Little Gem Magnolia

It grows slowly around 1 foot per year, reaching its mature size in 10-15 years.

Mostly, the only difference is the size. Little Gem Magnolia is a dwarf variety in comparison to others, but it’s no less beautiful.

Yes! It thrives in hot, humid climates once established and tolerates moderate drought. Deep, infrequent watering during summer heat helps maintain vigor and bloom production.

Absolutely. Its fragrant blooms attract bees, butterflies, and other beneficial pollinators throughout the blooming season.

Not especially. While it naturally sheds some older leaves and spent flowers, its compact size makes cleanup easy compared to larger magnolia varieties.

No - it maintains a naturally neat, pyramidal shape. Prune only as needed to remove damaged branches or to lightly shape the canopy.

Yes, for several years. It performs beautifully in large decorative pots or courtyard planters with well-draining soil and regular watering.

With proper care, it can live 50 years or longer. Its strong structure and adaptability make it one of the longest-lasting compact trees for southern landscapes.

Definitely, its dense foliage and upright growth habit make it an excellent choice for elegant, evergreen screening.

This can happen if the plant is too shaded or over-fertilized with high-nitrogen products. Ensure it gets at least six hours of direct sunlight daily and use balanced or acid-forming fertilizer sparingly.

When it comes to spacing there is no right or wrong answer. We prefer to give trees the most amount of separation possible and aesthetically this leads to a prettier looking tree at maturity because they develop naturally wider, fuller and more symmetrical canopies. As far as the tree's health is concerned it will not be affected by how closely it is planted to another tree but the shape of the canopy will become taller and thinner and begin to overlap, which will create a continuous hedge. If privacy is not of immediate concern and we are just looking to diffuse the view, then we could plant the trees where they barely touch at maturity.

For example, we could plant Little Gems 14' apart (their mature width is 14') and at maturity their canopies would barely touch or we could space them even further apart than 14' which would leave a gap between the trees. Most of us don't have the luxury of planting trees this far apart and waiting 10-15 years for them to grow together and get privacy. For people that need more immediate privacy then the question to answer is "how long do you want to wait before you have a solid privacy screen?" Most answers that we get to this question will either be immediate or they are willing to wait between 2-4 years before they get solid coverage. Again, there is no right or wrong answer to this question, and it is solely dependent upon how quickly privacy is needed. For example, if a customer is looking for immediate coverage and they are planting Little Gems, then we need to find out how wide the trees that are being planted are and then plant them that far apart. If we find Little Gems that are 3' wide, then we would need to plant them 3' apart from trunk to trunk which allows for the branches to touch immediately at the time of planting. If we are looking for coverage in 3-4 years, then the spacing would be dependent upon how quickly the trees grow per year in width and what size tree the customer decides to start with. Let's look at the previous example of Little Gems that are currently 3' wide. We know that they grow about .5’ per year in terms of width so over 3 years they will be about 4.5’ wide and therefore we would space them 4.5’ apart (trunk to trunk) so that the trees would be touching in 3 years.

The Little Gem Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora ‘Little Gem’) and the Teddy Bear Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora ‘Southern Charm’ or 'Teddy Bear') are both popular, compact evergreen cultivars of the larger Southern Magnolia, but they differ primarily in their final size, growth habit, and foliage. The Teddy Bear is generally the taller, narrower variety, often developing a more slender, compact, columnar shape and ultimately reaching 25-30 feet high with a spread of 12–18 feet, making it excellent for screening or tight spaces. The 'Teddy Bear' is prized for its exceptionally large, round leaves that have a heavier, velvety, reddish-brown felt (indumentum) on the underside, which, combined with its dense branching, gives it a distinct, "cuddly" appearance and makes it superior for use as a dense hedge or focal specimen in smaller gardens. In contrast, the Little Gem is the more open selection, typically growing in a rounded form to a smaller, more contained size of about 20–25 feet high and 10–15 feet wide. It is most famous for its heavier volume of flower production and extended bloom season, often flowering from late spring well into the autumn. Its leaves are glossy green with a fuzzy, rusty-brown underside.