Pyramid Magnolia

Size, growth and what to expect

No source rates its growth, so our growth estimator treats it as a medium grower, a foot and a half a year. It makes a slender tree of 10 to 30 feet with a crown 10 to 25 feet wide. The largest on record, in Newton County, Texas, was 39 feet tall.

The flowers open in April and May, creamy white and 5 to 7 inches across. A bright red cone up to 3 inches long follows and ripens in August. Birds and small mammals eat the red seeds and spread them.

It grows wild on the coastal plain from South Carolina to the Florida panhandle and west to eastern Texas, on rich wooded bluffs, ravine slopes and stream banks. Florida counts 24 known populations, a quarter of them on private land. In 2018 Hurricane Michael felled most of the mature trees surveyed at Torreya State Park.

How to grow Pyramid Magnolia

Pyramid magnolia grows best in part shade or dappled shade, in a rich, acid soil of sand, clay or loam. The soil should stay moist but never flood. Plant it 15 feet from a wall, and set trees 15 feet apart. Keep it at least 15 feet from overhead wires.

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. Sow the seed fresh in fall, cleaned of its red coat, and never let it dry. Cover it half an inch deep, under hardware cloth against mice. For spring, hold it damp in the refrigerator for at least 60 days first.

Water weekly through the first two summers and in long dry spells after that. Keep a wide ring of mulch over the roots. Deer and rabbits browse young magnolias, so guard the stem with wire for the first few years. Prune only while it is growing, since dormant magnolias heal poorly.

Each flower carries both male and female parts. Even so, pyramid magnolia is among the magnolias that cannot set seed from their own pollen, so a lone tree may bear none. Seedlings are hard to raise, and at several botanic gardens many grown from wild seed did poorly or died young.