Star Magnolia (Magnolia stellata ) north side of Bleecker Street between Mercer and LaGuardia Place
NYU Garden Shop Plant of the Week
By NYU Head Gardener, George Reis
Star Magnolia (Magnolia stellata) north side of Bleecker Street between Mercer and LaGuardia Place
Monday, March 26, 2012
You can see all four of our area's top spring flowering trees--Magnolia, Cherry, Dogwood, and Apple--right here at NYU. Here's just one example: the five Star Magnolias planted last year in the Bleecker Street plant bed between 3 and 4 Washington Square Village. These Magnolias are just starting to flower, so you have time to see them come into full bloom over the next week or two.
Magnolias are one of the oldest flowering plants around, and Star Magnolias are highly adaptable to various soil types and thrive from Maine to Georgia to Minnesota and all the way to the west coast. They get to be 15-20 feet tall and almost as wide, so they're great for residential properties where you don't have the room for a large tree. Michael Dirr, in his essential reference Dirr's Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs, adds, "This is possibly the most cold and heat-tolerant species for general ornamental use."