Fraser Magnolia

Size, growth and what to expect

Fraser magnolia grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. Trees typically reach about 30 feet in 20 years. Expect 30 to 50 feet with a broad crown 20 to 30 feet wide. The tallest on record, in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, stood 107 feet.

The creamy white flowers, 8 to 10 inches across, open from April into June as the leaves unfold. A rosy red cone 3 to 4 inches long follows and ripens in late summer, holding bright red seeds. Birds and small mammals eat the seeds and spread them.

It grows wild in the Appalachians from West Virginia and western Virginia south to east Tennessee and western North Carolina. It reaches the Blue Ridge of northwest South Carolina and northeast Georgia, and the Cumberland Mountains of southeast Kentucky.

How to grow Fraser Magnolia

Fraser magnolia grows best in part shade or full sun, in a rich, moist soil, acid to neutral, that drains well. It does best in a sheltered spot where the soil stays cool, and it probably cannot stand long flooding. Keep it out of strong wind. Plant it 15 feet from a wall and more than 50 feet from overhead wires, and set trees 25 feet apart.

Saplings ship potted. Magnolia roots are thick and fleshy and heal slowly in cold ground, so plant at the end of winter or as growth starts. Dig a hole wider than the root ball and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. Clean the red coat off the seed and never let it dry. Sow it outdoors in fall, half an inch deep, under hardware cloth against mice. For spring, hold it damp in the refrigerator for at least 60 days first. In tests only 8 to 21 percent of stratified seed sprouted, which is low for a magnolia.

Water weekly through the first two summers and in long dry spells after that. Keep a wide ring of mulch over the roots. Deer browse the young sprouts heavily, so guard the stem with wire for the first few years. Thin a clump to one stem early for a single trunk.

Each flower carries both male and female parts. Even so, Fraser magnolia is among the magnolias that cannot set seed from their own pollen, so a lone tree may bear none. Good seed crops come only every 4 to 5 years. Magnolia scale can weaken or kill a tree, and ambrosia beetles, cankers, leaf spots and powdery mildew also turn up. In the forest it is short-lived, often dropping out at 60 to 70 years.