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Magnolia grandiflora 'Bracken's Brown Beauty'
Fall 2006
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Magnolia grandiflora 'Bracken's Brown Beauty', winner of the 2003 Gold Medal from the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society, is considered one of the best magnolia selections and one of the most cold hardy. A mature specimen looks as though it has just been pruned and each indidivual leaf polished, so symmetrical and bright is it. Yet this is a rugged, vigorous, I'll-do-it-myself tree that asks little more from you than a good location in full sun or partial shade and deep watering the first few seasons as it bceomes established in your garden.
Bracken's Brown Beauty reaches about 25 feet tall and 20 feet wide at maturity, densely branched and blooming right down to the ground. If you've seen one too many scraggly old Magnolias, as we certainly have here in the South, you will really appreciate the beauty of Bracken's Brown Beauty's habit and form. The foliage is large, very handsome, and abundant, framing every flower in a gleaming backdrop of green.
The flowers are magnificent! They are 5 to 6 inches across, they are a creamy-white, with very thick petals that withstand the elements effortlessly, lasting a long time even in very dry or rainy summer weather. |
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Expect them to arise steadily from earliest summer all the way till fall, so you'll never see the tree without at least a few flowers or pass by it without a waft of that heavenly aroma.
To Southerners, the smell of a Magnolia blossom is almost painful, so sharply does it evoke memories of home. For everyone else, the scent of that heavy, ultra-sweet musk is exotic and exciting. Cut a single blossom to float in a bowl of shallow water if you want to perfume the entire house; plant Bracken's Brown Beauty near outdoor entertaining areas for instant "atmosphere" more lovely than a vase of cutflowers!
The flowers are followed by large (3- to 4-inch) bright orange fruit that complements the autumn garden very nicely. Highly ornamental, the fruit adds an entire second season to Bracken's Brown Beauty's appeal, keeping it interesting right up till frost. Then, as the rest of the garden drops its leaves, the gleaming dark green and cinnamon-brown of this Magnolia foliage really stands out!
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