooling costs! Shade entire garden beds, seating areas, and your hammock with dense cooling relief without the mess of dropping foliage every fall.
The dense and bushy canopy of these trees makes them fantastic windbreaks and hedges for privacy! Just keep those lower limbs intact when your tree arrives and enjoy bird-friendly hedgerows, evergreen screening, and rugged mixed-tree-lined border additions! Create wildlife groupings or dense shady groves by planting multiples of Brown Beauty with other Magnolia or flowering shade trees for a gorgeous presentation!
Play with the Magnolias foliage by mixing it with fine-textured Locust Trees, stately Lindens, or the unusual foliage of Horse Chestnut Trees! Enjoy the butterflies that drop by for a visit, float a few blooms in a bubble bowl to perfume your home and morning coffee on the porch, or use this large accent tree as the backdrop for your Moon Garden!
- Precocious Large Creamy-White Flowers
- Lemony Sweet Perfume – Spring to Summer Bloom Time
- Felted Leaf Undersides, New Growth & Stems
- Two-Tone Green & Brown Broad-Leaved Evergreen Foliage
- Bird & Pollinator-Friendly
- Shade & Specimen Tree, Year-Round Hedges & Flowering Accents
Tips for Care:
Easy to grow and low-maintenance Magnolia do best in enriched, well-drained deep soil sites with moderate yet consistent moisture availability. Any full sun location will do, and the morning sun is best with at least 6 hours of direct sunlight a day for the most blooms and the densest growth. Water consistently during their first year and provide deep watering during the hottest parts of the summer.
All plants love a 3-4 inch thick layer of arborist mulch and spring applications of a flowering tree and shrub fertilizer. Avoid getting high-nitrogen fertilizer from your lawn on this tree by creating a mulched bed that extends to its drip line. Not much will grow beneath its dense shade except a few hardy true-shade shrubs and perennials. Give this beauty room to grow and it will reward you with a lifetime of enjoyment!
In the cooler climates of zone 5 and 6, situate your Bracken’s Brown Beauty in a Southern exposure near a wall or your home so it can soak up that radiating heat. Ensure it gets plenty of moisture throughout the summer and throughout drier/warmer winters to support the foliage and prevent windburn. Maintain a 3-4 inch thick layer of mulch year round for best results.
Prune, if needed, immediately after the first flush of flowers, or risk removing next year’s blossoms.
- Full Sun
- Enriched, Moist Well-Drained Soil
- Prune Right After Flowering
- More Cold-Hardy Than Other Evergreen Magnolia
- Tolerates Coastal/Saline Conditions
A Southern Magnolia for the cold! Hurry and order the Bracken’s Brown Beauty Magnolia tree for your landscape this year and enjoy shade, scented blooms, and grand Southern charm all year long!
