'D.D. Blanchard' is a magnificent cultivar with unique large dark green leaves and rusty brown undersides. It has the ability to maintain a straight central trunk, which allows it to be grown full to the ground or be pruned into tree form with a visible trunk. Mature trees will reach around 50' tall with a 35' wide canopy. Open branched pyramidal form makes an excellent shade tree with huge cup-shaped flowers in early summer. The fragrant blossoms can be 8" in width. 'D.D. Blanchard' originated at Robbins Nursery in North Carolina.
Magnolia grandiflora is a broadleaf evergreen tree that is noted for its attractive dark green leaves and its large, extremely fragrant flowers. It typically grows to 60-80’ tall with a pyramidal to rounded crown. This is a magnificent tree of the South. It is native to moist wooded areas in the southeastern United States from North Carolina to Florida and Texas. Leathery evergreen ovate to elliptic leaves (to 10” long) are glossy dark green above and variable pale green to gray-brown beneath. Fragrant white flowers (to 8-12” diameter) usually have six petals. Flowers bloom in late spring, with sparse continued flowering throughout the summer. Flowers give way to spherical cone-like fruiting clusters (to 3-5” long) that mature in late summer to early fall, releasing individual rose-red coated seeds suspended on slender threads at maturity.
| Sun, Part Shade | |
| Yes | |
| 50 ft | |
| 35 ft | |
| Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter | |
| Yes | |
| White | |
| Strong | |
| Yes | |
| Yes |