# Sweetbay Magnolia (Magnolia virginiana)

> Lemon-scented white flowers from May into summer, silver-backed leaves, and a love of wet ground.

Also called swamp magnolia, laurel magnolia. Category: Uncommon Yard Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/sweetbay-magnolia/

![Sweetbay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana) glossy leaves, a bud and an open creamy-white flower](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/sweetbay-magnolia-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Derek Ramsey, Chanticleer Garden, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sweetbay_Magnolia_Magnolia_virginiana_Comparison_4400px.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Small tree
- Mature height: 15 to 35 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 5 to 10
- Grows wild in: Stream banks, swamps and wet flats
- Native range: 17 states and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC), north to [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), south to [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL) and west to [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA), [Mississippi](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MS), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA) and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC))
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Average, Wet
- Growth rate: Medium
- Flowers: April to July
- Fruit: Cones, August to September
- First crop: 6 to 10 years
- Mature spread: 35 ft
- Traits: Showy flowers, Tolerates wet soil, Wildlife value, Street tree
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their [height and age](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/reading-a-nursery-listing/index.html.md) are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

In bundles: Wet Spot Pack.

## Notes

Sweetbay grows in swamps and streamsides from Massachusetts to Texas, so it thrives where downspouts drain and lawns puddle. Flowers open a few at a time for weeks, red seeds feed birds in fall, and the leaves flash silver in the wind. Deciduous in the north, evergreen in the south; a multi-stem clump is the most natural form. Tolerant of both flood and drought, it suits a street planting strip as narrow as four feet. Ideal as a summer screen along a damp property line, or as a specimen beside a deck.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Sweetbay magnolia starts fast and settles down. A first-year seedling grows 12 to 24 inches, rapid for a few years on good ground and poor to medium after that. Our growth estimator models it as a medium tree, roughly a foot and a half a year in its youth. In a garden it makes 15 to 35 feet tall and as wide, while wild trees in the Deep South reach 50 to 100 feet. Seedlings in the open have fruited at 6 years, and trees usually bear from about 10.

Creamy white flowers 2 to 3 inches across open from April into July. It usually sets some fruit every year, though yields are small. The fruit is a cone 1 to 2 inches long that splits in late summer to dangle scarlet seeds on threads for gray squirrels, turkeys, quail and songbirds. Swamp magnolia, its other name, reflects where it grows.

It grows wild along the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains from Long Island south through New Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania to south Florida and west to east Texas. Its wild sites are acid, poorly drained ground that floods in winter. Trees typically live about 80 to 130 years. The oldest in a Great Dismal Swamp study was 47 years old.

## How to grow Sweetbay Magnolia

Sweetbay magnolia likes full sun or light shade and moist to wet soil, from garden ground to the boggy spot below a downspout. Soil should be acid to neutral; it yellows in limey ground. It makes a broad multi-stem clump, so plant it 10 feet from the house and 12 to 24 feet between trees.

Saplings ship potted. Magnolia roots are thick, fleshy and break easily, so plant in early spring as growth starts. Keep the root ball intact; set it in a hole twice its width, flare at grade, native soil, mulch off the stems, and stake only in a windy spot. Clean the oily red coat off seed and never let it dry; chill it damp for three months, sow in spring an inch deep, and cover with hardware cloth against mice.

Water weekly through the first two summers. Deer and rabbits can damage a young sweetbay, so cage or tube it for two or three years. Prune as little as possible; remove suckers for a single trunk or let them come for a clump.

A single sweetbay sets seed on its own, since pollen from one of its flowers can fertilize another flower on the same tree. Leaves may hang on through winter in the South and drop in the North; both are normal. Magnolia scale, a waxy bump on the twigs, is the main pest.

## Sources

- [USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America: sweetbay](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/sweetbay)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Magnolia virginiana](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/magnolia-virginiana/)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Magnolia virginiana](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/MAVI2)
- [USDA Fire Effects Information System: Magnolia virginiana](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/tree/magvir/all.html)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Magnolia chapter, Barbour](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Magnolia.pdf)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Guide: sweetbay, Magnolia virginiana](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_mavi2.pdf)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Magnolia virginiana](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=MAVI2)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Magnolia virginiana, Sweetbay Magnolia](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.144735/Magnolia_virginiana)
- [Go Botany, Native Plant Trust: Magnolia virginiana](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/magnolia/virginiana/)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Magnolia virginiana, Sutton (2022)](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/magnolia/magnolia-virginiana/)
- [The Morton Arboretum: sweetbay magnolia](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/sweetbay-magnolia/)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 3: Magnolia virginiana](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=220008034)
- [Heiser 1962, Some observations on pollination and compatibility in Magnolia, Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science 72](https://journals.indianapolis.iu.edu/index.php/ias/article/view/6098)
- [USDA Forest Service, Climate Change Tree Atlas (retired March 2026): sweetbay, lhdr_653, the Internet Archive's copy of 2025-04-24](https://web.archive.org/web/20250424/https://www.fs.usda.gov/nrs/atlas/tree/resources/lhdr/lhdr_653.html)
- [BIEN, the Botanical Information and Ecology Network: trait data for Magnolia virginiana, from Train and Day 1982](https://bien.nceas.ucsb.edu/bien/)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Small native trees and large shrubs for a small yard, and how to place them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-native-trees-for-small-yards/index.html.md)
- [How floodplain trees survive high water](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/how-floodplain-trees-survive-high-water/index.html.md)
- [Multistem or single stem? Sometimes the trunk is hiding the answer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/multistem-or-single-stem/index.html.md)

## Related

- We grow 7 other magnolias (Magnolia): [all of them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/shop/index.html.md?q=magnolia)
- Plants that share its sun and soil: [Mayhaw](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/mayhaw/index.html.md), [Carolina Willow](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/carolina-willow/index.html.md), [Two-wing Silverbell](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/two-wing-silverbell/index.html.md) and [Green Hawthorn](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/green-hawthorn/index.html.md)
- Trees to plant it under: [Willow Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/willow-oak/index.html.md), [Swamp Laurel Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/swamp-laurel-oak/index.html.md) and [American Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-elm/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [Umbrella Magnolia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/umbrella-magnolia/index.html.md), [Pyramid Magnolia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pyramid-magnolia/index.html.md), [Ashe's Magnolia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/ashe-magnolia/index.html.md) and [Fevertree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/fevertree/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Sweetbay Magnolia, add ?species=sweetbay-magnolia with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 5, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=sweetbay-magnolia&zone=5&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Sweetbay Magnolia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=sweetbay-magnolia): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Transplant planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/transplant/index.html.md?species=sweetbay-magnolia): whether Sweetbay Magnolia can be moved and what the move takes, the root ball, its weight, who can move it and the months, as Markdown at that address (add caliper= or height=, month= 1 to 12 and soil= sandy, loam or clay)
- [Tree growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Sweetbay Magnolia as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=sweetbay-magnolia (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Sweetbay Magnolia is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=sweetbay-magnolia (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Sweetbay Magnolia needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 1 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=sweetbay-magnolia:1
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Sweetbay Magnolia where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=sweetbay-magnolia&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Sweetbay Magnolia goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=sweetbay-magnolia&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Sweetbay Magnolia flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=sweetbay-magnolia