Specialty Gardening: What is the most fragrant flower in your plantings?, 3 by DreamOfSpring

DreamOfSpring wrote:
Here is my Southern Magnolia (M grandiflora). This tree never sheds its leaves, at least not here. (A godsend for the lazy homeowner such as myself who hates to rake leaves.) Note how much darker and glossier the leaves are vs the one above. Note, too the cinnamon colored undersides of the leaves of this one, a characteristic not seen on the SweetBay. Also note that the flowers of this one are much larger, at least 2x the size of the SweetBay blooms. All that said, the SweetBay blooms have a stronger and more intoxicating fragrance.

These photos do not do the tree justice. Its leaves are much more glossy than they appear here. A neighbor took it upon herself to remove (steal) the lower limbs of this one, so I have to do my best to aim up high over my head to take pics of it, and most of the time it's backlit due to its location.

Bottom line here, I agree as to the strong scent of SweetBay Magnolia. As to whether it looses its leaves, I suspect that depends on the cultivar and where you live. I'm showing the Southern Magnolia here for comparison. It also has a very nice scent, although not as strong as the SweetBay; however, this one does not loose its leaves in my area.

The 1st 2 pics show the blooms. Note how big they are compared to the leaves.
The 3rd pic shows the rust or cinnamon colored undersides of the leaves.
The 4th pic was added to show that leaves on new growth are much lighter than the normally dk green color. Also shows early bud stage.
The last pic is the only one I could find of the trunk and part of the canopy. Note the trunk of this one is darker vs the silvery, light grey of the SweetBay. (The lighter green on the far right is another, closer tree overlapping this one, not a magnolia.)