Magnolia virginiana australis 'Santa Rosa' Brookgreen Gardens The flowers are the reason

The flowers are the reason to grow this shrub

What the plant actually is: one of the best late-season natives available to Southern and mid-Atlantic gardeners

apple-blossom-pink flowers borne in late winter and spring

arranged in a more or less two-dimensional plane

or a clipped specimen that takes shearing without complaint

Magnolia virginiana australis 'Santa Rosa' Brookgreen Gardens The flowers are the reasonSweetbay magnolia ranges across the moist ground of the eastern United States, from Massachusetts to Texas, and in the South becomes the larger, evergreen tree botanists call Magnolia virginiana var. australis. 'Santa Rosa' is a superior evergreen selection of that southern variety, a Woodlanders introduction gathered in Santa Rosa County, in the Florida panhandle. The distinction is in the foliage. Where an ordinary sweetbay can look a little thin,