Episode: #12 18/11/06
Presenter: Melissa King

Are you looking for the perfect tree for your garden? One with a dense evergreen canopy and perfect shape that requires virtually no maintenance?

There has been a lot of buzz in recent years over Magnolia ?Little Gem?? well here is the next big thing - it is a new form of Magnolia grandiflora called Greenback (Magnolia grandiflora ?MGTIG? Greenback? ). Where you would grow Little Gem for its white summer flowers you would grow Greenback for outstanding texture and form.

Greenback has an upright growth habit and dense branching pattern so it is ideal for driveway plantings or large informal hedges.

The good news is that it looks great year round. The glossy, dark green foliage matures to a smooth green underneath, hence the name Greenback, unlike other varieties that have a rust coloured underside to the leaf. It maintains a great shape, with little or no pruning and is pest and disease free.

You would grow this tree for its texture and form alone, but it does produce occasional flowers during the summer months that are big creamy white cup shaped blooms which have a sweet lemon fragrance.

Greenback Magnolia grows best in a full sun position with a moist, acid, well drained soil, but adapts to a variety of garden conditions. It takes very little water to get it off to a great start and once established is remarkably dry tolerant.

So how would you use it in the landscape? Well it is a reasonable size tree. In most gardens it will get to about 10 metres tall, so it makes an ideal feature tree or screen because it is narrow at the bottom and it won?t shade out lawn.

They grow at a reasonable rate, just to give you an idea; a young tree will reach around 4-5 metres in around 5 years, creating a lush dense screen. It is a good idea to start with a semi-advanced tree so you get off to a great start.

It is also an excellent choice for big containers on the patio ? just bear in mind that it will have a lifespan of about 8-9 years in a pot.

Its dense canopy, perfect form and rich, shiny green foliage make Greenback a winner in any garden.